My house insurance (contents only) and bike insurance is up for renewal. Does any body have any recommendations?

I have two bikes to insure – Santa Cruz Chameleom (valued @ £2904) and a Ribble Sportive Racing (valued at £1049). Is it better to insure bikes under the house insurance or have different policies?

Cheers

M&S, will cover anything up to £4000 without having to have it as a named item. Including items away from the home. Can also add accidental damage cover – which does cover bikes (or so they tell me); I specifically asked if my bike was covered for accidental damage away from the home e.g. if I dropped it accidentally over a cliff in the alps, and they assured me it was covered!!

Slightly more expensive than the cheapest insurance but when you factor in not having to insure your bikes seperately then it's much cheaper.

I'm in agreement with dr_death about M&S, there are cheaper out there but in my opinion it's worth the little extra. They've paid me out in just under 2 weeks for my loss, no silly questions, build spec pricings or receipts required. I told them what was on it, they offered me an alternative, I pointed out the differences (the frame) and gave them my prefered bike shop total build price and they just paid up. Sorted

opt for the away from home cover if you go with M&S it's good world wide.

Carl

Forgot to say how good they were when my laptop got knocked off the arm of the sofa…. Collected assessed and replaced in 5 working days!!

£100 excess and a shiny new 15" Macbook pro to replace my aging 7 year old 13" powerbook!!!!

Anybody claimed on M and S insurance for a bike?

Current insurance is also up for renewal next month. I've acquired a few more bikes since last time so there are 6 in the garage now (4 are mine 2 my partners). None are worth over £1500 but if someone came a long with a van, losing all 6 would probably not be covered. The insurance company put a limit on the amount I can claim if things are taken from a garage.

Also two are used for transport so regularly left locked up around town where, to be honest, I'm surprised I've not lost one yet.

Photograph the bikes and try to get valuations for them and you should be fine*. Unlike bike insurance co.s, who will give exhaustive list of approved locks and exclusions, M&S don't specify how you should secure or use your bike(s) its just counted as another of your possesions. The £4000 limit is for single items, so it doesn't matter how many bikes you have, or how many might get stolen, so long as non of them individually cost more than £4000 to replace.

I've found the easiest way to sort out valuations is to do the work/research yourself (especially custom build or much tinkered with bike, rather than something off the shelf) email it to an agreeable bike shop and get them to print it out on their headed paper. In the context of actually doing some business with them of course. Valuing six bikes would be a ball ache for them, but if you do the valuation and they just have to agree with it, thats a lot easier for them.

I've made a claim with M&S once, not for bikes though. Excellent service, they record the call and that call counts as 'the paper work' so at the end of the first call to them everything is underway, you also get dealt with by the first person that answers the phone, no being passed around. They did the direct replacement thing (it was a phone and ipod) and the company that took care of that were excellent too.

Check through their exclusions (there aren't many) but you should find that they suit the way you use your bikes and where you store them.

I wonder if M&S will keep things this way for long, you'd think they can't do so indefinitely.

jonb – Yes I've just finished a claim with M&S for a bike, see my post above, e-mail me if you'd like more details.

e-mail in profile

Carl

JonB you should be covered if someone appeared with a van and tool all 6. We just have our MTB's covered on normal house hold insurance, they do not have to be specially added and each bike is insured up to £1500 however next year we may have to look at M&S and Mr MC now has a bike worth more than £1500.

M&S have been 1st class dealing with a none bike claim recently. Great to deal with a firm who employ staff who genuinely seemed to care.

I know I can save maybe £30-60 a year on my premium a year, but I am sticking with them.