[Closed] Bke Insurance alternatives to M&S

+1 please, an extra £300 on my house insurance begs the same question, and I'm getting concious of the amount of looks in the street I get as I ride off from home on various Carbon/Ti machines....

Seems to me there are options up to £2.5k bikes but beyond that you need specialist cover which costs a lot more. I decided to cover mine to £2.5k and take the risk on the additional value. Barclays said this was OK.

My M&S policy has changed from any item up to 4K home and away to unsecified pedal cycles £2k.

I'll play along for now head down to LBS and get an inventory done and see how much adding my two bikes impacts the already higher than average renewal price.

I've been told that specialist insurance runs at about 10% of the value of your bikes. Thats double my car insurance for the same period!

I've never claimed insurance of any sort in the past.

The alternative I guees is putting some money into a Bike fund and hoping the don't get stolen (using appropriate preventative measures) - then if they do, use the bike fund as part of the money to replace them.

sheilas wheels is the way forward!

I've been told that specialist insurance runs at about 10% of the value of your bikes.

I suspect at that point, with 3 bikes in my garage worth more than £2k I'll just end up not insuring them. That or going with the Barclays option mentioned above if that will cover a more expensive bike for £2.5k value.

Though what's the situation with values and "new for old" cover? One of my bikes cost ~£3k to build 15 years ago - would doubtless cost far more than that to build something equivalent now, but realistically I'd probably not even get £1k for it if I sold it (the real value in a way now is rarity - effectively it's totally irreplacable). Could I just have that covered as being worth less than £2k, or do I need to cover either the original or the replacement cost?

I'm also taking the (niaive?) view that I'm in the upper echelon's of bike content now, and if they got nicked I'd probably just make do with a internet "special" (ie on offer Trance / EX8 / etc) and not replace what is essentially 8k's worth of bikes.

supertacky - what did they say about custom build? did they tell you to get a receipt/quote for replacement from the lbs? and that would suffice as to the value of your custom build?

also supertacky - out of interest roughly how much has your policy gone up this year? just wondering if they are trying to get all old customers off the old terms now but stiffling the renewal prices/2k limit?

Sheilas Wheels require specification on bikes beyond £500 in value so Dont see the advantage? Can you expain? Or have I just wasted 10mins of my time reading the policy booklet?

OW
I mentioned the custom nature of the bikes. She only wanted a manufacturer/model/ age and value.
However , In the past I've been surprised at how easily the Value increases beyond initial guestimates. 😀
My LBS offer a service to do an inventory and record on headed letter incase of insurance claims later on. I just thought it would be prudent given that I suspect that if I had under valued my bikes in any way they may wriggle out of a claim on a specified item.

OW
My renewal price has increased marginally (less than 3%) but thats on the new (useless) policy. With the addition of my bikes its increased a further 20%, but thats me giving them an off the cuff value that I've yet to have confirmed.

GOD this really takes the fun out of biking!!!!

Nobby - Member

Just had a good look around as M&S had put ours up and then wanted a load more for specifying bikes over the £2k.

Of all the quotes I looked at the one from Allianz/Yourinsurancecover.co.uk came out £240 cheaper - I need to lock the bikes with sold secure approved locks but do that anyway so a no-brainier for me. Will call M&S again Monday just to see if they're prepared to do owt.

Posted 1 day ago #

M&S wanted another £60+ to add 1 £4k bike! Just lapsed it & moved to save £300 🙂

cheers supertacky - so they will accept a quote/inventory with RRP prices then i take it? thats how to prove your custom build?

also have you done a quote online for m&s instead? may work out cheaper if you name them on the web quote and drop down from premier cover to standard with a bit extra excess?

i can get my yearly price about the same just doing a fresh quote and fully covering the bike at RRP - however i'd have to drop to standard cover instead of premier that were currently on

£60+ to add 1 £4k bike!

I did notice that in Sept last year, it wasn't worth cancelling/buying again online as it was the previous year.

OW hats a good shout. The auto renewal process can sometimes be bettered by lapsing and then reapplying.

I'll try that later.

Nobby.

I'm nearly at the stage your at. Saving a couple of hundered quid and going for standard Buildings and contents and then just being super carefull. TBH My bikes are never out of my sight and when in my garage are locked to the concrete floor.

M&S wanted another £60+ to add 1 £4k bike!

That's nowhere near as much as I was expecting, and not all that bad to be honest (I'm seriously doubting you can do better than 1.5% of value).

I might be being a bit thick here. No claims, no address changes, no policy changes - when i get my automatic renewal will they have changed my policy. It is due any time soon! Regards John

M&S wanted another £60+ to add 1 £4k bike!

That's nowhere near as much as I was expecting, and not all that bad to be honest (I'm seriously doubting you can do better than 1.5% of value).

I think the point he's making is that M&S arent exactly cheap in the first place.
We've all been paying much higher premiums already due to our adiction to shiney new bikes. Its £60 + the extra that its costs already to go with M&S which in my case is at least £150

Orangejohn - Yes!

Policy has changed for existing old policy members.

Where as old policy members had new for old home and away up to 4K we now have-

up to 2K on pedal bikes after that its secified items which attract extra premuim.

I think the point he's making is that M&S arent exactly cheap in the first place.

They're not so bad for me, so if that is the premium for a >£2k bike I'll probably stick with them come renewal time (it's less than the rate I was paying when specifying anything over £500 before moving to M&S).

Sorry, I should clarify. The £60+ was for the value in excess of £2k i.e. £2k and it was the best they could do knowing there was a better deal on the table.

@ supertacky - I've not gone for 'standard' cover but the best they offer plus a few of their add-ons. As a comparison, their (Allianz) cost to add full cover (at home & away) for the bikes exceeding the standard £1k limit (£5,200) was £65 - the actual premium for the rest of it was way better albeit I don't have the "unlimited" buildings & contents cover M&S gave.

Sheila and her bloomin' wheels won't let you add more than five specified items without phoning them up.

Can't be bothered at the moment...

Are you sure about the changes in the T&Cs for renewals? I renewed my M&S policy in the 2nd half of last year & called them up to ask specifically about changes in policy on unspecified items (inc bikes) up to £4k & was assured that for renewals the policy would remain the same...

It sounds like at your next renewal, they may change everything peachos. Hopefully there'll be some good recommendations before I get mine (late Aug)

Thanks to whoever recommended Yourinsurancecover , £80 less(£200) on the main contents+building insurance than directline, and unlimited on the bike while in the home.

double post

Just discover my policy (LV) cover's bikes up to £1500ea. Cycleguard is £75 a month 😯

I'll call LV tomorrow (when working from home) to see what the increase would be to cover mines specifically.

Hmmm So LV will cover max £2500 (in total) if things are stolen from my workshop.

However if my bikes were inside the main house, they would be insured for up to 5k EACH!!

I think I'll live with that and chain them up in the kitchen during holidays 🙂

As the Mrs is on Paternity and at home a lot I'll await my next renewal (April) to see if I can get a better deal on the outhouse contents

Edit: it was £500 to add 6k of specific bikes btw.

Royal Sun Alliance (RSA) has no single item limit for bikes. A £10K total from an outbuilding, and unlimited from within the house (or adjoining garage with access door). I have not tested their away from home coverage. Insurance was not cheap, however.

I may try RSA in April.... 🙂

Try the co-operative insurance. Bikes less than £1000 are insured and I had to name a couple of my nice bikes that were worth <£2k. Premium for me was about £350.

Royal Sun Alliance (RSA) has no single item limit for bikes. A £10K total from an outbuilding, and unlimited from within the house (or adjoining garage with access door).

Our garage has door into main house, so sounds promising.

More-than cover ipb also underwritten by RSA
They just quoted me £355 for 2 specified £3k bikes or £568 with away from home cover comparable to old M&S policy cover
My M&S renewal was £632 (or £842 if taken as a new policy) so significantly cheaper

iain1775 - So the rest of the buildings/contents insurance was comparable to M&S?

"Our garage has door into main house, so sounds promising. "

Mines will if needs be.....

Just so you know, my renewal policy increased by £100 when I rang up to inform them of 1 bike over £2k just now.

Last year £750
Renewal quote £800
+ bike £900

Monthly payments of buildings and contents (inc away from home) of £75.

AlexSimon - Member
iain1775 - So the rest of the buildings/contents insurance was comparable to M&S

I'm with direct line - if your bike gets stolen from home (including from shed/outbuilding/garage) it is just included as contents and is covered, regardless of value, and does not need to be specified. Bike has to be locked up though.

This would be the only place my bike would get nicked - if it aint at home, i'm on it.

I've gone with the Co-op this time too - you specify bikes over £1k, and pay extra for those, but still seems cheap. They don't appear to specify any particular types of locks either, just that when away from home, bikes have to be locked to a fixed object.

Would anyone recommend places like protect my bubble? I don't need home insurance as I'm still living under the parents roof, On protect my bubble I've specified a custom bike *not yet asked for invetory* And set the value on the scale between £1200-£1800 and they are asking for £120 a year, I find that resonable? That's on there "adventure" cover. Has anybody ever done insurance through sites like this?

Oh, and Hello (First post, although I've been lurking the site for months 🙂 )

After reading this thread I have just binned them, I went from £430 to £220 for comparable insurance (bike up to £2000, 2010 Orange 5 would not be worth any more anyway and insured outside the home) so Happy days.

Willber, have Direct Line changed then?
They used to have a £500 bike limit and needed to specify and pay extra for higher value bikes.

FM, who are you with now?

Churchill done online but they will not go above £2000 for a bike and standard for outbuildings is £2000 (total) but I phoned to check bike would still be insured if in outbuilding and they raised my outbuildings limit to £5000 FOC.

im with sheilas wheels

have to specify bike over £500,, no probs, covered in house, in shed, and out and about

Looking for insurance for my 5 as my contents only goes up to 2.5K. Cycleguard have a discount if your a British Cycling member. Has anyone tried this? How much do you get off?

After spending hours trying to find insurance I've gone with LV. We have a Ventana El Conq full sus tandem and if we didn't want to pay £75 a month it would have to be uninsured. Thankfully LV will cover 7 bikes including the tandem, contents insurance with accidental damage - and all for just £25 a month. Bargain! (This is approx £300 a year, and 4 bikes over £1500 in value).

Schmiken, can you give my some detail of what you discussed - I'm with LV and couldn't get that deal for 3 bikes circa £6k. They wanted £532 per year. Could it be location perhaps - I am in London.

I've an email address in my profile if you rather not post it.

That's fine, we're in a quiet part of Loughborough so it's probably more to do with location than anything else. It was four bikes listed as above the £1500 limit and we're also renting - so not building insurance as well.

Not reading all that sh**e, but for me, Green Insurance have been magical as far as quotes go.

1 x £3500 bike
1 x £5000 bike
1 x £2500 bike

Insured at home and away, agreed value.

£28/month, and that includes the normal £75k house contents plus some named reasonably pricey extra things.

Disclaimer: not a willy waving contest, because there are plenty of folk out there with drastically more expensive stuff than I own, but it gives a better idea of premium/value over someone who has 3 Halfords Apollos insured for £30/year and lords it up over the CycleGuard plebs.

EDIT: And I don't live on some sparsely populated island either, should you think the premium is falsely low. I'm fairly central Edinburgh.

For info.

m and s: £750.
A plan broker: £680
nfu: 344.11
yourcoverinsurance: £270.

Home and buildings with 2 specified high value bikes. Some of the companies wouldn't let me change excess or get rid of some of the bits I didn't want.

Mine is due for renewal in a couple of months.

Will look at comparisons also but you need to compare like for like as in 'New for old'.
Some/a lot of companies are wear and tear on bikes so you need to factor than in to the equations as well.

My M&S renewal letter came today, so timely thread revival, chaps!

Slightly off topic but help if you need it:

None of the insurance companies people have quoted above will insure you if you've had more than 1 claim in the last 5 years (some 10 years). We had the car broken into and my wife had her hand bag dipped (2 and 3 years ago now), both away from home. Esure and Morethan both paid out but neither of them nor the other companies mentioned above will now insure us (or my bikes) because they are all classed as 'low risk' companies in which investors can make a quick return.

If anyone wants a good all singing all dancing insurance policy and is in a similar situation with past claims then Glen Insurance in London brokered a great deal for us. Doesn't sound so great at a cost of £700 but compared to quotes of £1500 off the few regular names that were prepared to quote they certainly helped, and by all accounts I am now covered for my fridge content if I take that out with me !

(As Mrs Excitable said last night though, we could have bought a new camera, iPod and sunglasses without claiming off the policy and we would still be better off in the pocket by the time we have finished paying the extra for the special policy - what a sh1tty world we live in)

Apologies excitable as it's easy to be wise after the event, but you do make the good point that it's not worth claiming for less than £500 or so (or maybe even for less than £1000). Our only ever claim on the household policy was for a bike frame I bust, which was at least more than that (I got more than I'd paid for it secondhand!)

After spending hours trying to find insurance I've gone with LV

You're specifying expensive bikes? I just checked them as my car insurance is with them (and I get a discount through an organisation I'm in) and they say to call them for bikes worth more than £2000.

I'm going to have to make some decisions on what I think my bikes are worth I guess - with a £4000 limit I didn't really have to think about it.

I'm rather confused re LV and how schmiken has managed to get his insurance so cheap. I was quoted £1200 by them for 2 @ £4K plus 3 others! All excluding buildings insurance I might add.

What I couldn't get them to understand was my questions about values if anything got stolen. They couldn't understand the concept of buying a frame on its own and speccing components but I then complicated the matter by saying that I did tend to upgrade various components over time.

It seemed to be that they would place a value on the age and it sounded as though I could potentially end up with not a lot of money. One then questions what's the point of insurance!

So it was back to M & S and their doubling of my premium but feel happy that they offer full replacement value.

Sorry if it's added to the confusion. 😳

Does anyone know how insurance companies view components/

I have 7 'built' bikes many more in storage in bits so technically not a bike just a collection of parts.

Just got my renewal so time to start looking 😥

Green insurance - the only company that would give the total value cover I needed.

GB

Green insurance - the only company that would give the total value cover I needed.

Hmm, work out a bit price-ily for me.
I think I'll end up largely investing in more locks and things.

As mentioned above. Not sure every ones comparisons are like for like.

I looked at Sheila's, LV etc. loads of exclusions in the small print and not New for Old iirc.
Ended up taking the M&S renewal (though I did refine/improve the quote by logging on TG the M&S website and refining the excess etc).
£4.8k bike and other non specific bikes added ~£70 to my annual premium.

Great cover from M&S IMO and importantly less small print & New for Old confidence

What are people's experiences with self built 'frame and parts' builds - especially with the odd second hand fork or RD etc in there? Just tot the receipts up and check the Insurer is happy with this?

...and if you maybe don't have all the receipts?

Lots of photos recommended? (obviously in addition to a list of any serial numbers present)

Finally, older s/h bikes. Let's say a couple of years old bike in sound condition but not new to me that would cost a few thousand pounds new. As a car, I'd expect to insure the replacement value of *my* bike - is this the same?

Sorry... just confused. The bike collection is growing and I'm starting to think I should cover it...

Nationwide worth a look too, got a quote from my local branch. £223 premium for bikes upto £5000

I'm rather confused re LV and how schmiken has managed to get his insurance so cheap.

Agreed - I only got as far as an online quote, but even with my supposed discount, by the time I'd added away from home cover for 3 £2000 bikes it was already more than my M&S renewal, and still with less effective cover given I've got 4 bikes worth that or more.

^^^ this ^^^

Vinc lots of photos / videos and something from the friendly LBS if they're in the mood (mine weren't the last time I asked, even though I offered to pay proper workshop rates)

grtdkad - Member

Vinc lots of photos / videos and something from the friendly LBS if they're in the mood (mine weren't the last time I asked, even though I offered to pay proper workshop rates)

Ta. Kind of like getting a jeweller to say what rings and stuff are worth... makes sense.

Thankees and apologies for slight thread-jack 🙂

Nationwide seems like it might be the one, no need to specify up for bikes up to £2k, if I'm reading the T&Cs right.

For stock bikes with a few extras, take a picture and document. For fully custom take a picture, then when you need to make a claim, get a reputable bike shop to provide a replacement quotation on a like for like basis.

Just be sure to have a good picture. For us, no receipts were necessary at any stage on our new for old policy,