Bike Insurance for Switzerland Resident

bobgfish

Help

I am a resident of Switzerland. Travel insurance does not cover luggage and therefore checked in bikes. Travelling Friday. Does anyone know of cheap solution. Only option at the moment is nearly £500 to extent home insurance and then also have to pay for travel insurance on top of this.

Stupid thing is my current insurance covers my bike up until the point of giving it to the check in staff. When it comes off the plane and I get it back I'm covered even if I crash it and break it....

Frustrated...

sancho_panza

My household and car insurer added on my bike for a couple of hundred francs a year. Can't think of any specific insurance like you might find in the UK. Oddly really, given that everything is insured in Switzerland. Try asking in a local bike shop too; someone might have more specific advice there.

bobgfish

Eventually added to house insurance. Still expensive at over 400CHF for a year...

schweiz

Who are you insured with? My bikes are insured all risks with AXA Winterthur on their BOX Optima product. I also pay an increased premium to extend the basic cover per bike from the standard CHF 3000 to CHF 5000 per claim. When I spoke to their agent about the fact that we have five bikes at home and that if say two were on the care and they both got nicked then I would be out of pocket, he just said "put in two claims a week apart!". I could have paid to insure all 5 bikes at home for their full RRP replacement but based on risk, I felt CHF 5000 was enough cover. I have to say I've had one frame damaged by the father-in-law's snow plough and one bike nicked in Luzern and AXA-Winterthur have been a pleasure to deal with. No hassle, no quibble and the money was in my bank inside a week of the claim both times.

The total cost of my insurance including a total of CHF 150k of cover is CHF 900 p.a. (Kt OW)

https://www.axa-winterthur.ch/SiteColle ... ima_en.pdf

[edit] section A7 on page 7 covers luggage.

bobgfish

Yep similar to you. With AXA Winterthur as well and same policy. I was paying only CHF 450 for home insurance and had to get it extended to cover simple theft. IE a bike locked to a tree or a bike given to checkin staff or even given to a hotel employee to be put in a safe room. To get simple theft covered took me up over CHF 1000 a year. Got mine covered for CHF 7000. But that is less than the new cost of one of my bikes. I've got 12 bikes...Eeek...And often have two with me on a family trip worth maybe CHF12500. As long as they are in my hotel room they are covered !!! It's just when checked in on plane or ripped off the roof of the car where I need the extended insuarce.

Had a small nick put in the top tube of the road frame this week whislt on the back of a friends car. Will they cover that? Just cosmetic....

schweiz

With the 'snow plough' incident, my bike was next to the snowplough attachment for his ride-on lawnmower. The handle that controls the plough angle fell down onto the top tube and dented it. I called AXA and asked if it was covered. They told me to take it to a bike shop to get it inspected. The bike shop confirmed that it was damaged beyond repair, sent me a quote for a new frame at RRP and labour to swap the parts and that was sent to AXA. I had to pay a CHF 200 excess but AXA paid CHF 1500 or so out with no problem. Then I spoke to the bike shop again and asked if he could maybe get his hands on anything cheaper. He called BMC and got the same frame (Streetfire SSX) but from the previous season for half price and I spent the rest of the money on a set of new Ksyrium Elite wheels so it worked out for every one in the end.

schweiz

I should add that my decision to stick with CHF 5000 was based on the fact that I know I can replace all my bikes for less than retail. I built the BMC in my sig (but with Ultegra and a set of home made hand builts on Ultegra hubs) for CHF 3200 by shopping around in the UK, Germany and Switzerland when the bike shops here wanted CHF 6500!

bobgfish

Thanks for your input. I too can build mine for way less than retail. However the road bike frame is the expensive bit. MTB is not so easy as each frams can need new fork and sometime wheels...I also have Elvia Velo Kasko which costs about CHF 15 a year per bike. If you crash they will pay up to 2000 CHF for repairs minus excess of I think 300CHF. It's basically crash insurance...