Got the dreaded renewal letter through, with the conditions changed to cover a maximum of £2k undeclared cycles.

What is the current best option out there?

Would rather not declare the frequently changing fleet of bikes, but will do if I have to.

Cheers,
Dave

I would like to know this

I thought Nationwide, appeared it was possible, but when I called them to confirm the lad got very confused, ummed and ahed a bit, and then said no.

John Lewis, expensive bikes aren’t covered for free but the premium was cheap to specify them and the policy is underwritten by Alliansz (so not a dodgy Lloyds listed unnamed insurer that will proactively look for ways to repudiate claims).

That ,along with JL’s cracking customer service, was perfect for me.

I did ok with AA buildings and Contents insurance. 2 named bikes named on the policy and still cheaper than the rest of the quote I got.

LV!

For me, Hiscox quoted cheaper than M&S and no need to declare bikes for cover at home but had 2.5k limit away from home – you would have to declare anything greater than that and pay more for away from home cover.

I ended up staying with M&S as it was only 70 quid more than Hiscox to add a number of bikes for full away from home cover

My M&S renewal came in with the new limit but the annual cost was slightly down. Valuing 1 bike at £3k added £50 to the total, valuing it at £3.5k instead added £57 making it about £30 all up more than last year. Couldn’t find anything to beat it.

I stayed with M&S too, they did some jiggery pokery with the policy to keep premium at “no bikes over £2k” level.

Hiscox +1

Try yourcoverinsurance. Seriously they were far and away the cheapest and best option for me.

Hiscox here too

John Lewis, expensive bikes aren’t covered for free but the premium was cheap to specify them and the policy is underwritten by Alliansz

No it’s not, it’s underwritten by RSA (More Than), but your point still stands. None of the big companies will have affinity relationships with little insurers like you say, so I’d not worry. You don’t deal with John Lewis, you deal with RSA (who just say “thank you for calling John Lewis”), no small insurer will have the facilities to support that.

I just renewed with M&S – be honest about the value of the bikes though, I said £4k on one and it added £100 to the premium, when I said it was actually £3800 it took £40 of that off – like it’s exponential.

I paid £250 in the end with two bikes over the £2k. New business like for like quote with M&S was £700 – Axa have obviously been burned with lots of high value bike theft claims, hardly surprising!

I did ok with AA buildings and Contents insurance

No No No. Avoid this shower like the plague.

Not new for old on bikes, and a low limit on outbuildings put me right off the AA.

I moved a few months ago to a flood prone postcode and I have a claim for near enough 4k’s worth of bike bits from a nasty stack a couple of years ago.

When I phoned M&S to port my cover across, they wouldn’t cover me at the new address due to the compound risks.

This was a bit of a surprise and since I had to have house cover on the new address prior to receiving my mortgage, so I did a quick and dirty direct line internet thing. So currently I’m under insured. 😐

NFU came up with a good quote for me (rural postcode) but was no better than Hiscox for cover and I would have to spec each bike (which is quite a few)

I ended up specifying a single bike on our existing John Lewis ‘Premier Select’ policy for an additional £53/ year.
OP – may be worth asking your current provider what would happen to your premium if you did this, but if you have a fleet of bikes I guess it could start getting expensive?

This was a bit of a surprise and since I had to have house cover on the new address prior to receiving my mortgage, so I did a quick and dirty direct line internet thing. So currently I’m under insured.

M&S won’t cover my buildings, but will cover contents, I just use separate insurers for each.

Thats not a bad idea njee. Still, cover is not so great now anyway.

American Express came in with some good cover at a decent price last time I looked. Bonus points if you can pay with an Amex card as well.

Amex for me too. Have a look at the Defaqto website to quickly compare features of different policies. Particularly useful if you keep your bike(s) in an ‘outbuilding’.

I did m&s lSt night. Not cheap but £45 back through quidco will soften the blow.

I’ve been with direct line for a number of years as they claim that garage contents are covered as part of the house contents and this includes bikes .

we renewed with them (M&S that is)

4 bikes totalling £14K RRP (Gulp) I upped the excess to £250 and it put £30 on the renewal quote.

This included new for old and away from home cover as well

M&S still worked out the cheapest by specifying 6 bikes. Cannot remember how much more it was, but was still cheaper than NFU, Hiscox et al.

Hiscox were more than three times the price of M&S for me. Be interesting to see next year what happens as they’re clearly trying to price folk with nice bikes out!

Thanks all, I can see a weekend of tallying bike values and specifying components ahead of me.

Dave

Sheilas wheels (Dont go there….). The cheapest by an absolute mile (and a THIRD of my M+S renewal quote), and cover any bike upto £4000 as long as you specify it with them if over £500. Oh yes, and unlimited contents. £250 for the year on a £300k house, unlimited contents, 2 road bikes and 2 mountain bikes.

+1 Sheilas Wheels, cover as good as M+S used to be but far cheaper. NFU wouldnt even touch us (random postcode lottery for insurance databases methinks).

Another Sheila’s Wheels here too, cheaper than M&S renewal and no additional charge for specified bikes over £500.

Looks like it. NFU were by far the best/cheapest for me. I tried Hiscox (based on other recommendations on here) and they were more than twice the cost.

I’d previously been with Green Insurance (really Kwik-Fit underwritten by Axa) and they were great. However, they wouldn’t let me transfer the policy to a new address and they’ve now changed the cover. They wouldn’t do bikes over £1,000 and when I asked them for a quote not including the bikes they said they wouldn’t as there was a still a risk that having them would make burglary more likely!

I just got a quote from esure – same as sheilas wheels – ~25% less than my M&S renewal before telling M&S about the bikes

bikes covered away from home as long as locked (same as M&S)

Hi Alfabus

Direct line B&C for me, less than half my (piss taking) M&S quote. Shelia’s wheels looks interesting – maybe next time.

Were moving so needed to do a quote and sheilas wheels seems good, half what im paying now, covered for storage in home or garage, covered for accidental damage and covered for overseas travel, but not covered for damage overseas, which is fair enough.

Anyone ever trashed a bike through a stack and claimed out of interest?

NFU for me, by far the best cover of the rat I tried..and only over 5k to specify a bike…

I’ve just moved to Hiscox from M & S . Less than a third of the price, which is a bit odd although I did go for the option of not covering the bikes away from home. But this does include a 5.5k bike which M & S weren ‘t covering.

Ended up with AMEX – had to declare everything, but the cover was right for outbuildings/away from home/bikes locked to bike rack/etc.

It was only cheap if I paid up-front though – they were asking for some silly high rate of interest on installments.

(tried M&S, AA, NFU and one more that I can’t remember. Didn’t try Hiscox)

just gone with aviva. saved myself ~ 400 quid over the M&S renewal! 😯