Cycle to work scheme... end of hire options

ugo.santalucia

What are the downsides of deferring the final payment? It seems to me a no brainer

After 1 year is 25% of Market Value, after 4 it's 7%.

Do I have to make extra repayments if I choose to defer?

supermurph09

"Unless you plan to sell the bike after 1 year then always go for the 4 year option"

That is what I was told by Cyclescheme, like you say it's a no brainer. Just ordered a bike myself.

ugo.santalucia

Indeed... if I purchase after 12 months, the total saving is 7% or so, hardly worth bothering

timothyw

Yeah. And for someone who has gone through the complete scheme with Cyclescheme for one bike, and is near it with another - the rule about not selling the bike is theoretical more than anything else. After the year ownership transfers from your employer to 'Cyclescheme' so you can change jobs etc without hassle, and they'll never ask you about the bike or want to check you still have it.

ugo.santalucia

It's a Brompton, so not something I will sell... they tend to be bikes for life, rather than upgrade every 2-3 year jobs

pblakeney

Hang on, you actually used the cycle to work scheme to buy a bike purely to cycle to work?
That's a new one!

thistle_

At the end of the hire period you buy the bike back for the fair market value.

When C2W first started, the final payment tended to be a nominal amount (£50-£100) but HMRC cottoned onto that and issued guidance saying that after 12 months the bike is worth 25% of initial price.
To avoid charging people large(ish) amounts of money for the bikes, someone came up with the idea that if you extend the hire period for a few more years the bike is worth hardly anything so you're closer to the £50-£100 mark.

If you don't want to get rid of the bike, the extension is a no brainer. You don't pay any extra "hire" payments during the extension.
It would be worth checking whether you can start another agreement during the extension period - I think you can but I'm not 100% sure. You certainly can't have 2 agreements running during the initial period.

jamiedal

I’ve always not bothered paying the final fee and they have never chased me for it, some people at work have paid it but most don’t and nothing has happened. It’s through the salary sacrifice scheme/Halfords

rwoofer

I thought the value of the bike transfer value comes to zero after 5 years. Certainly that is what I signed up to with an Evans agreement.

thistle_

Jamiedal wrote:

I’ve always not bothered paying the final fee and they have never chased me for it, some people at work have paid it but most don’t and nothing has happened.

I still haven't paid my final payment on my 9 year old bike, I really tried to pay them some money but neither HR or Cyclescheme ever got back to me, a couple of months later I was made redundant. I still have the bike, the only value it has is sentimental. Cyclescheme can have it back if they want
I wonder if I tried to start another agreement would their system flag up that the last one wasn't paid off...

kingrollo

With my c2w you can sign a 5 year extension - after that the bike transfers to you for nowt - and you can sign for that at the time of the initial purchase.

....and during the extended purchase period you can start another c2w purchase.

jamiedal

thistle (MBNW) wrote:

Jamiedal wrote:

I’ve always not bothered paying the final fee and they have never chased me for it, some people at work have paid it but most don’t and nothing has happened.

I still haven't paid my final payment on my 9 year old bike, I really tried to pay them some money but neither HR or Cyclescheme ever got back to me, a couple of months later I was made redundant. I still have the bike, the only value it has is sentimental. Cyclescheme can have it back if they want
I wonder if I tried to start another agreement would their system flag up that the last one wasn't paid off...

I’m on my 3rd cycle scheme bike and haven’t paid the final payment on any of them, all with the same scheme and employer

chippyk

My employer won’t do C2W, worries about liability in case of an accident, responsibility for maintenance, who gets left with the bike at the end of the deal if the employee leaves, if they don’t want it, monitoring how often the person uses it to cycle to work. I’ve given up asking about it.

paul64

Perhaps the one I used in the past worked differently. At end of year 1 I could either return the bike or pay £75 to continue through the full 3-years, I paid then at the end of 3 years I could return it or keep it for '£1 deemed to be paid'. I kept it and received an ownership certificate.

It meant for the £1,000 I originally took I paid £675 in practise (£600 across year 1 then the £75).

photonic69

Got this email link yesterday about my CycleScheme package. (other providers may vary)

https://www.cyclescheme.co.uk/community ... Newsletter

However my vouchers were used on bib shorts, base layers and cold/wet weather gear so I doubt very much that the value after 1 year will be very much.

grenw

paul64 wrote:

Perhaps the one I used in the past worked differently. At end of year 1 I could either return the bike or pay £75 to continue through the full 3-years, I paid then at the end of 3 years I could return it or keep it for '£1 deemed to be paid'. I kept it and received an ownership certificate.

It meant for the £1,000 I originally took I paid £675 in practise (£600 across year 1 then the £75).

Pretty much identical here only my 'admin fee' was £70 from memory.

keef66

ChippyK wrote:

My employer won’t do C2W, worries about liability in case of an accident, responsibility for maintenance, who gets left with the bike at the end of the deal if the employee leaves, if they don’t want it, monitoring how often the person uses it to cycle to work. I’ve given up asking about it.

Despite repeated requests via the staff forum my employer refused for years citing similar trivial excuses.
Then when they needed a bit of goodwill during the relocation of head office, a cycle scheme magically appeared! By which time I had all the bikes I needed :evil:

AFAIK only a handful of people actually took advantage of the scheme, and only one of them ever actually cycled to work...