Insurance

[mutterbird]

I have a question about bicycle insurance..... does anyone have anyone they recomend?
I don't know whether to go down the home contents insurance route or the specialist bike route?
My bike is worth over £1000 so I have been told it may not be covered by home contents. Does anyone know if this is true?
Thanks!

 

[Blue]

Home contents policies may or may not cover bikes. If the cover is there the limit will vary from around £500 up to £4000. You will have to check your policy. If the cover is there, but the limit low, you may be able to have the limit adjusted to suit your personal requirements for a small additional premium - that's what I did as my policy had a limit of £800.

On many home policies the security requirements may be minimal - lock when unattended outside the home but with no specification about the quality of the lock. However, this may vary between insurers and depending on the value of the bike - again a matter to check by reading your policy.

A typical home contents policy will also cover liability arising out of the use of the bike (ie where you cause an accident). However, racing and Time Trials etc., will usually be excluded.

The policy just has to be studied, I'm afraid!!

Hope this helps.

 

[Willow]

you used to be able to add bike in valuables!

 

[porridge]

Was looking at this myself, looked at cycleguard and they specify that the cycle should be kept indoors at night, not bringing my bike in at night so I left it.

 

[HLaB]

I'm using M&S home insurance at the mo it seemed to recommended on this forum when I was looking. Ive took their option of £4,000 cover outside the home, you don't have to specify what the £4k is. Touch wood I've never had to claim on it and find out how good it really is.

 

[mutterbird]

Thanks, good to know about Cycleguard, mine isn't kept indoors at night either!

 

[gkilner]

I checked lots of home insurance policies, and found that Endsleigh were very good, it cost about an extra £18 on top of my home insurance to add my bike. The only thing it specifies is that it must be locked to something that is fixed - if outside.

I did it online, you just enter the bike make, name and value.

 

[snorri]

http://www.cyclecover.org.uk/

 

[Nerazzurri]

http://www.cyclecover.org.uk/

Do you use this company yourself Snorri? If you do, have you had any experience of claiming from them?

Anybody have experience of Cycleguard?

 

[byegad]

I found when researching specialist cover that the typical premium is 10% of the value.
As we owned £7000 worth of bikes at the time I didn't go ahead. The most expensive bikes were around £1900 and I thought I was likely to lose a bike less often than every three years so didn't go ahead.
I have then covered on the house insurance (Abbey) and the total cost is around £150/annum. I'm pretty sure the cover isn't as good but if I only get 50% of the value of a lost bike I'll be happy to pay the rest out of the money I've saved.

 

[snorri]

Do you use this company yourself Snorri? If you do, have you had any experience of claiming from them?

I believe I am covered through my CTC membership, but have never read the small print or had a claim.

 

[doyler78]

I believe I am covered through my CTC membership, but have never read the small print or had a claim.

Not unless you took out seperate cover with cycleguard as my ctc membership does not cover me for theft. What you get is free 3rd party insurance which protects you against claims for accidents for which you have been involved in. It does not cover you or your bike.

Unless of course there is some category of membership of which I am not aware.

 

[mutterbird]

I am going to look into our home contents insurance with Halifax tomorrow, and if no joy there, will look into a spec cyclist one. Thanks for all the advice.

 

[HLaB]

I am going to look into our home contents insurance with Halifax tomorrow, and if no joy there, will look into a spec cyclist one. Thanks for all the advice.

BTW Halifax-BOS were trying to sell me home insurance last year and when I said they probably don't cover bikes over £1k, they said they did. I've never looked into it though.

 

[snorri]

It does not cover you or your bike.

Thanks doyler.

I did say I had not read the small print.