Viewing 27 posts - 1 through 27 (of 27 total)
  • Cyle to works scheme, paying extra to get a bike over a £1K?
  • matthewmountain
    Free Member

    My employer has finally decided to start the cycle to work scheme as of May. In teh paperwork it has provided in the FAQ it states;-

    Can I pay my own money over £1000 to get a more expensive bike?

    No -the cyclescheme do not allow for a cash contribution from you to top up teh voucher as this may cause shared ownership issues.

    A friedn who works for the NHS has just been in a LBS and they stated that the NHS was very strict in not allowing payments over £1K.

    Is this FAQ a standard response on everybody's cyle to work paperwork? Or am I really going to be limited to £1K and hence leaving me short of my dream machine!!!

    Thanks

    Matthew

    Houns
    Full Member

    You can't add money towards it.

    It's a scheme to get a bike to ride to work on, not a scheme to get you a 'dream machine'

    Drac
    Full Member

    Depends some will do over 1k but not many. I work for nhs and limited to 1k friend works for another trust had no limit. And no they don't seem to allow a cash booster.

    matthewmountain
    Free Member

    I've been to three bike shops today, all of who said paying above the £1K limit can be done to get a more expensive bike. Or are they just trying to sell me something more expnsive to help the cash flow?!

    funkynick
    Full Member

    matthewmountain… they are being a little naughty as they are only supposed to go upto the limit of the voucher that you receive.

    The way the scheme is supposed to work is that the employer buys the bike, you then rent the bike off them for the agreed period. Theoretically, at the end of the period they don't have to let you have the bike, the employer could keep it if they wanted to or sell it, you are not automatically entitled to it. Obviously, the employers aren't likely to do this as they'd end up with a lot of bikes they wouldn't know what to do with!

    There are one other main problems with paying extra, on top of the voucher, and that is by owning part of the bike you are technically changing the agreement from a pure hire agreement, which gets all the tax relief, to a hire-purchase type agreement, which doesn't. So if the HMRC come knocking, you might be in trouble there…

    Also, I think there might be issues with insurance etc, as the bike shop will have to be cheeky with the receipts to comply with the rules, and you'd only be able to claim back upto the £1k if it all goes pear-shaped…

    It is possible to get a voucher over the £1k mark however, but that involves you not using one of the of the peg schemes from Cyclewise, Evans, Halfords etc, and persuading your company to do the paperwork and also apply for a credit license themselves. In that case you can go up to about £3k I believe…

    Ewan
    Free Member

    To have more than £1000 on the scheme your employer would need a credit license I believe. Just ask the bike shop you want to get it from, they'll let you pay the extra separately.

    *Que do-gooders saying that you shouldn't and won't someone think of the children*

    Karinofnine
    Full Member

    My company only does up to £1k and no top up, the scheme is with Evans. Bikes get nicked with depressing regularity from outside the office so I wouldn't want to spend more than that, just in case.

    sc-xc
    Full Member

    I don't see why you would need to spend more than £500 on a bike for getting to work on…let alone a grand.

    matthewmountain
    Free Member

    It seems bike shops who should know the rules are prepared to band them. I asked in a very well known LBS in the lake district about reciepts and they said they provided a receipt of the full price of the bike for insurance purposes. Lets say £2K for arguments sake. They then said the balance of £1K could be paid by cash or card, even if the employer has set the limit at £1K for the scheme. In fact in every bike shop I've asked in, must be a dozen, none of them have said "sorry sir the limits £1K" despite bing shown the paperwork!!

    Curly68
    Free Member

    I got my frame on cycle to work scheme. The bike shop did the quotation for a bike and for £1000 and I paid the extra in cash. It can be done but ask the bike shop first if they would do it.

    amodicumofgnar
    Full Member

    Has anyone ever fallen foul of the not letting you have the bike at the end of the year bit.

    charlierevell
    Free Member

    I did…. but thats a very long story probably not for the forum as I used to work for them!
    Generally disposal of the bikes would be far too much work (and a major concern of those who were setting it up!)

    Legally you cant pay more incase you leave as they dont have to offer you the bike. Its there to look after you.. the employee.
    However if you want to go over Im sure many bike shops will 'help' you!

    grtdkad
    Full Member

    …and people who have come to the end of their C2W term, how much has the final settlement £ been, typically?

    skidsareforkids
    Free Member

    If a retailer is found to be "bending" the rules, they will have their contract with cyclescheme terminated. The amount of business shops do through schemes like this, they would be taking a huge risk!

    Rockhopper
    Free Member

    Thats exactly what my local bike shop (part of a chain) told me.

    johnikgriff
    Free Member

    I've done it both times I've used the scheme, although I know its not supposed to happen the bike shops have been more than happy to take my money, funny that 🙂

    alexxx
    Free Member

    What's the deal on the site saying top up to a value above 1k for a set fee? And is that 3k max what I pay or the rrp? Thx

    allthepies
    Free Member

    cyclescheme final payment to gain outright ownership was 5% + VAT of the original pre-tax saving price of the bike for me a couple of yrs ago.

    grtdkad
    Full Member

    Thanks AtP, so worst case is £50+vat on a £1k bike…

    alexxx
    Free Member

    If the employer wants to supply bikes costing over £1000 (retail price including VAT) they will need to purchase an individual Consumer Credit Licence

    What does that mean, has anyone done it, what are the implications or costs?

    grtdkad
    Full Member

    FWIW my LBS turned me down on a frame and £ top-up request too.

    convert
    Full Member

    Friend is on 10% original value final settlement.

    I used to be very anti people taking the piss with this scheme and using it for something it should not be there for – ie having your toys subsidised by the tax payer; that will be the rest of us! I can't be arsed now. Just do away with VAT on the first £1K of all bikes and let everybody benefit from the scheme – kids, students, OAPs etc, without the admin faff. A scheme that benefits some more than others (charity workers and I think it is NHS can't claim the VAT and abviously no good unless you work for an employer who uses the scheme) is a crap scheme in the first place so the more people like you that want to flaunt it and are stupid enough to talk about it on an open forum the faster it will get scrapped.

    edit – And to think a scheme that benefits high rate tax payers more that those on a minimum wage was brought in by a Labour government is depressing beyond belief.

    Karinofnine
    Full Member

    I'd like to spend a grand on a ride to work bike because:

    I ride 16 miles each way, on a hilly route – it needs to be light(ish).

    I want decent hub gears because of a) the severity of the hills b) the last few miles are on a country road road which is flooded, muddy, gritty and just plain nasty in winter and not very good for my geared bikes.

    I want hub or disc brakes for winter/wet weather.

    £1k isn't a lot to spend on a bike really… is it?

    cycleworlduk
    Free Member

    i reckon most of these shops that do the top ups are doing it because its not such a good deal for them as its costs them 10% every deal……

    trail_rat
    Free Member

    wiggle and ribble both state on their websites that they will accept payments over the 1000 quid but they must be paid direct to them …..

    not that i agree with it – just a statement of fact more than anything

    theginjaninja
    Free Member

    Did it in Dec 2008 with a bike voucher for £1000 from one of the vendors who do the scheme. I work at a small firm of 25 people.

    Took the voucher to Condor then paid an extra £150 quid to get the spec I wanted. If you get a voucher surely there's no problem with how you spend it? It's like a cheque.

    I got this which I bloody love.

    theginjaninja
    Free Member

    Oh PS. And they charged me £50 for the pleasure of using the voucher which they didn't tell me about until I'd specced it all out, got fitted and was about to commit to buying it.

Viewing 27 posts - 1 through 27 (of 27 total)

The topic ‘Cyle to works scheme, paying extra to get a bike over a £1K?’ is closed to new replies.