Crash Insurance

[harveymt]

I've just taken delivery of my shiny new bike and want to insure it. My old bike was covered under my home insurance personal possessions. Some policies covered bikes up to a certain amount and others required all bikes to be named items. It was only worth a couple of hundred so I wasn't that bothered about crash insurance just if it got stolen.

The new one is a carbon frame racing machine and I'll be beating KOMs in no time but as well it being stolen I want to make sure I'm covered in case I total it.

My home insurance is due for renewal now anyway so I'd like to know if home insurance policies where the bike is a named item usually cover accidental damage (I know from the comparison sites accidental damage can be added) or if they only cover theft/third party? Or is every policy different?

I did have a quick look at specific bike insurance and it comes out around £100 for the year. Is there any benefit to a stand-a-lone policy over a named item on home insurance?

 

[Danny B]

My stand-a-lone bike insurance also covers me for third party claims which was not covered in my house insurance, So if I cause an accident I am covered as well.

 

[vickster]

You'd need to ask your home insurers if you would be covered if you are at fault for breaking the bike. I'm with the AA who have decent policies for bike cover. I only have to specifically name bikes over £1500. Others covered. I have accidental damage cover but not sure bikes included.

Someone else being at fault is obviously covered by other means potentially. Have a look at Wiggle and British cycling policies for bike only stuff

Look at Ts & Cs, excesses, reviews for bike specific especially, they seem notorious for wriggling out of claims


Presumably you'll be racing (Koms don't count) so look what cover you need for that

Oh and there's an insurance sticky in general
https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/insurance-and-cycling.118438/

 

[harveymt]

The only place I'll be racing is in my own head!

Every insurer seems different. The top two results in one comparison were Halifax and Legal & General. Halifax had a specific pedal cycle add-on that seems to get added automatically as long as you put a bike as a named item. I think the single bike limit was £3,000. Legal & General covered bikes in general up to £500 though anything over that had to be specified. They covered bikes up to £2,000.

You need to go into the policy documents to get the specific wording. Slow day tomorrow at work (hooray!) so I'll phone a couple to make sure and report back.

 

[vickster]

I don't think the AA have an upper limit over £1500. Just no need to name under. Which is useful if you have several costly bikes