Contents Insurance that covers bikes

joey54321

My contents insurance is up for renewal and given my bikes are probably the most valuable thing I have I'd like to find a good provider with them in mind. I know this has been asked before but these services seem to fluctuate quite a lot in price. So, anyone have any good recommendations?

Thanks,

Joey

cooldad

One of the price comparison sites, check best prices then click through to see limits and options available.

apreading

I think M&S used to be the best for bikes but I think they had a change of policy and not so much any more. This is just my recollection from threads on here - worth checking anyway.

trek_dan

Pedal Cover are the best by a mile if you want proper bike cover

apreading

This could be useful:

https://boughtbymany.com/news/article/b ... al-cycles/

harry-s

trek_dan wrote:

Pedal Cover are the best by a mile if you want proper bike cover

Has anyone here made a claim through pedalcover, and if so, how did it go?

joey54321

cooldad wrote:

One of the price comparison sites, check best prices then click through to see limits and options available.

While this can be useful for general insurance, I've found with bike specific things it can be difficult to go through all the small print. For example, I recently found out that my current insurer doesn't cover the bikes to the value I specified (and paid for) but, if anything happens, it will only cover the bikes to the value they think they are worth and that if they are more than 3 years old I need to get an update-to-date evaluation. I don't know if this is common practice, but it seems like rather than spending a year paying the higher premium for the value I specified they should have been upfront from the start.

joey54321

apreading wrote:

This could be useful:

https://boughtbymany.com/news/article/b ... al-cycles/

Thanks, very useful!

apreading

joey54321 wrote:

cooldad wrote:

One of the price comparison sites, check best prices then click through to see limits and options available.

While this can be useful for general insurance, I've found with bike specific things it can be difficult to go through all the small print. For example, I recently found out that my current insurer doesn't cover the bikes to the value I specified (and paid for) but, if anything happens, it will only cover the bikes to the value they think they are worth and that if they are more than 3 years old I need to get an update-to-date evaluation. I don't know if this is common practice, but it seems like rather than spending a year paying the higher premium for the value I specified they should have been upfront from the start.

Thats the same for all car insurance - they base the premium on the value you specify but completely ignore that when a claim arises - other than to use it as a cieling above which you cannot claim.

Unless you get 'new for old' on the bikes you will have that issue. However when you claim if you get LBS to write up an 'estimate to replace' it often gets accepted if they word it well that the bike was in 'as-new' condition 'reguarly serviced' and 'components replaced' etc - which they will more willingly do if you had the bike serviced by them but may also do if you can convince them it is true.

CitizenLee

Lloyds are not bad. They replaced my commuter bike "new for old" without question when it was pinched. I only paid £450 from eBay for it and they gave me £900 (the RRP) to spend on a replacement. Only downside is I was limited to Wheelies, and full RRP bikes. Aviva are meant to be good for including bikes too.

pippi_langsamer-2

I'm currently with Aviva, and they cover my bikes as part of my home contents insurance up to a value of £3k max for any/ each bike. This doesn't include accident/ theft AWAY from home, for which I pay an additional £40/ year or something. Claimed recently with them for damage to a bike, and they paid up no probs.

cooldad

joey54321 wrote:

cooldad wrote:

One of the price comparison sites, check best prices then click through to see limits and options available.

While this can be useful for general insurance, I've found with bike specific things it can be difficult to go through all the small print. For example, I recently found out that my current insurer doesn't cover the bikes to the value I specified (and paid for) but, if anything happens, it will only cover the bikes to the value they think they are worth and that if they are more than 3 years old I need to get an update-to-date evaluation. I don't know if this is common practice, but it seems like rather than spending a year paying the higher premium for the value I specified they should have been upfront from the start.

If you don't read what you are paying for, before you pay for it, wherever it comes from, that's your problem.

joey54321

cooldad wrote:

joey54321 wrote:

cooldad wrote:

One of the price comparison sites, check best prices then click through to see limits and options available.

While this can be useful for general insurance, I've found with bike specific things it can be difficult to go through all the small print. For example, I recently found out that my current insurer doesn't cover the bikes to the value I specified (and paid for) but, if anything happens, it will only cover the bikes to the value they think they are worth and that if they are more than 3 years old I need to get an update-to-date evaluation. I don't know if this is common practice, but it seems like rather than spending a year paying the higher premium for the value I specified they should have been upfront from the start.

If you don't read what you are paying for, before you pay for it, wherever it comes from, that's your problem.

Couldn't agree more, what's your point?

trek_dan

Harry-S wrote:

trek_dan wrote:

Pedal Cover are the best by a mile if you want proper bike cover

Has anyone here made a claim through pedalcover, and if so, how did it go?

Thankfully not yet, but my friend who is with them has after he wrote his bike off in a racing crash and it was no bother at all. The people who work there are all cyclists and they seem really great to deal with it.

pamplemoose

trek_dan wrote:

Thankfully not yet, but my friend who is with them has after he wrote his bike off in a racing crash and it was no bother at all. The people who work there are all cyclists and they seem really great to deal with it.

I've heard similar about Pedalcover. A guy from my club (and now also myself) use Bikmo. A mate claimed for a stolen bike that was inside his house and had no bother at all.

Whoever you go with, I think bike insurance is one of those things that's worth getting separate to your general contents insurance. Bigger insurance companies couldn't give two hoots about your bike, they just want to get away with paying the least amount out possible. Their idea of 'like for like' differs greatly to mine. A lot of the bike only insurance places offer brand new replacements if you're bike is stolen or written off.

mfin

Pippi Langsamer wrote:

I'm currently with Aviva, and they cover my bikes as part of my home contents insurance up to a value of £3k max for any/ each bike. This doesn't include accident/ theft AWAY from home, for which I pay an additional £40/ year or something. Claimed recently with them for damage to a bike, and they paid up no probs.

A good shout. If the bikes cost more, then the last couple of times I went through John Lewis.

OP. Remember it depends what you want from insurance. Personally I don't care about insurance for when I am out, because I don't leave my bike lying around, I don't do "coffee stops" nonsense or anything. So, the only important bit for me is that they insured if the house is broken into and they are stolen. Currently they are insured out of the house though because it cost so little more this time, but I don't actually care about that really for the reasons I said.

You might want insurance for racing etc too?

fuel2000

I’ve made 2 claims in the last few years through Pedal Cover, both claims were settled quickly and fairly. Highly recommended.

socrates

More Than. Excellent.