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As the title suggests is it worth entering into a
bike to work scheme anymore or just haggle a discount
with bike shop and buy outright?
Ta.
Depends on the scheme. I used to self administer our scheme rather than using one of the middleman voucher providers, so you could haggle a discount with a bike shop, then put it through the scheme.
As above it depends on the scheme and the % tax you pay. We use the halfords scheme and I bought a Bird Zero so worked well for me.
If you're buying something halfords stock, if you use that scheme, then with constant halfords sales, bc discount, buying vouchers with 10% off, etc then you may be cheaper than the c2w scheme.
hhhhhmmmmmmmm might be worth investigating then.
Its worth it for me because I get to waste £1000 on bike stuff without the wife complaining.
Using the c2w scheme doesn't necessarily preclude you from buying a sale bike / doing a deal.
You LBS will baulk at it, but Evans, Halfords etc should be fine.
I've had a year of from c2w schemes so it might be time for a new bike*.
*Yay, new bike.
Bought my Brompton with a C2W scheme. Wouldn't have bought one otherwise
Glad I did so, for me, yes!
Depends if you use a company to run the scheme or its just done by your finance. The official organisations take a cut and have weird rules often so requires a bit more review of their rules to determine.
For many people though its just your company buying a bike and leasing it to you for a year. Official rules require them to not give it to you at the end so I kept mine going for 3 years (at no cost) so the final sum was negligible. So I got a bike at the time I needed it, for ~40% off.
Its only 'not worth it' if you were trying to fudge it or your company uses a middleman, or you can afford to but a bike in the sale now.
If you're a top rate tax payer or want an interest free loan for a bike it's definitely still worth it.
If you're a top rate tax payer or want an interest free loan for a bike it's definitely still worth it.
^^This.
Actually, that's a good point. If you're not a higher rate tax payer then it's probably significantly less useful
Its only 'not worth it' if you were trying to fudge it or your company uses a middleman
Our company use a middleman, it was definitely worth me buying a Bird Zero through the scheme.
Our company use a middleman, it was definitely worth me buying a Bird Zero through the scheme.
Ok, count me as "interested".
Our work uses https://www.cyclescheme.co.uk/
Will Bird just take the voucher?
Its worth it for me because I get to waste £1000 on bike stuff without the wife complaining.
This, although I always feel a wee bit guilty 😳 / 8)
Fairly sure it's worth it even for base rate tax-payers though? Think my net salary deduction is about £60 so £720 a year for a £1000 bike?
What about the final dreaded payment though. Has anyone ever been charged?
Certainly worth it to me, as for the final payment I've only ever noticed the taxable amount of the final payment added to the years tax code, so next to bugger all in reality.
That only happened once mind.
I won't be using it again, I have purchased 3 bikes through work, with the previous 2 being a invoice and then a company bank transfer.
The last time I used C2W scheme and did everything via the website etc, what a pain took longer, then once the period finished I had to end up paying extra to keep the bike on the scheme for 2 years or I would of needed to return it or pay the difference.
Just went out and built a cross bike for less that what the saving would of been, my friend who works for Willis said that their scheme has just changed from 2k to 1k and you have to use Evans now as well.
More money you earn the more you will save....
What about the final dreaded payment though. Has anyone ever been charged?
It's an HMRC thing. Everyone should be charged unless they do the obvious and sensible thing of extending the loan and paying a small amount. Then everyone just forgets about it
Well worth it for me. Remember you can buy any sale bike from Evans so i got a pinnacle Ramin 1 at £450 in the sale, my employer uses a credit provider so that made it an extra £45 pounds. So total was £495 it works out I pay back £335 and have to pay a £14 final payment after a year to extend the agreement and own the bike. I've done it before and sold the bike before the year was up as long as you make the payments no one cares. So in total I'll pay £349 for a £500 bike. It would be even better if your employer doesn't use a finance provider
Hope this helps
Talk to your LBS, I got a Solaris frame and various bits from mine and they even built the bike up for me, all done on cyclescheme. Total cost was £1000 will pay back about £750ish after final payment, so still worth it for me
Just seem that new longitude is 999.99 thats my next bike sorted. Just have until next June to convince the wife
I wanted a Cotic Escapade, and they don't do the whole model year (and discounts at the end of it) thing. Gives me in effect an interest free loan and a bit of a discount. Was via Cyclescheme, work approved the application and I had my voucher within 48 hours, took a bit of finding a local(ish) bike shop that took Cyclescheme and did Cotic, had my bike a couple of weeks later.
With the newer HMRC guidelines I'll pay nothing for 2 more years, then a small payment to transfer ownership, then I can have another on the scheme.
Worth it for me, less so if the thing you want gets heavily discounted.
Double post
As a standard rate tax payer I got a free loan to buy a brand new model bike for 20% less than rrp with no grief from the wife.
Sadly, working for HMRC means I am slightly more tightly bound by the rules than some other people.
Waiting for delivery of my Sequoia Elite bought on the scheme. I didn't think there was going to be any offer or a discount or haggling with lbs so was astounded to get the bike for a couple of hundred less than list; have bought a couple of bikes over past few years from them.
£1000 is deposit in most cases. Seems inadequate to me.
20%off and interest free on boardman bikes rendered it too much faf for me.
parkesie - Member
20%off and interest free on boardman bikes rendered it too much faf for me.
Or apply BC on top, then use a C2W voucher and save a frikkin Fortune; especially if you pay 40% tax
We're paying @£700 spread over a year, for a bike that cost £1000 in sale, on RRP of £1350.
Yes, it is worth it.
Depends on many things.
I'm a lower rate tax payer and my company use a middle man. It's still worth it to me, and I'm on my second.
Things to note:
Legally the scheme can't agree the end terms at the beginning as that makes it HP.
The TaxMan has screwed up the way it used to end and now you're stuck with a farcical wait for depreciation over several years. Trying to shortcut this basically nullifies the saving.
The saving is down to your tax. You'll have the full amount over 12 months taken from your salary before tax. Like any salary sacrifice this works by lowering the amount you pay tax on.
Always check upfront with a shop what they are happy with. The associated faff of dome schemes mean that at sticker price smaller shops may already be very close to zero profit.
The scheme is intended to promote health through tax breaks on bikes to ride to work. 1k is quite a fair sum in that context. It's not intended to fund bikes solely for play, big forked gnarpoons and XC race bikes etc aren't really the sort of thing it's intended to fund.
If it gets nicked you're still on the hook for it.
If you lose your job, you can expect a bill for the remaining instalments.
Legally, it's not yours to strip/sell until title passes, typically several years after the initial purchase....
Blimey, 24 hours difference and quite a few more replies.
I'm getting old and fancy some gears and discs for my commute to work,
hence the question. So I think that maybe a London Road is on the books. . .
I'd say yes - if you think of it more as 0% finance over 13 months (taking into account the final payment) then its worth it.
Having purchased both a Planet X pro carbon and a 29er HT over the last 3 years it worked well for me.