Seems like we can get 42 percent off a superbike...how come this isn't bigger news or am I missing something
Nobody will really save 42%... It's just another company offering c2w, not really that big a deal TBH.
And in my opinion it's a company I've never heard of and certainly not one that my employer (largish international company) are likely to sign up to. Shame as I have my eye on a new canyon road bike
Well my company will sign up to whomever I tell them so that's no issue.
@cookeaa - except that it appears you can buy a bike for more than a grand and still save. Surely that is a big deal?
Nobody will really save 42%… It’s just another company offering c2w, not really that big a deal TBH.
There's no cost limit. Spreading payment and saving £1600, say, on an expensive bike is obviously significant.
swdan is right, though, that they need to build credibility if it's to be any use - I asked about them at my work (large employer) and it was blank faces all round. No HR person is going to put one kcal of energy into setting something like that up when there's already a functional C2W scheme in place - even if it's just a case of pressing enter three times on their keyboard.
Someone large, like the NHS say, taking them on would put them over the top.
If you’re the employee of a company, your HR department will need to sign up to the GCI scheme, or they can sign off the voucher and let you go on with the process as an individual, as long as they agree.
Looks like you don't actually need your company to sign up to the scheme if you want to do it yourself. Sounds good to me - in fact, this is probably how I'll buy my next mountain bike in a couple of years.
One of my colleagues has just bought a £3500 Giant Fathom E+ 1 Pro on the Green Commute Initiative, was all very easy and I think it's ended up costing him around £2400 with the tax and NI savings as a lower rate income tax payer
Looks like you don’t actually need your company to sign up to the scheme if you want to do it yourself.
I agree that's good if your employer doesn't already have a scheme in place but I can't see my HR department going for this when we already have an agreement with one of the large schemes. That's might just be my employer though.
Bought my Defy Advanced SL on our C2W with a 3k limit and £500 top up. Left it five years to reduce the residual value to nil. Somehow I think it’s worth a bit more than nil, but now sports a Dura Ace groupset and carbon wheels!
Might go Brompton S2LX next time.
That looks tempting. My problem with C2W is my salary varies from month to month so being able to limit it to 3 months would be more manageable if I could time it to a big project. I.e. I could afford 3x £600 but not 12x £150.
As has been said above no way that any large company with an established bike to work scheme is going to sign up to that (although it certainly doesn't hurt to ask)
If mine did I'd be snapping their arm off. 42% off interest free on canyon bikes would open up all kinds of ludicrous super bike possibilities.
Nobody will really save 42%… It’s just another company offering c2w, not really that big a deal TBH.
Can you explain why you think this. A normal C2W gives 32% savings for a basic rate tax payer, 42% for higher rate. This is income tax plus NI, because the scheme is run as a salary sacrifice. None of the main providers take a final payment, so the full savings are normally there for the employee. (Unless the employer finances the scheme through a third party.) Sometimes the savings are even greater because the provider offers a discount to the employer.
On reflection, I'm actually thinking of writing to my employer asking if this can be an option.
Need to have a think about the best approach, emphasising the benefits to the employer, the limitations of the current halfords scheme, and the minimal impact on the companies time.
Someone at work flagged this up the other day.
The bit I didn’t like the look of was that it seems to be 5, if not 6, years before you own the bike - how many people will keep an expensive bike for that long, and what’s the legal position if you sell it before the “free hire” period ends?
Nobody will really save 42%…
Why not ?
Someone at work flagged this up the other day.
The bit I didn’t like the look of was that it seems to be 5, if not 6, years before you own the bike – how many people will keep an expensive bike for that long, and what’s the legal position if you sell it before the “free hire” period ends?
That's any C2W scheme, though - it's currently 4 years before you own the bike with existing 1K schemes. So basically it's not something to use for experimental purchases - obv you can't legally sell the bike before the 4 yr term is up, although once it's paid after 1 yr, and you've paid the final hire fee, then no one is massively arsed about checking up. Attitudes might be different if the bike cost 5 grand.
The final hire payment does drop the saving down a few percent. I've used cyclescheme at our place and it's usually around 70 quid on a 1K bike. I forget the exact terminology of it - it's a necessary mechanism to separate the C2W scheme from hire-purchase IIRC.
Final payment on GCI is £1
So won’t change the % saving much 👍
