Bike Insurance

il_principe

I'm planning on purchasing a new bike this year. I've not bothered insuring one before, but this will be a fairly big purchase and I'm thinking insurance might be a good idea. Does anyone on here have insurance or can recommend? It's important to have something that covers the bike in case of crash or transport damage as my home insurance will cover theft.

Cheers!

mudcow007

M&S house insurance

TheStone

mudcow007 wrote:

M&S house insurance

I recently renewed with M&S.
Usually you start a new application which works out cheaper than the renewal quote, but for new quotes they're now asking the number of bikes over £1000. When I put mine in the quote was £450+ vs £170 normal.

I just renewed and they didn't ask anything about bikes.

Slow Downcp

If your house insurance covers theft it should also cover accidental, albeit at a small premium. Certainly normally cheaper than a separate policy.

msmancunia

I'm with Direct Line for B&C insurance but their bike quote was stupidly expensive.

So, I got a membership with British Cycling (went for the gold one with personal injury as I've had a couple of very near misses with cars cutting me up to get on to the M60 and I can't really afford to be off work long term).
I got their bike insurance - £126 per year for a Trek (£1000) and a hybrid (£400). Not needed to claim, and hope I don't have to, but my bike is covered, I'm covered, and if I cause any damage to anything else, I'm covered there too. Did it all online and v impressed with service so far.

leodis75

Slow Downcp wrote:

If your house insurance covers theft it should also cover accidental, albeit at a small premium. Certainly normally cheaper than a separate policy.

On house insurance don't you have massive excesses normally? I ask because I was thinking about cycleguard insurance.

Slow Downcp

leodis75 wrote:

Slow Downcp wrote:

If your house insurance covers theft it should also cover accidental, albeit at a small premium. Certainly normally cheaper than a separate policy.

On house insurance don't you have massive excesses normally? I ask because I was thinking about cycleguard insurance.

My Excess is either £50 or £100 for accidental damage

leodis75

Cool, I think ours is quite high so might be best going down the cycleguard road.

rolf_f

leodis75 wrote:

Slow Downcp wrote:

If your house insurance covers theft it should also cover accidental, albeit at a small premium. Certainly normally cheaper than a separate policy.

On house insurance don't you have massive excesses normally? I ask because I was thinking about cycleguard insurance.

Compared to msmancunias premium of £126 a year for £1400 of bikes, M&S automatically covering up to £4000 of bikes a year for nothing means you'd need a big excess to come out worst in the long run. Though that does seem now not to apply to new applications.....

lost_in_thought

Hiscox contents cover's bike cover goes up to £5k as standard, and they add more on for very reasonable prices. Also covers bike out and about with some provisos. AFAIK 66 uses them too.

Clever Pun

Churchill do a good bike cover as well, been the best price that I've found for my needs

optimisticbiker

lost_in_thought wrote:

Hiscox contents cover's bike cover goes up to £5k as standard, and they add more on for very reasonable prices. Also covers bike out and about with some provisos. AFAIK 66 uses them too.

True, but the excess can be high; my Hiscox insurance has an excess of £500.

LeDomestiqueTours

We tried with Hiscox but the excess was £500 and the cost of cover for the house was very expensive in comparison to others (we don't have much high value art, jewels, antiques... ). We went with M&S in the end as the bike specific cycleguard style policies were very expensive for what you get. Also worth checking that any insurance covers your bike in the hold of a plane!

From what I remember the terms and conditions re window/door locks etc from Hiscox were pretty specific so make sure you comply before signing up as they could void your policy.

Tricycleboy

sorry to hijack but how do you prove ownership on second hand bikes (paid cash) in the event of a claim

And how do you value the bike with regards to what you put on the policy? i have a £1.5k limit on bikes on my home insurance policy- i probably paid less than this for the bike (secondhand frame/ new parts), but it would cost more than £1.5k to replace with a new one so what do you tell the company/ and do i need to extend the policy on the bike?

msmancunia

I guess each company is different and I admit that I think I'm paying for half my policy just for peace of mind! House is obviously my priority, and I've got some jewellry that I inherited from my mum (nothing flash, just half decent stuff that I would be heartbroken if it disappeared, for sentimental reasons) and the Direct Line policy was great for that - they covered it at no extra charge as long as I had it valued. I'm still paying for my bike under the C2W scheme, and I wanted to make sure that it (and I) was covered for every eventuality so went for the separate cover.

wombar

M&S have changed their bike policy, so you now have to specify any bikes over £1000, which then jacks up the premiums massively. Still a good insurer, but they're no longer the no brainer insurer for cyclists. I suspect they've been getting hammered by people putting in massive claims.

I'd be careful with Direct Line, I had a very interesting conversation with one of their employees, which has resulted in me switching this year. I managed to get a bargain through CRC on a road bike which cost £800. An equivalent replacement spec would be £1200, so that's what I wanted to insure it for ( and was willing to pay extra as it breached the £1k limit). The girl told me they would never pay out more than I originally paid for it, and as I paid £800, that's all I'd get.

They also said that I had to have proof of purchase, or an official valuation for EVERYTHING. Apparently photos wouldn't be sufficient evidence, which scared me a bit tbh. I have valuables that I bought over 20 years ago, and I certainly haven't kept the receipts, and I don't want to be getting valuations done every year to keep it all up to date.

I personally think I got the trainee who didn't know what she was talking about, but either way I'm not going with DL this year. I suspect it will be M&S, as they said I'd get back what I insured the bikes for, which means I'd get £1200 if I insure it for £1200.

Tricycleboy

Tried to find some answers buy phoning my insurance company (More Than) this morning.

I was told to insure for the replacement value rather than the actual cost as i can't prove how much its worth.

Incidentally I was also told an itemised list of parts and photographic evidence is sufficient in the event of a claim. Incidentally it is a named item on my policy now as the replacement value is more than the £1500 limit- costing an extra £80 a year odd to add to the home insurance. not the cheapest but its pretty much the only thing i own that i care about insuring!

il_principe

Sorry I'm a little confused - are you all saying that home insurance (with bike named) will pay out if for example I crash and break the bike whilst abroad/riding a sportive etc?

MichaelW

Tricycleboy wrote:

sorry to hijack but how do you prove ownership on second hand bikes (paid cash) in the event of a claim

And how do you value the bike with regards to what you put on the policy? i have a £1.5k limit on bikes on my home insurance policy- i probably paid less than this for the bike (secondhand frame/ new parts), but it would cost more than £1.5k to replace with a new one so what do you tell the company/ and do i need to extend the policy on the bike?

I used to work for the claims handling agency that worked for many big insurers. We would accept photographic evidence of ownership (you with the bike) and value (the bike in a photo good enough to identify frame and parts).
Generally, if the bike was a no-name you would get the cheapest replacement solution of the same style. If the parts were identifiable, you would get a replacement with equivalent grade of parts. I dont think we ever had a client who felt ripped off.

Make sure your photos (take lots) are sharp and in focus, close enough to contain details.

Its a good idea to take a photographic survey of your whole house and possessions and keep them somewhere not in your house. Take them at the lowest pixel count that works otherwise you end up storing huge files.

sketchley

Il Principe wrote:

Sorry I'm a little confused - are you all saying that home insurance (with bike named) will pay out if for example I crash and break the bike whilst abroad/riding a sportive etc?

No I doubt it. My house insurance AA, covers theft at home and away from home, and accidental damage but only when the bike is not in use so crash damage is not covered. All bikes up to £1500 are covered and I think the excess is £200 or so. For genuine crash damage I think you may struggle to find something cost effective, I did look at www.cycleguard.co.uk but a quick google found some not very nice reviews, that being said they are mainly from people that thought they were covered for theft only to find out they were not (wrong type of lock, no proof of purchase for lock, that kind of thing).

il_principe

Sketchley wrote:

Il Principe wrote:

Sorry I'm a little confused - are you all saying that home insurance (with bike named) will pay out if for example I crash and break the bike whilst abroad/riding a sportive etc?

No I doubt it. My house insurance AA, covers theft at home and away from home, and accidental damage but only when the bike is not in use so crash damage is not covered. All bikes up to £1500 are covered and I think the excess is £200 or so. For genuine crash damage I think you may struggle to find something cost effective, I did look at http://www.cycleguard.co.uk but a quick google found some not very nice reviews, that being said they are mainly from people that thought they were covered for theft only to find out they were not (wrong type of lock, no proof of purchase for lock, that kind of thing).

So basically no one has actually read my question properly (aside from Sketchley) :roll:

As I said: It's important to have something that covers the bike in case of crash or transport damage as my home insurance will cover theft.

Might have to poodle over to the road forum.

sketchley

Another one found no idea what they are like but includes accidental damage when racing http://www.eta.co.uk/insurance/cycle/policies

I'd suggest also looking a the small add in the latest bike magazines.

jzed

I think getting specific crash and transport insurance is going to be difficult, and if covered then it will accompany a theft policy too. Had a look at some policy wordings and they may cover accidental damage (not really defined though, although the exclusions don't say writing off your bike whilst crashing on an Alp is excluded), they tend to cover transport as long as properly packed, one wording even mentioned they must be in a recognised cycle box.

jzed

JZed wrote:

I think getting specific crash and transport insurance is going to be difficult, and if covered then it will accompany a theft policy too. Had a look at some policy wordings and they may cover accidental damage (not really defined though, although the exclusions don't say writing off your bike whilst crashing on an Alp is excluded), they tend to cover transport as long as properly packed, one wording even mentioned they must be in a recognised cycle box.

Meant to say the premium is going to be pretty hefty too. Maybe around 15% of the bike value per year.

sketchley

Looks pricey, for me putting in post code in Worcester Park + £1500 bike coming in at £127.22 at ETA.co.uk which includes race cover and £132.00 from cycleguard with out race cover going up to £193.00 with race cover.

If you up that to a £4000 bike then you get to £453.44 on eta and £535.00 on cycleguard with race cover.

This might help

http://www.eta.co.uk/insurance/cycle/co ... ance-cover

walkingbootweather

Il Principe wrote:

So basically no one has actually read my question properly (aside from Sketchley) :roll:

Does anyone know where I might get insurance against poor advice on a cycling forum?

Are my premiums likely to be reduced if Sketchley contributes?

sketchley

@IP just noticed on the AA policy documents that they do have extended home insurance cover available that does cover accidental damage to sports equipment while in use. I don't have this but might be worth giving them a call and talking through your requirements. Please let me know outcome.

Tricycleboy

I asked More Than at the same time about crash damage- I asked 'if i accidentally ride into a wall and write of the bike, this covers me for a new one'. they said yes as i pay a small premium for cover of possesions outside the home and have bike cover. didn't get info about transport.

just my situation... but is sounds like its quite good cover to me, and may be worth a look for others.