C2W...is it worth it?

Rambo247
Rambo247 Posts: 3
edited February 2011 in Commuting chat
newish to road biking and to forums...my first ever posting!
Riding an old peugot steel frame road bike for last 6 years but only from time to time, never remotely serious.. Ready to take up road biking as main hobby / interest and after doing some research and consulting some friends who ride I have two options that I would appreciate some views on...
1) buy through C2W scheme at local shop with cannondale CAAD 8 105 '11 or Specialized Secteur Elite Apex 20 '11 appearing to be the best of the bunch
Or
2) go it alone and purchase the boardman Team carbon '10 from halfords

They are all £1000 ish. Only boardman delivers carbon frame. I am unsure how much I actually spend purchasing through C2W scheme? Obviously the boardman hits my savings for a grand but it seems to be the best bike...

Help![/list]

Comments

  • magoo289
    magoo289 Posts: 223
    I was in a similar position last year, when I had been using a bike which a mate lent me. Then took the plunge under C2W scheme.
    1) Is it worth it? Yes, if you're going to use the bike. Buy the bike which fits you and when choose the one you like best. You will save the VAT, tax, nat ins etc. Just remember if you need gear this can also be covered by the C2W scheme. Not all gear is vatable, such as helmets, so if you intend spending more than your C2W limit bear this in mind as you'll not get any VAT saving on these.
    2) Can you not get the boardman thru your C2W? My employer had Halfords in its list as well as LBS and CRC. Try out the bikes. For what it is worth I got a CAAD9. You'll have great difficult in finding anyone with a bad thing to say about Cannondale on this forum.

    Hope this helps.
  • Thanks....halfords is not registered and unfortunately won't be through my C2W scheme. So, the company take an amount from your top line each month and then what...is there a final payment to be made so you own the bike?
  • I would say yes as well, although if you had the money up front picking up one in the sales might be just as good.

    I got a Scott CR1 from Epic Cycles last year. The only trouble is that the scheme our company use charges the bike shop 10%, so you have to pay that yourself. It still worked out cheaper than what other shops were charging, but would be worth checking with the shop.

    I've been pleased with the way it has worked out, just about to finish the 18month rental, and will just pay the £70 to rent it for the next 3 years and effectively "own" it.
  • magoo289
    magoo289 Posts: 223
    Yeah, you would repay this over 12 months thru your salary. For £1k it would be about £70 per mth, plus savings from tax, nat ins and pension contributions. Remember you are making a saving of 20% VAT.

    HMRC issued new guidance last year on the final 'settlement' balance. This will depend on your C2W scheme, mine is 5% so I would have to pay about £45 to purchase the bike off my employer.
  • unixnerd
    unixnerd Posts: 2,864
    cannondale CAAD 8 105

    Superb bike, that's the one you want. Better a class leading alloy frame than a cheap carbon one. I have the older CAAD5 and no desire to upgrade the frame. Build quality is miles better than the Secteur (just compare the welds for a start). I quite fancied a Secteur, but ended up with a second hand Cannondale instead and I don't regret it.
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  • MarjMJ
    MarjMJ Posts: 35
    This
    will depend on your C2W scheme, mine is 5% so I would have to pay about £45 to purchase the bike off my employer.

    Indeed. Mine want 20% or something, so not the best deal in the long run really. Am hacked off to say the least. :evil:

    However, I do like the bike I got, so hey ho...shame I had to go Halfords.. :evil:
  • jimmypippa
    jimmypippa Posts: 1,712
    MarjMJ wrote:
    This
    will depend on your C2W scheme, mine is 5% so I would have to pay about £45 to purchase the bike off my employer.

    Indeed. Mine want 20% or something, so not the best deal in the long run really. Am hacked off to say the least. :evil:

    However, I do like the bike I got, so hey ho...shame I had to go Halfords.. :evil:

    The 20% is from the HMRC table see here

    SO that is now fixed. THE 5% has gone (for me since I started the scheme)
  • MarjMJ
    MarjMJ Posts: 35
    The 20% is from the HMRC table see here

    :evil: :evil: :evil:

    It was sooo annoying as it changed a few weeks after I signed up. A mate got the £1000 boardman carbon for peanuts, and now I am looking at paying pretty much what you could get a discount of.

    On the bright side at least where I work has showers and secure bike parking. They have started another scheme but I think they are misleading people on the posters by saying you'll make 'huge' savings...but enough ranting.
  • dhope
    dhope Posts: 6,699
    I got a Boardman Carbon last year and very pleased with it.
    I'm tempted to bargain hunt 2010 models and use Evans 0% finance option. Expect the savings will be similar.
    Can't say I've ever got anything on finance before, always just seems more sensible to buy it outright, but if it's 0%...
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  • Walk into a good bike shop with £1000 in nice new £10s and see which is best, C2W or cash with a good discount. 8)
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  • jimmypippa
    jimmypippa Posts: 1,712
    Cyclescheme has an approved workround which is to offer the bike on a loan for 4-years for a deposit worth this value.

    Basically, it means a 7% payment at the end of the 12-month hire period, instead of the original 5%, or expected 20%.

    The bike would not belong to me until the end of this period, but would be on loan and at the end of the 4-years, the bike would revert to my ownership. I would be able to have a new bike on the scheme as soon as my original (12-month) hire period was up.

    Having got the email from cyclescheme (my hire period finishes in April)there were other (less attractive) options. One would be to pay the 20% "fair market value, which seems high on a bike that has done 6000-miles. I think the other option is to return the bike.

    I saw our payroll manager and asked what I'd have to do to select the correct option (because it can't be predetermined, IIRC) and he told me that our employers are going for a fourth option. He hasn't written the letter to the 14 of us on the scheme, so I don't know all the details, but I understand it will involve me paying the originally expected 5%, and the company paying the difference, which will be a benefit in kind and thus taxable. In other words I will lose out by the tax on 15% of the bike value. Which is a bit easier to swallow than the straight 15%.
  • What a palava just buy a bike
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  • kelsen
    kelsen Posts: 2,003
    Walk into a good bike shop with £1000 in nice new £10s and see which is best, C2W or cash with a good discount. 8)

    C2W. You're not going to get 20-40% discount off a £1000 bike and finance it over 12 months at 0% interest by paying cash.
  • EKE_38BPM
    EKE_38BPM Posts: 5,821
    kelsen wrote:
    Walk into a good bike shop with £1000 in nice new £10s and see which is best, C2W or cash with a good discount. 8)

    C2W. You're not going to get 20-40% discount off a £1000 bike and finance it over 12 months at 0% interest by paying cash.

    +1 Also, not everyone has £1000 in disposable income in a lump sum.
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  • tailwindhome
    tailwindhome Posts: 18,878
    unixnerd wrote:
    cannondale CAAD 8 105

    Superb bike, that's the one you want. Better a class leading alloy frame than a cheap carbon one. I have the older CAAD5 and no desire to upgrade the frame. Build quality is miles better than the Secteur (just compare the welds for a start). I quite fancied a Secteur, but ended up with a second hand Cannondale instead and I don't regret it.

    + 1 Cannondales

    Before you commit to the Caad 8 on C2W there are a number of retailers (Wheelbase, Evans and others) selling the 2010 with Sora gearing for c£500.

    That would be hard to resist

    http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=caad+8 ... p%3A1&aq=f
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  • nation
    nation Posts: 609
    I'm doing the C2W thing just now.

    My employer runs the scheme over three years, so for me it's worth it just to get interest free credit for that period. The monthly payment is so small I'm not even going to notice it coming out of my pay, and the final payment is hardly crippling.

    Any cost saving over and above that is just gravy as far as I'm concerned. I find it difficult to get worked up over the fact that it isn't quite as good a deal as it was previously, given that it's still a pretty good deal.
  • notsoblue
    notsoblue Posts: 5,756
    If you're going to hang on to the bike for a couple of years anyway, then I don't see anything wrong with C2W. At worst its a bike on interest free credit, and at best its a bike on interest free credit with a nice discount...

    I can only see it as being a problem if you were planning to sell it for profit after a year.
  • dilemna
    dilemna Posts: 2,187
    kelsen wrote:
    Walk into a good bike shop with £1000 in nice new £10s and see which is best, C2W or cash with a good discount. 8)

    C2W. You're not going to get 20-40% discount off a £1000 bike and finance it over 12 months at 0% interest by paying cash.

    Errr ...... yes you can and I did. You don't pay cash if entering into a credit agreement. I haggled the price of the bike right down to about 30% off, so little profit in it for them I suspect, then asked about interest free over 12 months and the bike shop said fine no problem! Stuff C2W.
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  • I love this whole C2W dilemma! Seemed like a good idea at the time and has become a behemoth (can't possibly scrap it or that would look terribly un-green).

    Fact is that governments (of whatever hue) would do better spending our money on making the transport system a little less car-orientated bit by bit rather than handing out discounted bikes to people who may or may not use them.
  • My employer have said that, since the new guidance, they'll give me the bike for 'free' at the end of my loan spell but 20/25% of the original value will be deemed a 'benefit in kind' for tax purposes.

    Basically, I'll just pay the tax on this amount, so 20% (basic rate) of about £125. Which isn't much different from the original scheme (which they've explained with detailed examples!).

    Bit off with all of this that the goal posts are being moved after people have signed up - wouldn't be allowed in most other areas. I don't know/understand it enough to get it though.

    Seems that new HMRC 'guidance' is still leading to some fairly wide-ranging applications by employers!
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  • kelsen
    kelsen Posts: 2,003
    dilemna wrote:
    kelsen wrote:
    Walk into a good bike shop with £1000 in nice new £10s and see which is best, C2W or cash with a good discount. 8)

    C2W. You're not going to get 20-40% discount off a £1000 bike and finance it over 12 months at 0% interest by paying cash.

    Errr ...... yes you can and I did. You don't pay cash if entering into a credit agreement. I haggled the price of the bike right down to about 30% off, so little profit in it for them I suspect, then asked about interest free over 12 months and the bike shop said fine no problem! Stuff C2W.

    Always exceptions to the rule my friend. Good job getting such a great deal, obviously you did your homework, but not everyone is as good at haggling and not every bike shop will be as accommodating. I very much doubt if many people would be able to get 30% off a current season bike with 12 months 0% finance like you did.

    The C2W scheme is an easy option for those who are able to take advantage of it. Yes, the savings may not be as much as previous years, but you're still getting it cheaper and paying it over 12 months. The people who seem to be complaining the loudest are those who feel cheated by the new FMV guidelines, or those who are not able to sign up to it.
  • rolf_f
    rolf_f Posts: 16,015
    kelsen wrote:
    Always exceptions to the rule my friend. Good job getting such a great deal, obviously you did your homework, but not everyone is as good at haggling and not every bike shop will be as accommodating. I very much doubt if many people would be able to get 30% off a current season bike with 12 months 0% finance like you did.

    +1 And I wouldn't have got anywhere near that kind of deal outside of C2W on the bikes I got on the scheme. 30% off is almost certainly a massive loss to the retailer rather than a small profit so it is difficult to see many deals like that being available.

    Besides, I'd rather get my discount out of the tax payer as a whole rather than help a local bike shop to be unprofitable!

    PS - I know exactly what Ribble would have said if I'd gone into their warehouse with £750 and asked them to give me a full Centaur Gran Fondo interest free :lol:
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