Home contents and cycle insurance

mane1034

Any recommendations for home contents and cycle insurance. My bike was nicked two weeks ago and I wanted to ensure this time I get both home contents and bike insurance.

Razor1548

I sympathise with you as mine was stolen from a garden shed last Wednesday.

We have contents insurance with Direct Line. I haven't got many nice things to say about them regarding customer service (mostly for car insurance), but they came up with the goods this time. My mum has always said my bike should be covered, but I never thought much of it. I don't think she made any special arrangements but it was just part of standard contents cover. I will get more details from her if you want.

We had to report to the police to get a crime number of course. Then one phone call to direct line, followed by a call back from their service that try to locate a replacement for you.

I was sure they would offer me a basic bike or if it came down to money I would be lucky to get £500 from them. They use www.wheelies.co.uk.

They gave me a number to put in the search function, and I was rather surprised to see a Specialized Epic Comp 2011 Carbon come up. I tried not to let on that it was a rather good deal while paying the £100 excess required.

The bike arrived yesterday (6 days later).

My old bike was a Kona Dawg 2008 which cost me £998. My mum mentioned the cost of the bike on the first call to Direct Line, but it seems they are happy to just let the 'replacement service' make an estimate of what is a fair replacement.

I might have just been lucky, but there was very little fuss and no documentation required.

So you could probably do worse than getting a quote from them!

mane1034

Thanks.... My bike was nicked from my garden and I had only building insurance.

I will ring them.

jairaj

M&S contents insurance is supposed to have a good policy with regards to cycles.

Adam_DT3

always check who the insurance is underwritten by and the terms, anything by AXA I cant recommend enough as they were so fast in dealing with the claim I was amazed. However when you take it out you must follow a few simple rules.

I had a bike stolen 2 weeks ago worth £1000, but I had called up when I purchased and added 'value plus' to my home contents which covered everything I took out of the house to the value of £1500, otherwise it would have been £500 max stolen from inside the house and nothing for outside where it was stolen (was £6 extra a month) your always best having it as a 'named' item on ure contents insurance and go though every situation with them that you use ure bike for so they cant moan if you claim.

Anyway they gave me the full value and accessory cost to spend at wheelies mentioned earlier who sourced me the exact replacement bike I wanted even though it was different from the one stolen. (the broker was countrywide insurance services).

robdaykin

I can recommend More Than

when my road bike was totalled courtesy of a dog, they bought me a new bike, clothing, glasses, rucksack, the lot. No hassle, no bickering, over £1200 worth in total. They also don't make a fuss about lock standards and so on unlike some.

castlelad

There are some that won't give u a quote when u include bikes, mine was with natwest but now i've moved into a house(we used to live in a flat) they tripled my contents cover, now we'r with the AA, put my bike on it ,so now im expect the worst !

.blitz

Contents is with Aviva and bikes up to the value of £1000 have to be declared but there's no extra premium. Above £1000 you have to give them all the details and there's a premium to pay IIRC it was £12 per bike small change really. It's more if you are leaving the bike unattended in a public place etc.

njee20

M&S all the way, underwritten by Axa, all items included up to £4000 without being named, including away from the house.

I work for one of the other insurance companies mentioned, and when I added the bikes even my subsidised quote was double what M&S offered.

The Northern Monkey

M+S is £8 a month, coveres everything up to 4k... thats bloody brilliant in comparison to others!

Tom Butcher

Just bumping this up to see what people would recommend - M&S have changed their conditions re. cycles so they are no longer that cheap - been a spate of people getting their bikes nicked and I figure I better get insured rather than taking the gamble it wont be me.

McWulf

Lost two bikes to a garage break-in last year. LV= covered the theft even though one bike was worth much more than the amount we were supposed to put on their list as a "specified item". Being home&contents (including outbuildings) insurance the bikes wouldn't have been covered away from home. I would think a garden counts as "home".

The claims process was amazing. Less than an hour after reporting the theft to LV= I has someone from Wheelies on the phone suggesting replacement bikes for me and ready to process the order. I ended up spending most of the allowance on a better bike than the more expensive one that was stolen, and the amount over and above that from Wheelies was at a 15% discount. (Presumably the insurers get even mroe than that).

I believe I didn't need to use Wheelies but the 15% discount made it worthwhile for me.

agg25

Endsleigh has shafted me over after moving house (to a quieter area, go figure) not covering me anymore due to having bikes over £1500 so don't anyone go with them. Need to look at another insurance now, prefer an all-in-one cover bike/contents in one package. Sucks how M&S no longer that good, so LV? OK are they? Any more recommendations? I have 3 bikes, £1000/£1500/£4000 worth.

Tom Butcher

I've spent several hours looking round and the best I could get was John Lewis - covered for bikes up to 5k (I think - there is always so much small print) if you take out the better of the two options they offer - for me it came in at just inside £300 per year. That includes cover away from home in Europe.

Gibbo GTI

Just had a look at the John Lewis terms and conditions and it states "We will pay up to £1,000 for each pedal cycle (up to a maximum of £2,500 for any one claim)."

agg25

M&S wouldnt accept me because I was in flood risk area somehow in SE London!! Halifax only insured up to £500. Through British Cycling I can get £6000 cover for £419/yr or £4000 cover for £329/yr for 3 bikes. (thats with a Gold license)

schlepcycling

Gibbo GTI wrote:

Just had a look at the John Lewis terms and conditions and it states "We will pay up to £1,000 for each pedal cycle (up to a maximum of £2,500 for any one claim)."

Their Specialist Home Insurance covers bikes up to £2,500 each but it's probably more expensive.

agg25

Think I'm going to go John Lewis for full contents cover and 2 x £1000 bikes cover for £20/month and get the £4000 bike covered under British Cycling for £29/month.
Not cheap but wouldn't want to lose em, can rest a bit easier.

Tom Butcher

Thanks Gibbo yes looking at it again I was reading the policy document for John Lewis (formerly Green Bee) not the one that just said John Lewis - think I'll have to get on to them and cancel in that case.

Tom Barton

Another vote for More than here. 5k of cover for all named bikes in the house (so 1 really expernsive one or several less expensive upto 5k in value (max of 5 i think)

Comptetitive too...

chiefinspector

I took out buildings & contents insurance with bradford & bingley. You have to name each bike you want covered on the policy but there is no additional cost and they didnt insist it was locked up when not in use. Can't comment on how quick they would pay out but so far i haven't had to find out.

Briggo

agg25 wrote:

M&S wouldnt accept me because I was in flood risk area somehow in SE London!! Halifax only insured up to £500. Through British Cycling I can get £6000 cover for £419/yr or £4000 cover for £329/yr for 3 bikes. (thats with a Gold license)

You'd be surprised how much of London is in a flood risk area because of the Thames and poor sewerage systems due to overcrowding, I was when I worked in house insurance.

agg25

I went with More Than in the end, thanks for the tip Tom, £37/month with £4000 bike (was extra £19/month for the bike option), cover away from home, accidental damage... cheapest one I've seen, also quick and easy to quote and set up without all the BS about locks etc