Insurance advice (I did search, no answer)

majica8

Hi,
I've only had my road bike for a month or so but have already had an accident on it that would have cost me £150 to fix if it weren't for eBay. I know that's probably cheap compared to some but for me it's a hell of a lot and I can't afford to have it happen again so I'm looking at getting insurance for my bike that covers accidental damage and also theft.
The problem is I store my bike in a family member's garage about 13 houses/100-150mtrs down the road from where I live (storage at home isn't an option, no space, not keeping it outside) and most of the bike specific insurance policies I've looked out wouldn't cover theft from the garage.

Can anyone advise on what would be the best route for me to take? Take out specific bike insurance but basically forget about the theft from home part and see if the house insurance covers it? Would have I have the same problem with that though? Does home insurance specify that items kept in a garage are only covered if the person lives there (If it was put onto the family member's insurance)? Or if it was put onto our home insurance would they be fussed that it wasn't stored at our home? (Ours is with Esure, family member is with AA)

I'm sure I can't be the first person to want to insure a bike that isn't stored at home but I can't find any answers elsewhere.

Thanks for any help

MichaelW

There are several reasons to avoid making small claims on any insurance policy:
You may lose a no-claims discount.
You have to pay an excess (the first £x:xx of any claim) which is generally around £100.
The number of claims that you make (rather than the value of claims) is recorded and may result in increased premiums.

Insurance is expensive, you have to pay for all those adverts. The rule is to insure for the stuff you can't afford to replace NOT the stuff you can afford. If all your possessions were lost in a fire, you cant afford to replace everything.
Bicycle insurance works out at about 10% of the value per year. If you put this aside you will have the cash to cover it. If you buy some premium bonds with it you may get lucky.
The insurance you need is 3rd party cover for YOU, which comes as std with cycle club membership, eg CTC.
Daily Telegraph article.

kwi

A lot of insurances I've looked out will cover from the garage providing criteria are met, Sold secure locks and an immobile anchor point are musts and often a bare minimum, and don't bluff the locks, they'll ask for the remains in the instance of theft.
Securing my garage cost over £200, that's locks for both bikes, ground anchors, better locks on side door, bars for windows and a door defender for the large door. But when I add up the value of what is in my garage (Bikes, garden equipment, tools etc.) it far outstrips the TVs, Blu-Ray players, games consoles, PCs and Laptops in the house so making the garage secure makes sense.
(I only really looked at insurance for the personal injury side and liability (Club membership often gives the latter.), theft and damage cover is a bonus in my eyes.)

majica8

I can't afford it though, that's the point. I can afford a yearly cost of £23 or £33 (less than 10% of the bike's cost) with a £25 excess for any claim (which is the bike specific insurance I've been looking at) but it doesn't cover theft when my bike is stored in the garage away from our house.
And even if the excess was £100 it's still less than the £150 it would have cost me. It would take 6.5/4.5 years of putting that £23/£33 aside to cover the same accident again....

It's not cover from the garage that's the problem, it's cover from the garage that is 13 houses down the road (i.e. not where I live)

simonhead

You will struggle to get it covered if it's not on your property, contact an insurance broker and see what they can do.

rolf_f

majica8 wrote:

I can't afford it though, that's the point. I can afford a yearly cost of £23 or £33 (less than 10% of the bike's cost) with a £25 excess for any claim (which is the bike specific insurance I've been looking at) but it doesn't cover theft when my bike is stored in the garage away from our house.
And even if the excess was £100 it's still less than the £150 it would have cost me. It would take 6.5/4.5 years of putting that £23/£33 aside to cover the same accident again....

So you are saying that you could afford to pay an insurance premium of £25 and you could afford to pay an excess of £100 (ie £125 total) but you can't afford to pay £150? That extra £25 must be very critical!

And if you do claim, bear in mind that next years insurance will be rather more expensive so could you afford that?

Schoie81

I looked at adding my bike to my home insurance. For a small additional premium I could do it, and it would be covered for theft from a garage or shed provided the garage/shed was secure and had been forecably broken into. It would also be covered away from the house, in another building, provided again that it was securely locked inside. It would even cover it if the bike was IN my car (not on a roof rack or rear bike rack), provided it was chained to a fixed part of the car (car seat mountings etc...) and the car was locked. So maybe adding your bike to your house insurance would address the issue of theft from the garage you keep it in, but I think you'd still need seperate insurance for damage out on the road and for theft on the road.

As others have said though - think about whether you ever would actually make a claim. With the cost of the premium, and excess, it might not be worth it - you'll probably have to find £150 which you say you're trying to avoid. You may be better sticking £5-£10 a month in a high interest account and building up a 'just in case' fund to pay for any damages.

majica8

Rolf F wrote:

majica8 wrote:

I can't afford it though, that's the point. I can afford a yearly cost of £23 or £33 (less than 10% of the bike's cost) with a £25 excess for any claim (which is the bike specific insurance I've been looking at) but it doesn't cover theft when my bike is stored in the garage away from our house.
And even if the excess was £100 it's still less than the £150 it would have cost me. It would take 6.5/4.5 years of putting that £23/£33 aside to cover the same accident again....

So you are saying that you could afford to pay an insurance premium of £25 and you could afford to pay an excess of £100 (ie £125 total) but you can't afford to pay £150? That extra £25 must be very critical!

And if you do claim, bear in mind that next years insurance will be rather more expensive so could you afford that?

No, I'm saying if the excess was £100 it would still be cheaper than what I was quoted to fix my bike this time. But the excess is £25. So that's £23 or £33 for the policy and £25 excess. And even if that was what I was saying, then yes that extra £25 would actually be very critical.
If I claim and it makes the next year's cover more expensive then I'll deal with that when it comes to it. I'm not going to not take out insurance because if I make a claim I won't be able to afford insurance the next year.... :shock:

Bottom line, I have £80 in my bank. If I have a similar/the same accident on my bike again and I don't have insurance I will not be able to afford to get it fixed. So my only option is to spend some/all of that on insurance (with enough left over to cover any excess.) I just don't know what the best route to take is.

desweller

IME bike insurance in the style of car insurance is very expensive, due to the high theft rate of bikes. You are better off putting aside the amount that you would be prepared to spend on the insurance premium and maintaining a float to handle these sorts of expenses.

What was the accident and damage done to the bike, may I ask?

majica8

DesWeller wrote:

IME bike insurance in the style of car insurance is very expensive, due to the high theft rate of bikes. You are better off putting aside the amount that you would be prepared to spend on the insurance premium and maintaining a float to handle these sorts of expenses.

What was the accident and damage done to the bike, may I ask?

As I've already said, if I just put the cost of insurance aside each year it would take several years to cover the same accident again. The bike-specific insurance for my bike will either be £23 or £33 for a year. Now I might never have an accident again. Or, as I'm still new to road bikes and have been off mine for almost a month I might have another accident next week. It has shaken my confidence.

Came off the bike in wet weather, knackered both shifters. Was quoted £150 for repair by the store I got the bike from. Cheapest to get a brand new set myself was £90. I found a used set on eBay for £70.


Edit:
But doesn't matter. One of the companies got back to me and let me know they don't have a policy on where the garage is, and if I took out their insurance the bike would be covered while in the family member's garage. All sorted, can get back on my bike tomorrow when I've finished the last few adjustments

navrig

The point you are missing is that if you claim for every thing you break on your bike your insurance company will put up the cost of the insurance so much you doing be able to afford it. Even if you change insurance company you will be asked if you've made claims in the past. The insurance companies are getting very good at sharing data so it becomes difficult to be economical with the truth.

Basically bike insurance is really only viable for catastrophic issues like theft or frame breakage, IMHO, of course.

majica8

Navrig wrote:

The point you are missing is that if you claim for every thing you break on your bike your insurance company will put up the cost of the insurance so much you doing be able to afford it. Even if you change insurance company you will be asked if you've made claims in the past. The insurance companies are getting very good at sharing data so it becomes difficult to be economical with the truth.

Basically bike insurance is really only viable for catastrophic issues like theft or frame breakage, IMHO, of course.

I'm not missing any point. That's fine...that's the whole point of insurance. I'm not planning to get into an accident every week and make a £150 claim each time. It's insurance, for insurance. Simple.
IF I have another accident that is going to cost £150 to sort out, then it's fine because it's only going to be a £25 excess. If that then pushes the cost up next year so I can't afford insurance again then I won't take it out. But I'm covered for 12 months now, and while I've only got £80 in the bank that's a damn good thing. Another set of broken shifters would be a catastrophic issue for me.

I wasn't asking for the in's and out's on getting insurance, I was asking if anyone had a similar experience to me (bike kept in a garage not connected to your property) and could advise on the best route to take. That was it.

navrig

majica8 wrote:

I'm not missing any point.

Of course you're not.

majica8

Navrig wrote:

majica8 wrote:

I'm not missing any point.

Of course you're not.

:? :? :?
You're the only one missing anything, which is what my original question was and the only bit of advice I'm after re: insurance.