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What are the current recommendations? Between us we have 12 or 13 bikes, nothing stupidly expensive but a few in the £1000-£1500 range and one somewhere between £1500-£2000. At the moment I'm on an old M&S policy with a £2k limit per cycle which works nicely for us but it's not cheap.
Trawling through comparison sites to check the policy wording behind each link is too much like work to be fun on a Monday evening...
I ended up with Pedalcover, underwritten by AXA. £13K of bikes covered overall, no silly restrictions, don't need to name the bikes and I've got £7k of worldwide cover too. Unlimited home and contents. Less than half my M&S renewal.
Did you get anywhere with this OP?
Mine is due too, bloomin' minefield!
We just sorted ours out with John Lewis. £25 a month with over 10k of bikes in the garage.
Pedal cover for me too. Not the cheapest but great cover and still a good price.
Pedalcover here as well. Great cover and he's brilliant at going thro the minefield.
Haven't had the quote yet, but Pedalcover just rang me to go through the policy and details - very helpful. Unless outrageous will probably use them.
Just had my John Lewis renewal, I think about £20 more than last year. I reckon I'll ring them but end up sticking with them.
Just switched to John Lewis from the AA who took the wee wee with their renewal price.
Pedalcover £260, was previously with M&S at £650! Have single bikes over 4K too which M&S changed their policy on.
I'm with Pedalcover too, have been for about 10 months now
Still haven't heard any evidence of anyone having made any claims and how they went yet though, which is always the big test
My M&S renewal came in at £220, but may get a Pedal Cover quote to compare.
Is that £220 with bikes added? If it is, that's bloody cheap!
Yep. One at £3k and one at £4k IIRC.
My M&S renewal came in at £560 so have stopped the renewal and am getting a pedalcover quote.
I might have continued had the cycle limit not been capped at £2k and they hadn't upped it by 10% from last year.
With a new £3.5k road bike on the horizon and 2 MTB's in that region separate cover or self insurance plus a few hundred quid on locks and chains may be another option.
Our home insurance is up for renewal next month and covers pedal cycles. Can't remember who it's with as it's all done through a broker but I'll check when I get home tonight.
We have to provide details of any bike worth more than £1000 (make, model &frame number) but I think that's part of the general notification as we have to do that for stuff like jewelry as well (not that my tiara and earrings are worth that much :roll:). I don't think there's an upper limit, well not one that we've reached so it's in the region of £4K or more.
We switched to John Lewis from M+S and almost halved how much we pay.
Hastings Direct got it under £20 pm v happy! "only" 9 bikes though..
Waiting on a quote now from Pedalcover myself (my M&S renewal for £450 arrived last week, no chance I'm paying that for contents insurance in a 1-bed flat with not much valuable stuff outside of a few bikes).
One thing about the Pedalcover t&c I need to check is around locks and security, anyone know if the bikes need to be locked/chained if inside a building/garage? Although I do have a ground anchor and chains they're now a nightmare to get to in my garage and it was a PITA swapping bikes positioning around anyway to get the chains through (and would be impossible with the amount of bikes I now have anyway). I can't see Pedalcover's t&c document on the web page but might be blind?
Also it mentions an affiliated club code for a discount, any idea how to get your club affiliated? If it's cheap I might do that (I've asked them the question but figured might get a quicker answer here...)
Affiliated to whom?
Most road clubs will be affiliated to British Cycling who have a set of requirements: club kit; specified meeting times for rides; etc.
I read it as you get your own cycle club affiliated with Pedalcover and that gets you a club-specific discount code for members to use when purchasing the insurance policy - I'm guessing there's some sort of fee to get affiliated in the first place though. There was no mention of BC or CTC affiliation
Is that £220 with bikes added? If it is, that's bloody cheap!
Yep. One at £3k and one at £4k IIRC.
😯
I spent ages going round various insurers for buildings and contents. Ended up with NFU because they included more stuff (contents in a car but not just in the boot) and were less restrictive (bikes behind a locked door, but not necessarily locked up) but they still cost the same as everyone else, which were all ~£550-£600. That's with two bikes at £1500 and £3000. I tried all the usual suspects, MoreThan, Direct line, John Lewis, AXA etc etc. They all had restrictions on things that meant they were no good. E.g. an outbuildings limit of £2000 INCLUSIVE of any specified items! So even if I pay the extra to insure the bikes at their full value, if they were stolen from the garage the most I would get would be £2k, even thought I'd potentially have lost £4.5k of bikes plus tools, kit etc. If I locked them up to a lamppost they'd be fully covered, but not when they're locked to a ground anchor behind a double-locked, alarmed door :s
Even the ones that would only cover bikes up to say £1000 (but still charge you a premium based on them being the full value!) were over £500. that includes cover away from home though, and the garage they're locked up in is separate from the house, which might add a bit more. We might not live in Kensington but it's not exactly downtown Beirut either, so I don't know why it's so expensive.
FYI
LV just sent their renewal through.
It reads like im not insured for anything other than the house burning down this year........
Shame - it read good last year , covered for bikes in the garage and my outbuildings to the value specified on the headline policy value IE total contents.
This year - bikes excluded , outbuildings to 2k.
Going to get a pedalcover quote.
If you have more than just bikes, do check out John Lewis Specialist (NOT 'normal').
We have cover for bikes and canoes/kayaks and camping kit etc, for a great premium and superb cover like Pedalcover - he just could not do the canoes/kayaks.
fuzzywuzzy
I think when i spoke to Darren he said they didnt need to be locked up inside a garage
I did question a specific policy wording over and above the standard AXA one and have never received anything, I got it confirmed in an email though and have the emails somewhere in case of any dispute
Update on my Pedalcover quote request...
I had a conversation with Darren last night to discuss my needs and the options he can do.
The quote he sent through later is almost £200 less than the M&S one with far better cover for the bikes. Partly done by whopping up the voluntary excess on the main policy and bundling in an excess policy to cover any excess needed.
So I get all my bikes covered (plus a new road bike if I got one - ahem) at home plus up to £9k worth away from home with no excess should anything happen.
To top it all he seems like a really nice bloke - compared to the usual call centre people (who also usually seem nice to be fair)
Once I have a read through the detail I expect I'll be going via him. He is getting quite a bit of business via this forum.
Pedalcover is ace cover overall. He just could not sort boat cover for canoes and kayaks.
I tried all the usual suspects, MoreThan, Direct line, John Lewis, AXA etc etc. They all had restrictions on things that meant they were no good. E.g. an outbuildings limit of £2000 INCLUSIVE of any specified items! So even if I pay the extra to insure the bikes at their full value, if they were stolen from the garage the most I would get would be £2k, even thought I'd potentially have lost £4.5k of bikes plus tools, kit etc. If I locked them up to a lamppost they'd be fully covered, but not when they're locked to a ground anchor behind a double-locked, alarmed door
Just double check - we spoke to AXA and John Lewis and JL Specialist - all three stated that the extra bike cover was on top of 'shed cover' limits. I have letter from John Lewis Specialist confirming that my canoes, despite being bigger than the stated 15' limit are covered and that all named bikes are covered from outbuildings, plus £2k for other shed contents.
Has anyone made a claim via Pedalcover? I'm on the verge of ditching my M&S cover (£460 quote for contents only renewal just came through), Pedalcover has quoted £170, seems almost too good to be true but I can't find any gotchas/concerns in the T&Cs and both are underwritten by AXA - only slight concern I have left is if they're known to drag their feet on claims (something which M&S had a rep for being hassle-free at although I never had to test it first-hand).
Just changed from John Lewis to pedalcover and saved about £100 while getting a much better policy.
Darren was a pleasure to deal with and he left me with the feeling that he is selling me the most suitable cover rather than trying to con you (as i feel with most insurers).
He has got an excellent knowledge of the available products and how to use them.
Quick bump on this thread to say that after reading it I gave Pedal Cover a call yesterday and couldn't have been more impressed. All bikes covered, buildings and contents better cover than before and all considerably cheaper than what I was paying with Co Op. Which after spending weeks searching around last year was the cheapest I'd found by miles.
Well worth a call.
I also ended up with pedalcover - came in about £200 than m&s.
I spent ages going round various insurers for buildings and contents. Ended up with NFU because they included more stuff (contents in a car but not just in the boot) and were less restrictive (bikes behind a locked door, but not necessarily locked up) but they still cost the same as everyone else, which were all ~£550-£600. That's with two bikes at £1500 and £3000. I tried all the usual suspects, MoreThan, Direct line, John Lewis, AXA etc etc. They all had restrictions on things that meant they were no good. E.g. an outbuildings limit of £2000 INCLUSIVE of any specified items! So even if I pay the extra to insure the bikes at their full value, if they were stolen from the garage the most I would get would be £2k, even thought I'd potentially have lost £4.5k of bikes plus tools, kit etc. If I locked them up to a lamppost they'd be fully covered, but not when they're locked to a ground anchor behind a double-locked, alarmed door
It's not rural Sussex is it though 😉
I'm impressed I must say, it's still one of the old policies from when it was £4k bike limit. I used to work for RSA (More Than, plus underwriter for John Lewis/JL Select) and they won't actually cover me, even for contents only as the postcode is a subsidence risk. Bit stupid really.
Current M&S policies have no single item limit except on a few things (like bikes), so valuables like Mrs Njee20's engagement ring are covered as standard, which is nice.
re-read this after the bump
Has anyone made a claim via Pedalcover?
The policy is underwritten by Axa - the same as M & S so claims processing should be the same.
If you have a bike or, even more so, bikes worth over £2k then it's hard to see past pedalcover.
Got my policy through on Saturday with a stamped addressed envelope to post it back to Darren plus a free waterproof valuables case.
I've just had to claim with M&S, and I have to say it's been absolutely painless. Bikes nicked last weekend, called M&S on Monday to make a claim and I've just finished ordering the replacements with the nice man from Wheelies today.
So it's a big thumbs up from me, for both M&S and Wheelies.
AXA were superb when I needed to claim - 2 weeks from theft to riding new bike, with no forms at all, just a couple of phone calls and images emailed over.
One of the main selling points of going with Pedalcover for me was the fact that Pedalcover sort out the replacement bikes so you dont need to go through the insurers bike shop i.e Wheelies etc.
This way you can get an exact replacement for the bike you have lost.
Well I've gone with Pedalcover too after reading this thread. Great to deal with and 20% less than my renewal quote.
pedalcover here too now.
I'm with PedalCover too! Great policy and good prices (I have travel & holiday insurance with them too due to training & racing abroad).