C2W scheme - final payment options

[Paul_L]

Had my final payment invoice come through for my Hybrid i bought last year. The 3 options were; £11.80 to extend the hire agreement by 3 years, £69 to buy the bike from them or to hand it back.

Now i definately wanted to keep the bike and have just paid £11.80 to extend the agreement by 3 years.

Apart from the bike not legally being mine i couldn't for the life of me see what the benefit of paying nearly £60 on top would be.

I've no intention of selling the bike either.

Have i missed something?

 

[gaz]

What was the value of the vouchers you took in the first place?

 

[Paul_L]

Can't remember exactly but summat like £380.

 

[Norm]

This is not "C2W", this is Cyclescheme. C2W does not require these three options, Cyclescam does. The two are very different, C2W is a set of regulations to help employers make it easier to provide commuting bike for their staff by reducing the cost and spreading the payments. Cyclemscheme is a organisation which profits from the regulations to reduce the margins of your bike shops on the purchase, and to tie in staff in a very inflexible set of unnecessary procedures.

The benefit of paying to buy the bike rather than continuing the rental period means that the bike is yours and it means you can take out more bikes under the C2W regs. You cannot have more than two hire bikes at the same time, though, so you would need to buy rather than extend if you were getting a couple more bikes.

If it was £69 to buy, then your bike and accessories should have been £460 (at 15%).

IMO, avoid Cyclescheme where possible, but do use the Cycle to Work regulations to help reduce and spread the cost of a new commuting bike.