Rickon
Was previously just relying on getting £4k per bike max.
New quote was for £10k of bikes in total.
Will have to ring them to check if i fall into this renewal at existing terms category or not. I always used to do the cancel and renew trick to get the best deal.
Slight hi-jack: I've got M&S insurance and just been sent a renewal notice, next year's premium is £1350!!!! This seems rather high, this year was £1200 but I didn't get my arse in gear to change over. Problem is we've made two claims in the last 5 years (storm damage to roof and a burglary) and I think they've got me by the short and curlies!
I've got a large 4 bed semi in a decent postcode, how much do you guys pay in comparison? Am I being completely shafted?
Will any other insurers want my business at a reasonable price?
Barclays was my cheapest - bikes up to £2.5k
Rubbish, looks like as we've had a theft when we renew it'll be for named bikes now then. I think it'll have to be a call on which bikes to insure, and calculating what I can replace for £1k at trade or second-hand.
I think the driver for all of this is the apparent increase in bike thefts over the past couple of years, exacerbated by an increased market and over-egged pricing for new bikes.
I'm sure a couple of Rottweilers would be less than £600 over the year 
MUDSHARK: Is that as many bikes as you like for up to £2.5k?
headfirst - I had a 25%+ hike from M&S last year. When I tried to get them to reduce it they knocked £50 off. Oh how I laughed! Switched to Hiscox - cover not quite as good away from home, but a few hundred quid cheaper for me. NFU were always in the ball park on quotes, but the faff of listing all the bikes meant I always stayed with M&S. Hiscox renewal quote was OK, so I just stayed with them again. Next time I'll probably get the local NFU guy to do another quote for me as well.
My M&s renewal was fairly astronomical so I tried again on the website which meant naming all bikes over a grand [3] and this was cheaper but only £50.
After a really boring afternoon on the computer the best I came up with were Direct Line! I still had to name the bikes but the premium was half M&S. I also asked about whether the value Ihad to state was what they cost or what they would cost to replace and was told it would be original cost. I did point out that prices had risen and it could cost hundreds per bike more to replace to the same standard but they insisted it would be like for like, new for old. Oh and we had a small claim a few yeas ago not bike related and that didn't make much diference to the premium
headfirst - our premiums are around £1200 (next renewal is Feb).
we had 4 claims between 2007 - 2009 so we lost the no claims on the contents insurance, and we can't even get a quote from another insurer until it's down to 2 in the last 5 years... (2 of those claims were small so we'd have not claimed if we'd been aware of this problem!)
fingers crossed that the £4k claim still applies on renewal...
cheers for replies, we have got 2 yrs of no-claims, will have a sniff about, the cars are insured with direct line so might try them...but I reckon they won't be interested. Hiscox sounds interesting.
There is an Endsleigh insurance broker near us, thought I might go and see what they can do, anyone any experience of them?
John Lewis allow 2 claims in the last 5 years (subject to the amount) - unfortunately that still ties us into M&S for another 2 years!
Let us know how you go headfirst.
I'm sitting here waiting for my M&S renewal to hit the doormat. For the last couple of years their attempts at new premiums have been ridiculous, but I've managed to knock them down/ reduce cover to something I can live with.. When I had a shop around for alternatives last year the whole 'having to price bikes individually thing' with other insurers (tried Co-op and NFU IIRC) really rocketed premiums so I ended up sticking with M&S again inspite of the price hike. Argh... honestly, there is clearly a gap in the market here for someone to exploit... given that M&S appear to have decided that all these claims don't made it worth their while retaining the bike owning market.
Not sure about other insurers mentioned but an advantage of the M&S policies were the home/away cover - and not just on bikes. My wife has horses, and all her gear is covered too - and with saddles +£1k...
Mine is due late Jan, so lets hope we are fine.
If you want to stay with M&S then just renew on their website and let the other go expire, saves you money and no arguing needed over the phone.
As Drac says - don't wait for the renewal. I called mine up- it had gone up and on a new customer form it was waaaay lower. So I said what I was going to do 'fine they said' and the new customer offer also included a new bolt on feature for free to boot. So they agreed (recorded call) I'd be ok to go through the process as a new customer. £120 a year 
oscillate, my renewal is due on 15th
My monthly cost has climbed from 25 to £31 in a couple years but with 3 decent bikes (and assuming it were to be sorted out ok) then I still feel I'm better off paying a lot for M and S.
Car insurance has rocketed recently. I struggled to get less than £600 on my 57 plate Transit (given, it's a van) with my missus as first driver with 15 years no claims and no accidents or tickets.
Hmm - my renewal is due soon, and online quotes are actually pretty similar to last year like for like, and selecting a newer car worth ~£10k only adds on ~£50, taking it to £250. One speeding ticket, but otherwise clean and over 40 - crucially I also live in one of the lowest insurance risk areas in the country.
Yes I know it's OT - but just to point out that insuring a £10k car can be done for a lot less than £600 (though our current house insurance is also a lot less than others are quoting, so hopefully we won't be hit by high new premiums when we renew - I have several bikes over £2.5k, so having to name them might be costly).
Yes I know it's OT - but just to point out that insuring a £10k car can be done for a lot less than £600
And about the same cost as third party on a moped for my teenager son...
William Hill
Bummer. I've been with M&S for about 6 years, and have re-registered as a new customer each year 'cos it saves about £100 over automatically renewing. Looks like bike cover is going to be spendy this year...
To be fair, m and s have been excellent in my recent claim; they paid out full value of a new bike on the basis of a picture and a list of parts, virtually the full 4k limit even though I had no receipt and I told them it was mostly second hand.
Possibly a silly question but is the insurance value per bike or per claim?
Errrm, if you're old enough, Saga contents insurance can include named bikes for not a lot extra.
Value is per item, ie. per camera, per bike, per watch etc.
cost of mine with m & s is £284 renewal with 6 years NCD. I need to call them though re cover level
Lady Gresley - thanks - Saga looks good - specified three high value bikes and still came out less than M&S. Now to read the terms in detail. Someone in the family is eligible...
Natwest have a very good level of cover. Unlimited £ on bikes.
Plus accidental damage and away from home cover.
Costs us £15 per month (contents only). That was because they offer to price match though, normal price would have been nearer £30 per month.
Unfortunately being a 'new customer' isn't an option for us with M&S. When they changed underwriter a few years back they decided we lived in a flood risk area ... we don't ... and would only continue to insure us as we were an existing customer. So, will see what comes in and if it's stupid money, then the hunt is on!
Thread bookmarked, m&s renewal due late jan
On car insurance - £10k car, £420 fully comp, business use for myself and wife, 6 years no claims, 3 points, includes hire car if mine off road, that's cheaper than last year
the renewal with admiral was £650, as a new customer I got it down to £510 but got cheaper still elsewhere
I took out a new policy with M&S last week and I was told they still had the 4K cover - I better have a good read of the paperwork when it arrives just to make sure.
renewed my policy on the 4th Dec and still had 4k limit and no mention on restriction for bikes.looks like i did it just in time..............
Eeeek just done another quote listing 12 grands worth of bike and the quote is £764 compared to £231 that i have just paid...ouch
Hmm. My renewal quote was higher than last year (~£350 this year) but everyone else was significantly more expensive for the same level of cover.
Spoke to them on the phone and they suggested increasing my excess from £zero to £100, which took the premium (for the same cover as last year) down to ~£250.
Hope this helps someone!
I've just paid Swinton £45 for up to £6000 cover on "unspecified items" (bikes) added to our household and buildings cover, which is only £270 a year.
A quick question to anyone who's had a claim with M&S,
Do they insure against the new value of the bike only? OR with the limit of 1k they would they throw out a claim of 1k against a bike that is worth more, even though i'd be happy for that as the limit?
I guess a bike that's worht more is more attractive to thieves and therefore a higher risk?
Or would they consider the value as 1k and they take depreciation against it?
The bikes i'd want covering have a second hand value of over a 1k but worst case if they paid out the 1k-excess then it wouldn't be too painfull for me to find them again SH and stump up the difference.
Considering what I think the risk is i'd effectvely self insure the difference for less than the premium hike to their cover to the true value.
Update: renewal arrived ... with a significant increase on last year ... again [sigh] Phoned to check the £4k bike issue and we are still covered. Managed to lower the premium a bit by increasing the voluntary excess again... so given the 'value' of this cover for our bikes at home and away from home, I will probably swallow the increase for this year. Wouldn't it be novel if this trajectory changed, life is just getting too expensive all round ... 
*THREAD RESURRECTION*
Let us know how you go headfirst.
Well, I've finally got my arse in gear. Hiscox wanted details on claims over the last 5 years and as I've had three they've kicked me in to touch. Swinton (who are brokers) are only interested in the last three years and I've only got one claim in that time frame. As a result I've got an online quote of £36 p.m with Legal and General (£2.5k limit per item contents away from home), somewhat less than the £113 p.m that M & S want to charge me from 6th Jan! It seems too good to be true, so I'm going to go to my local Swinton branch tomorrow morning to check it out - whether that 2.5k limit applies to bikes too.
Stand by your beds, I'll keep you posted.
£500 limit on bikes in small print... will still pay swinton a visit and see if they can do for me what they did for globalti (a few posts above)
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