Home insurance vs bike insurance

twr88

I have a new Specialized Tarmac Sport worth £1,500 currently insured with Cycle Guard. They want £157 to renew the policy for the year.

I could add it to my home insurance (Post Office) for £66 a year.

Post Office doesn't insure it for accidental damage outside of the home, so wouldn't be covered if I was in an accident. Otherwise they do cover it for theft whether it's inside or outside the home as long as it's locked up. They don't cover races, but at the moment I'm just commuting on it.

Best part of £100 difference a year is a lot, what are your thoughts?

sloppyschleckonds

twr88 wrote:

what are your thoughts?

£100 difference a year is a lot

alex222

I would recommend having a look round some other home insurers. There are a number of previous threads on this topic that will provide you with lots of options if you utilise the search function.

I am with L&G who cover the bike for accidental damage outside of the home, theft and third party liability. I believe a number of the other large insurers offer similar coverage. Adding the bike didn't cost me close to £66 either. So might be cheaper (even after cancellation charges) to just cancel your Post Office insurance and go with someone else.

rnath

My M&S home policy provides cover for accidental damage away from the home for bikes up to the value of £2k. I had reason to claim a few years ago following a crash (not my fault) and it was all very straightforward.

Anonymous

My thoughts are that its just not worth paying 10% of the bikes new cost on insuring it.
If you can get decent home insurance (which you probably actually need) that genuinely includes bike cover then I would do that.
We are with M&S too as it seems good cover in its own right and bikes all get covered for minimal excess.

My advice to anyone young would be to skip a holiday one year (or save the cash up some other way), stay at home and put the money in a separate account so that you have a nice amount to add to.
Everytime you think of insuring something put all (or even half) of what it would cost into the account by standing order.
As long as you are not really clumsy or stupid you will never ever have to burn money on insurance cover for your luxury items.

It may seem better to spend 10% of the cost of something on insuring it rather than buying a new one at 100% of its cost with your own money sitting in an account, but its not if that money would have been given to an insurance company anyway.
Its just that the insurance company have built up a nice safety net, when really you should have

Sure its bit of a gamble, but it will probably pay off.

tangled_metal

How long til your house insurance is up for renewal? If very soon can you hold off until then (in which case the above advise is relevent). If not then you will need to take one option.

AFAIK the specialist bike insurance options give a better and more full cover. The house ones really require you to read the full smallprint and even get them to put in writing exactly what you have to do to make that insurance valid. Not having a sold secure gold rated lock and using it in a SS gold rated floor anchor could invalidate the insurance for example. I heard of a guy with a several thousand pound bike nicked by the thieves going in through the roof oif a garage and taking their time to break th gold rated lock only for the insurer to not pay out because the anchor was only silver rated. Small print is key but get it put in firm writing as an answer to a direct question so there is no doubt.

PS shop around. I have seen about £70 for a £700 bike (rises to about £80 for just £20 or so more I think. Then again I have seen it advertised as about £7.50 per month.

twr88

Thanks for your advice. I think I will cancel Cycleguard and insure with Post Office for remaining 3 months of policy. When I'm due for renewal I will look for a home insurer with better cycle cover (possibly M&S/L&G).

awavey

Ive been reading round the specialist bike insurance policy options as Im in a similar position in that my home insurer wont cover the full value of my new bike, and the specialists seem to have more get outs than home insurance do, it really felt like almost you arent covered if theres a full moon or the month ends in y kind of thing, even if they then provide bike specific help towards fixing, replacing the bike afterwards where as your average home insurer probably goes here have a voucher to spend in Halfords that so far seems to be the only benefit from using them.

M&S home insurance have been recommended to me a few times by other cyclists at work, so I might switch to them when my home insurance is due for renewal.

rafletcher

SloppySchleckonds wrote:

twr88 wrote:

what are your thoughts?

£100 difference a year is a lot

Think of it as £2 per week, or less than a packet of crisps a day...

Not so expensive then is it?

markyone

I use john lewis home insurance for my bikes

izza

I use chubb home insurance - covers total usage, inc. UK, European, racing, sportives, traiining, etc.

sloppyschleckonds

rafletcher wrote:

SloppySchleckonds wrote:

twr88 wrote:

what are your thoughts?

£100 difference a year is a lot

Think of it as £2 per week, or less than a packet of crisps a day...

Not so expensive then is it?

I don't eat crisps.