I need to add my [new to me] Devinci Wilson to my M&S home insurance as is it over the £2000 unspecified limit.

Now, do I insure it for the full value of the bike, or for the value I would be willing to spend on a replacement?

The bike is the 2014 carbon version, with Boxxer World Cups, XO running gear, Saint brakes etc; so is probably worth about £4-4.5K new. However, if I was to buy a DH bike now, I probably wouldn’t spend that on one.

If I just left it as unspecified on the policy, even if the bike is worth a lot more, I assume I’d only get £2K max if it was stolen: Correct?

What do you guys do? I haven’t had to claim on this policy so I’m not sure how M&S operate (I don’t have the policy docs with me at the mo).

Cheers.

If I just left it as unspecified on the policy, even if the bike is worth a lot more, I assume I’d only get £2K max if it was stolen: Correct?

Not necessarily, they could say that the bike was worth £4500, and therefore more attractive to thieves, and therefore more of a risk than a £2000 bike.

A lot of my bikes have similar issues (full DA road bike, ‘new for old’ £3k?, actual cost about £900). I just went with insurers with sensible limits (cant remember what they were) and if there is a problem I’ll have to argue that I could custom build a similar bike by shopping around CRC etc for bargains and get it in under the £2k limit, especially as most frames would be other models now so you could pick out a very cheap frame as an insurance replacement if needs be.

Sounds reasonable. I certainly wouldn’t want to get anything less than £2K, though, which I believe is the M&S limit.

Yep, advice is sound above – you won’t get covered for an expensive bike under the £2000 heading.

Now, if you bought the bike for £1999 (albeit second hand), there is a strong argument that you could (and should) tell them that, they may enquire no more about the bike and if it is stolen they would pay out based on the price you paid (though if you bought it from a “mate” that might not work).

Best thing to do is tell them a full and honest story and see what they come back with.

Insurers are not bound to pay out where a customer has under-insured, so you could potentially end up with no insurance at all if their interpretation of the £4k bike value differs from yours.

I’ve fessed up to M&S and added it at a replacement value of £4K. It added £8/month, although I’m part way through the policy year. Not too painful.

I’m sure I read somewhere that if your bike is worth (let’s say) £2,500 and the limit on your policy is £2,000 then you don’t get £2,000, you get nowt as it was over the single item limit and should have been declared separately. Is that the case or have I imagined it!?

Different insurers will do different things and it’ll likely depend on exact circumstances. Some will do that, for the reason mentioned above – that a more expensive item was more desirable in the first place.

Some will say “ok, your bike was only insured for 80% of its value (ie £2k versus £2.5k), so we’ll only pay 80% of the claim – here’s £1600.” Some will pay £2k anyway etc.