We normally use Evans but am trying to persuade my company to let me get a bike from Planet X. I’ve spoken to Planet X and it seems easy enough to do – is it? From the way it operates it seems to be no different from buying a bike anywhere and all the work for claiming back is just done by the employer. So why do the various reatailer schemes exist then?

I would from On-One through CycleScheme and it went without a hitch (apart from the fact the bike was sent out with a couple of “wrong” parts on).

We set up our own cycle to work scheme which means we can go to any cycle retailer and purchase direct. The third party facilitators such as Cyclescheme etc take a commision off the retailer meaning you usually have to buy at full list price.
It’s simple to set up and run as all the forms can be found on the internet.