Ride 2 Work sceme - advice

chris217
chris217 Posts: 218
edited November 2013 in Road buying advice
quick thought as i am looking to buy a bike through this scheme

The new cycle to work scheme, the upper limit of £1000 has been lifted, which is good.

however you now have 3 options at the end of the 12 months 'rental' period

1) hand the bike back to the provider
2) take ownership - whereby the provider calculates the 'value' of the bike and you pay a percentage as a one off payment, i think it is 25% for bikes over £1000 and the bike becomes yours

or
3) extend and continue to 'hire' the bike for no additional cost for between 4 to 5 years !! and at the end of this period the bike is yours .....

mmm ,.....interesting ...anyone thought about their choice , i am wondering which option people will choose ?

Comments

  • londoncommuter
    londoncommuter Posts: 1,550
    What's that about the limit being lifted? I thought the £1k was a hard limit and to do with whether or not your employer had a consumer credit license rather than anything to do with Ride 2 Work? Our scheme has just opened for 2014 and it's still £1k with Evans unfortunately (yes I do need a Cervelo to commute on.....).
  • hibster
    hibster Posts: 58
    believe the £1000 is a limit imosed by the company runniung the scheme, due to the ccl needed as you say if it goes above that
    though the old limit was raised it wasnt that far above a grand
    hadnt heard of this change
    need to know more about option 3 - does that mean you dont pay any hire fee for 4 to 5 years & tehn you can keep it?
  • andy9964
    andy9964 Posts: 930
    Our scheme is similar, it has options 1 and 3.
    With our option 3, we pay the equivalent of one month's payment to 'hire' the bike for a further four years, and we are allowed one more purchase within that total five year period (dated from the original bike purchase)

    On your option 2, I believe you pay income tax on the valuation i.e. 20% of the 25% valuation, but read the t+c carefully to confirm.
    Also check if it is an external company doing the admin for the scheme, I got stung with an £80 'fee' that wasn't mentioned until I'd signed up
  • craker
    craker Posts: 1,739
    Who's the provider?

    Reading Cyclscheme's info on this I am surprised to learn
    The most attractive option for employees will be to pay a small, refundable deposit (3% or 7% of the equipment value*) and continue to use the bicycle or safety equipment for an extended period of up to 36 months.

    I'd never picked up on detail that the deposit is refundable...


    Edit... found this on our intranet
    What will happen at the end of the 31-month extended use period?

    Cyclescheme will contact you to discuss your options. At this point ownership of the bike
    may be offered to you for a ‘consideration’ in the form of a market value fee, which is equal
    to the ‘Continuation Deposit’ you have already paid.

    So I'd be surprised if there really was 'have the bike for free at the end of the hire period' option
  • trek_dan
    trek_dan Posts: 1,366
    Just go for option 3, if the scheme is administered internally hope that they'll forget and let you keep the bike. Certainly what happened to me when I left my last company.
  • simonj
    simonj Posts: 346
    Option 3 is the norm and what most people do, pay 7% (if over £500) and forget it as it's effectivly yours then, although not technically till after 36 months.
  • barrybarryr
    barrybarryr Posts: 44
    On the scheme I'm using you pay for it over 12 months. Then you you have the 3 options you've stated.

    I have two bikes on the scheme. The first one I'm in year four and continuing to hire it, after year 5 it's mine for nothing.

    There's no point paying for it just hire it for nothing until they give it to you.

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