Home contents insurance + bikes?

miss notax

Hello

I know bike insurance has been covered a million times but I can't seem to find the answer from previous post and to be honest my brain is fried so it might have to be spelled out to me anyway :?

I am moving into a rented place which (thank goodness!) has space for my bikes inside - but I still want to make sure that they are insured properly. I'm not too worried about the road bike, but specifically the Orange and the Santa Cruz as they are complete custom builds. The Kona has been upgraded quite a bit but is still 'only' worth about £2k I guess....

I have a couple of problems, firstly I have no idea what to insure my bikes for. They are both older frames that I have rebuilt using new high-end components. Is it the price I would have to pay if I went into a bike shop and asked for a new Santa Cruz Juliana with SIDS forks, Formula brakes and full XT? Or the price that I actually paid (a lot less 8) )?

Secondly, assuming it's the 'new' price, I have had a look at seperate bike insurance and to insure the 3 mountain bikes at their replacement value (about £8k I guess) costs a bloody fortune Is it cheaper to name them on my home contents insurance? If so, which contents insurance is the best / most economical for adding bikes onto?

Thanks ever so much for any help

The Northern Monkey

Insured mine with Budget I think.. Contents up to 60k (only because the price didn't change, I wish I had 60k worth of stuff!) and bike is named and insured new for old up to £2500, I have a valuation from my LBS to prove what its worth as its pretty much a custom build.
Bike is kept in the house so no issues with locks etc.

Costs me less than £10 a month!

bails87

More Than are pretty good with what they cover. You can insure bikes away from home too, for not unreasonable money.

njee20

Stock answer used to be M&S who covered for up to £4k per bike, including cover away from home. They don't any more, but they were previously underwritten by AXA, may be worth checking AXA direct, or at least reading their fine print, possible they still use that clause in their own cover.

Otherwise yes More Than aren't too bad, my quote doubled when I wanted cover (for 3 bikes, £11k) away from home though.

The Northern Monkey

Ahh yeah, mine covers the bike anywhere... home or away..

njee20

It does depend on the specific value, it goes up exponentially rather than linear. Get some quotes, certainly for More Than you can add the named items online.

bails87

If I remember correctly, More Than cover bikes up to £1500 by default, and anything above that (poosibly a £5k limit) needs to be a named item. But they were a lot cheaper than other places, and certainly cheaper than the specific bike insurers.

miss notax

Thanks guys - i'll get some quotes and see who comes out best!

I assume I should insure them for their replacement cost...?

The Northern Monkey

Insure them at cost of new if its new for old!

LJ.

AA seem OK to,home contentsinsurance +if youw ant a bike like that covered when you are out and about you have to name it on personalpossesions I got a quote recently and it was only £111 a year but the personal possesions was only covered to £2500 so I guess the price would be more with that bike. If you only want it covered inside the house then you are probably looking at less than £100 a year

andhr

bails87 wrote:

If I remember correctly, More Than cover bikes up to £1500 by default, and anything above that (poosibly a £5k limit) needs to be a named item. But they were a lot cheaper than other places, and certainly cheaper than the specific bike insurers.

Yep that's right, I use MoreThan - called them from the shop where I was purchasing my new bike and added the item there and then, insured at home and away from home (if locked). My full contents insurance went up by under £120 per year to add the bikes (£2k worth)

The Northern Monkey wrote:

Insure them at cost of new if its new for old!

+1 - definitely insure them at the replacement cost, and list the reasoning - i.e. all the parts and the frame and everything, so you can name it if it disappears. Essentially the more you baffle an assessor with detailed spec the less they will argue with the value.

Be sure to read the policy on bikes thoroughly, as some insurers are very specific about the types of locks you must use depending on where it is (in the house/shed/away from home); and non-compliance means non-payment.

kevinharley

This probably doesn't apply to the OP, as the bikes will be kept in the house, but we had a problem with MoreThan last year ... see the thread here:

viewtopic.php?f=30005&t=12806247&p=17254831&hilit=bike+non+insurance#p17254831

For those that can't be bothered with reading the thread, basically, although we had specific bike insurance for up to £1500 per bike, home or away, because we kept them locked in a garage, MoreThan classed this as an outbuilding, for which there is a total max payout of £2000 - this didn't cover the cost of the 4 bikes we had stolen. After a lot of fuss, threats to go to the financial ombudsmen, and the fact that we had insurance documents that were apparently contradictory on this point, they did pay up ... but were very clear that if we were to keep the new bikes in the garage, the £2000 limit would apply, which meant we had to take insurance out elsewhere.

miss notax

Well, if it's of any help to anyone else, after looking at the cover levels on-line I decided to call More Than, Budget and M&S. More Than have referred my quote to their technical guys as they don't know if they can cover the bikes (total value about £9k). Budget couldn't cover the bikes at all. M&S came up trumps and provided a pretty good quote for an excellent level of cover; to cover all three mountain bikes plus everything (including the bikes) worldwide away from home and accidental damage plus all the usual contents stuff. The quote came to about £80 a month, but there's a 15% discount or something if you apply on-line taking it to under £70 a month.....

Quote for cycle-specific insurance (so I would also need seperate contents cover) were coming out at £60 a month on their own!!

bails87

miss notax wrote:

The quote came to about £80 a month,

:shock:

Can you add 'overseas' cover as and when you need it? Not sure if that's the standard cover or an extra that you're paying for but even if you have to pay an admin fee it might work out cheaper to just add it for the week or two that you're abroad. Unless you go away every other week.

miss notax

Hmm, true, I need to get that price down!!!

More Than did come back to me with a much better price but i'm not sure they really understood, as the conversation started with them asking if £5k's worth of ocver would be ok even though the total for the bikes came to about £9k. Ummm, no :?

njee20

Quote for cycle-specific insurance (so I would also need seperate contents cover) were coming out at £60 a month on their own!!

But home insurance without the bikes can probably be had for £10/month, so that's still cheaper... that really doesn't sound like a good price to me. More Than were less than £40 a month for me, with £11k of bikes covered away from home.

More Than did come back to me with a much better price but i'm not sure they really understood, as the conversation started with them asking if £5k's worth of ocver would be ok even though the total for the bikes came to about £9k.

Sure it wasn't £5k per bike they were offering?

miss notax

Did you have to get everything formally valued njee20?

Perhaps I need to call back More Than and talk to someone else then....!

njee20

Nope, I did an online quote for comparison, just did it all on their website.

miss notax

Wow, ok, I was told I needed to get everything officially valued and have all the receipts etc (which was putting me off). The bloke did sound utterly confused by the situation though :roll:

Will have a look on their website - thanks.

njee20

Just for clarity I've done a quick quote online with More Than - £90 for contents only (including bikes named, but not outside the house), goes to £485 including cover away from the house, so only £40 a month.

miss notax

Great, thank you! I was obviously talking to an idiot :roll:

sofaboy73

if you are just wanting cover for in the house, i can strongly recomend direct line.

got burgled over easter and they nicked my custom build heckler (as well as lots of other stuff). as the bike was in the house (not locked or anything) they classified it as 'general contents'. general contents don't need to be named items unless they are 'valuable items' (defined as jewlery, artworks, watches etc by direct line) and the limit on 'general contents' is up to £15K per item on the standard policy.

They do a new for old policy (based on full spec of bike - not always make for make) and after a bit of negotiating with them, got them to agree that nearest replacement they could provide with was a spicy 916, but as they were out of stock they just sent me a cheque for 5K instead - happy days.

the whole process was pretty quick an painless and i wasn't paying any special extras on my policy (although i'm sure the premium will go up next year).

Doesn't provide any cover for when you're away from the house, but then im either on the bike or it's locked and covered in the car

miss notax

Thanks sofaboy73 - based on the recommendation i'll get a quote from them too

M&S are the best contenders so far - got the quote down to £40 a month to cover the bikes (+ away from home) and contents!

Stu Coops

Mine are insured with my Bank under house contents up to £50,000 so as long as the bikes do not exceed that amount they will replace them and they sent me a seperate letter confirming it at my request however they are not insured outside of property, costs £160 a year not bad considering some stand alone policies for bikes of any value can be around £50 a month.

Ult

May sound odd but I insured my contents including bikes, kayaks etc through nfu mutual (national farmers union!). You don't need to be anything to do with farming, I simply walked into the local branch, spoke face to face with a human being and have named all my expensive items. Also overcame the issue of max value of garage contents, increasing it to an appropriate level. Essentially the quote was cutom made to my needs. Also includes million quid 3rd party liability which you are occasionally asked for if you do certain events.

If I ever buy or sell a bike I just wander into the branch and they note the changes.

They were great with me so may be worth a go.

yorkshire_lad

Hi Guys i need a bit of help pleaseee . I've just got myself a new bike - its only an Apollo Paradox but i'm at the early stages of this hobby phase haha! i wanna get this bad boy insured as i don't think it is covered on my contents insurance? so far i have had these Cycle Insurance Quotes, but i'm not 100 percent sure if i'm covered on contents as there is loads of small print etc. to be honest i might just be being lazy not reading through the documents! haha but if anyone can help me out on this that would be brilliant!

cheers

njee20

Be surprised if it wasn't covered on your house insurance? Most policies cover bikes up to £500 at least.

chrisw333

Thanks to this thread, just renewed with M&S.

Two bikes covered (£1,200 & £1,500) both home and away. OK just locked in shed, no specification that need to be locked up inside shed. No specification of types of locks to use etc when away from home - just locked onto car roof with standard roof carrier is fine apparently (please don't rely on any of this - check for yourself!)

(non specified bikes up to £1k also covered)

Saved 180 quid from Halifax renewal quote (where only one bike previously specified).

less than £35 quid per month including protected no claims.

very happy - thanks miss notax

miss notax

I went for M&S in the end too

Raggs

yorkshire_lad wrote:

Hi Guys i need a bit of help pleaseee . I've just got myself a new bike - its only an Apollo Paradox but i'm at the early stages of this hobby phase haha! i wanna get this bad boy insured as i don't think it is covered on my contents insurance? so far i have had these Cycle Insurance Quotes, but i'm not 100 percent sure if i'm covered on contents as there is loads of small print etc. to be honest i might just be being lazy not reading through the documents! haha but if anyone can help me out on this that would be brilliant!

cheers

Hi mate, for bike insurance i found that my contents did cover it, but i do know that not all companies will cover the full cost of the bike dependent on the value, i myself am actually looking for a bike for my wife for xmas, more specifically a dutch bike? the reason i put a question mark is because i didn't know this was a type of bike? i Googled it and came across these guys for dutch bikes but i would like to have a butchers at more than one site for prices. do you have any ideas?

cheers
Ian

97th choice

Went direct line here, everything under £1k insured automatically and everything over is named on the policy.