Best Bike Insurance Provider

Mustang44
Posts: 2
Hi,
I'm new to the forum and was wondering whether anyone could recommend a good insurer that provides a specialist policy for bikes ?
I've currently got mine covered under my Household policy however recently I have upgraded and thought it best to take out a specific policy.
I have of course Googled it but any advice would be much appreciated.
Regards
Adrian
I'm new to the forum and was wondering whether anyone could recommend a good insurer that provides a specialist policy for bikes ?
I've currently got mine covered under my Household policy however recently I have upgraded and thought it best to take out a specific policy.
I have of course Googled it but any advice would be much appreciated.
Regards
Adrian
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Comments
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It depends if you are looking for liability, protection from damage or loss.
Liability and damage are relatively straight forward, but very few will cover an expensive bike properly for loss due to theft.
IMO see what your household will provide for liability and self insure the rest.0 -
I've been wondering this recently and been searching through a few different threads.
M&S home insurance seems to be about the best.
I've done a building and contents qoutes, maximum value of any single item £4k unless otherwise stated which covers most bikes.
Premium was £205 for standard cover and £298 for premium.
Does anyway know if the away from home cover included theft, for example if a watch was stolen from a safe at a hotel or if a bike was stolen off a lockable roof rack?0 -
GSP1984 wrote:M&S home insurance seems to be about the best.
This.Santa Cruz 5010C
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If you're just after something for it getting nicked or damaged outside of use, house insurance generally works out better value for money by far, and they tend to quibble less.
Note that some won't cover it if it's nicked from a car, and regardless it has to be locked and secured wherever it is. If the bike's on a car rack you may have trouble with almost any insurance with theft unless it's proven to be secured well or nicked in front of your nose.
And whilst I can't say for sure about M&S cover, usually away from home cover is for loss (theft) and damage (accidental* / third party). * - accidental may or may not be covered. Generally exclusions are any wear and tear, damage through use, mechanical failures and damage during maintenance.
Just ensure the cover for away from home items is enough and check anything they say specifically about bikes. Some have additional bits for bikes away from home. Mine does, but the personal items section doesn't exclude bikes so not sure. May add the bike bit on mine to be sure.0 -
Those cycle specific insurers can be a bit dodge. Had one for an old GT Timberline (can't remember which insurance company) and paid something like £40 for a year's insurance. When it came around to renewal I went over the fine print and found out they took off 10% of the value for every year since you got the bike.
Seeing as I'd had the bike 10 years, I think you can do the maths. Needless to say I cancelled.
So lesson is read the fine print (obviously should have done this before but there you go, you live and learn.)
Had a custom build road bike nicked this year and Co Op paid out within 24hrs of receiving the claim, just had to email proof of how much all the components cost. This is all under my contents insurance.
That said a mate is in the exact same situation with Co Op and they're taking ages and he's having to deal with some Stazi-like external claims agency.
I'd say the contents insurance is the best way to do it.About 50/50 MTB/Road love;
GT Timberline (2000)
Lapierre Zesty 214 (2010)
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Harry Hall single speed conversion (197/8?)0 -
How about for those of us that rent property? Bikes aren't covered in my tenants contents policy from Endsleigh...0
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www.eandl.com
i insured my bike on there a couple months ago.
you can choose between a yearly policy, or calandar or lunar monthly rolling. no cancellation charges and great cover etc etc
Ps i dont work for eandl, i just had the bother of all this recently so would recommend them0 -
holiver wrote:How about for those of us that rent property? Bikes aren't covered in my tenants contents policy from Endsleigh...
Endsleigh usually have specific stuff for bikes. For students though I remember it sucked. Back in my day they covered about £100 for the bike, though that was some time ago now!
If you can get your own contents, shop around, and yeah all of the above just applies to contents. You don't have to be a home owner.0 -
frogrocket wrote:When it came around to renewal I went over the fine print and found out they took off 10% of the value for every year since you got the bike.
Seeing as I'd had the bike 10 years, I think you can do the maths. Needless to say I cancelled.
But bike insurance is something I will be sorting out as well. I also need to cover a number of electronic items, hopefully all with one policy if I can. I do hate insurance though - too many people out there scamming the companies mean insurance for almost everything is so expensive.0 -
frogrocket wrote:When it came around to renewal I went over the fine print and found out they took off 10% of the value for every year since you got the bike.
Seeing as I'd had the bike 10 years, I think you can do the maths. Needless to say I cancelled.
But bike insurance is something I will be sorting out as well. I also need to cover a number of electronic items, hopefully all with one policy if I can. I do hate insurance though - too many people out there scamming the companies mean insurance for almost everything is so expensive.0 -
I phoned them up and queried the 10% thing. They didn't seem to know much about the policy and were quite embarrassed that they might have paid out £0 if it did get nicked. I guess it could have been 10% of each year's value but it got me to move, which ended up being a good thing.
As for my mate's experience with Co-op and custom bike being nicked, the 3rd party claims investigators were messing him around trying to fob him off with something £600 cheaper than his bike was worth, so he complained to Co-Op and they immediately offered a cash settlement for the full amount. So it sounds like if you are in a similar situation you just need to kick up enough fuss and they'll sort it out properly - i.e. pay out the amount of money it was insured for.
To the guy with Endsleigh - I rent and my bikes are all fully covered under the contents insurance. Suggest you shop around - first stop M&S (good rep on here), second Co-Op.About 50/50 MTB/Road love;
GT Timberline (2000)
Lapierre Zesty 214 (2010)
Cube Attempt (2010)
Harry Hall single speed conversion (197/8?)0 -
There was a thread on cycleguard a while back and I read through the policy doc in detail just out of curiosity. It was utterly rubbish with common terms like "bicycle", "removable accessory" and "abandonment" defined to mean different things than the meaning the average person would expect.
Obviously always read the terms, but in this instance I think they were clearly on the edge of over selling and misleading the consumer.0 -
EandL dont have the best reputation. Well they dont amongst the photography forums.0
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I had a GT RTS nicked in York about, erm 13ish years ago.
I was covered for £1500 (a lot back then) on my contents
The insurace wanted to supply me with a GT LTS (and its weekly pivot bearing change), so they supplied the bike of my choice which was a Mount Vision.
It was easy, no hassle, and that was Skandia.Whyte E120 Team
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Bear in mind that your initial contact is normally with a computer controlled mouth breather.
On escalation you often get someone with half a brain at least.I don't do smileys.
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+1 for Contents Insurance.
Mine through Saga (parents) - they cover damage to bike (crash - although not scratches or dents), theft at home (no special lock required), cover while in a Car and theft while away as long as locked to a immovable object (again no special locks).
All contents providers are pretty much the same.
Insurance is only really worth while if you cannot afford to replace the bike if stolen / damaged!2011 Specialized Stumpjumper Expert Evo
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Indeed. For dedicated insurance, work out how much the premiums are, how much the bike is worth, and how likely/frequently the bike will get nicked. Then work out how much you'd end up with if you just saved the money. If bike is nicked, use that to buy a new one, if not, hell, buy a new one anyway0
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M&S Insurance has all changed now...
Just done a qoute and the premium is now £600+ a year rather than £200ish when I did the quote last time.
They now ask if you have a bike worth over £1k and you have to declare it.0 -
GSP1984 wrote:M&S Insurance has all changed now...
Just done a qoute and the premium is now £600+ a year rather than £200ish when I did the quote last time.
They now ask if you have a bike worth over £1k and you have to declare it.
Must have been a recent change - picked my insurance up with M&S last week (kicks in late December) and there was no mention of declaring bikes over £1000. It even used bikes in the example of £4000 worth of cover. Just looking at their website and I see the change has been made though. Wonder if I'm still on the old cover.............Current bikes:
Norco Sight 3 SE (on order)
Specialized Allez 2010
Old bikes:
Commencal META 55 custom build (Stolen)
Boardman HT Comp 2010
GT Avalance 1.0 2006(ish)0 -
Hmm im the same , covered under the 4k limit included in the contents cover.
Wonder if mines still covered for the full 4k0 -
I was just about to insure my bikes through M&S and the premium has increased significantly with the new process of registering each bike separately. Does anyone know of an insurer who offer a similar policy to the M&S of old?0
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£600 a year! Just put the money in savings. A few years and you've got a new bike. Just a gamble then on whether you're likely to get bike nicked more frequently than 2 or 3 years at a time.0
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deadkenny wrote:£600 a year! Just put the money in savings. A few years and you've got a new bike. Just a gamble then on whether you're likely to get bike nicked more frequently than 2 or 3 years at a time.
+1 buy a couple of DECENT LOCKS for added security.. insurance seems to of gone silly now for everything...www.bearbackbiking.com
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The risk is fairly low as I keep the bike in an upstairs bathroom lol
I found insurance with the AA in the end for £30 a month, full buildings and contents with accidental damage including away from home.0 -
Interesting about the M&S cover, mine just renewed (17 a month for full cover, cant believe the above poster is paying 30!!!) nothing was mentioned in T&Cs so should still be covered the same, i.e. any bike up to £4k.
Obviously they've had loads of bikers sign up to their policy, had a butt load of claims as bike theft has gone through the roof and now they want to lighten their books.0 -
Yup, I just tried M&S too. Annual cost £577 :shock: , when I changed from 3 to 2 bikes it was about £50 cheaper. Looks like I'll be shopping somewhere else!0
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Briggo wrote:Interesting about the M&S cover, mine just renewed (17 a month for full cover, cant believe the above poster is paying 30!!!) nothing was mentioned in T&Cs so should still be covered the same, i.e. any bike up to £4k.
Obviously they've had loads of bikers sign up to their policy, had a butt load of claims as bike theft has gone through the roof and now they want to lighten their books.
Its only additional £13 a month :? Hardly an 'unbelievable' amount extra. The £30 a month is full buildings and contents, including accidental damage at home and away, with a few other bits of extra cover... So not just bike cover. Included in that price Is quite a lot of high value/risk items individually listed, and a watch collection worth considerably more than a couple of orange fives in the garage.
So £30 is quite reasonable in the grand scheme of things considering what you can pay.0 -
Im with Halifax for house insurance,full buildings and contents with some named items,it cost me a extra £5/month for my 2 bikes to be on insurance,one is valued at £900,and the other is at £1400,and that includes if they are stolen away from the home.
I also got a years worth of vouchers to rent 1 dvd or game each sunday at blockbuster,which when you add it up,im getting my insurance for nothing0 -
I found the ETA to be the most reasonably priced when I insured just under a year ago. No hassles when I had to make a claim too.0