Lots of companies will cover bikes over the normal £500 as long as they are listed. But often they still have a cap at around £2k on an individual bike. So for the high value bikes this means they are no good.

Currently using M&S so all but 1 bike are covered under the default £4k (I’m still on an old policy). Not sure if this £4k limit changes with the renewal. Regardless; the renewal is looking a bit steep so I’m keen to shop around. But there’s no point even getting quotes from the companies that simply won’t insure the bikes to the required value.

So, please let me know your experiences of which insurers are a good option up to about £5k individual value.

thanks.

Green Insurance

Ive gone with NFU. not the cheapest but they provide good cover I’m told.

Currently using Esure for buildings n contents plus my bike named insured also, i think its around £18 month .

The AA

Does anyone know if these insurance policies cover my bikes in a more secure shed.. ie those asgard things?

The AA

I read on a different thread that they don’t insure over £2k. Are you sure?

I have to renew my home insurance in the next week and have always gone with M&S for the £4k per item limit to cover the bikes. Got the info through the other day and can’t notice anything has changed with this, but heard whispers of otherwise…

whats the deal?

google ‘esure insurance review’, I did, hence going with NFU

NFU state that as long as the bike is in a locked building or locked to an immovable object, then its insured. I can keep it in the shed with a ground anchor. Maybe you would need to lock the bikes to the bike box, I guiess you’d have to ask.

I have to renew my home insurance in the next week and have always gone with M&S for the £4k per item limit to cover the bikes. Got the info through the other day and can’t notice anything has changed with this, but heard whispers of otherwise…

whats the deal?

Plenty on here reporting new policies means only £1k before you need to list them individually. Not sure if this then means a higher premium or not. Haven’t seen anything saying so in my renewal, although there’s probably some small print saying “and any other chaanges that we might not have specifically told you about”. I will be checking though.

My M&S home and contents is due for renewal (£410), in the past I’ve always found it cheaper to cancel and take out a new policy with M&S (due to the online discount) but my understanding is that if I do that now I’ll lose the £4k per bike cover.

Edit: I’ve just looked at the M&S site to get a quote (20% online discount) and one of the first questions they ask is “The model and value of any pedal cycles over £1000”

I have mine insured with the AA 3 bikes between £1k and £3k listed with individual value only cost extra £17 for the year also covered away from house as long as locked to fixed object.

Just did an online M&S quote. 2 bikes significant;y over the 1k limit, and it adds ~£600 to the premium! I think I’d be better self insuring for that amount!

I use Admiral, all bikes (and other stuff) itemised, old for new and covered away from the home as well…. around £150 added to the premium..

I renewed with M&S last month, the £4k limit remains in place for renewals however if you are a new customer (ie doing the old online and cancel trick)then you are subject to the £1k limit.

M&S are underwritten and administered by AXA, i did get a quote through my car broker for AXA direct that covered single items upto £8K each but the other policy limits were lower and excesses were higher.

Just switched to barclays, you can name individual bikes, was £200 a year cheaper than my M&S renewal

What sort of value are these named bikes then- closer to 1k than 4?
I’ve only one bike worth significantly more than 1k, and when I shopped around a few months back the additional named item premium was around 4-600pa- about 10% of value. And that’s in a low risk area. It was cheaper to take the M&S premium hike of about 25% on othe chin and renew with them.

look at fleming as well.

I’ve gone with the AA for 4 bikes, 2 of which are named as separate items because of their value. Not sure if there is an upper limit, but the max I insured one of them for was £2k.
I went with them because of cost, flexibility and the fact that they would insure bikes in secure outbuildings without stipulation of what that security should be.
I have not heard how good/ bad they are when it comes to claims – I hope I don’t find out!

It’s worth looking at the “extra” premium quite carefully though. I’ve stuck with Direct line as the overall premium is relatively low and they’ve been very good when we have made claims in the past, which is just as important to me as the cost to be honest. No point paying a cheap premium if they don’t pay out when you need them.

Anyway, back to the point, I reckon that I’m unlikely to get a high value bike nicked any more often than once every ten years. So, if it’s going to cost me 10% of the value to insure the bike I’d rather just keep the money and accept that I may have to buy a new bike one day.

Cheers,

Andy

What sort of value are these named bikes then- closer to 1k than 4?

Mine are insured for 1.5K and 2.6K

I am a new M&S customer (as of a few weeks ago) and had to declare any bike of value over £1k. I declared £3k and £1.5k bikes.
Specified Pedal Cycles Cover Limit £4,500
Excess £100
Pedal Cycle 1 Santa Cruz, Heckler –
£3,000.00
Pedal Cycle 2 Rock Lobster – £1,500.00

Quote was still lower than previous policy.

Not sure about a single bike over £4k though.

Trying to hijack this thread for another insurance question – What happens if it is a custom built bike? Do you list all major parts? and the insured cost – add up all the rrp’s of the parts?

I just stated the make/model and cost on the application and it’s right there on the policy.

esure

went through them all recently – gone with NFU for home insurance which covers bikes (~£2-4k), cheaper than previous home insurer.

CoOp would have been good. M&S limit for new customers is now £1k.

I did a More Than quote for when mine’s up, and it was £460 including 2 bikes at £10k.

I meant Hiscox, not fleming…

I’ve just changed to AA.

2 bikes as named items at around £3k each, plus a couple of items of jewellery without extra charge. Plus £40 topcashback.

All this cheaper than my renewal from Churchill without bikes. I’m happy with that.

Which policies don’t require bikes to be named items?

Hmm had a few calls with the AA a couple of months ago and they wouldn’t do anything over £1k for new value, they will take wear and tear off the value they pay out over that and bikes were only covered in the UK with no accidental damage (eg driving them into a barrier etc). Might be worth checking your details if you went AA!

I ended up sacking off insurance as it was just too expensive. Might look at it again when I have some time though.

Direct Line, sadly my shed was broken into a few years back & they stole 2 bikes both ones I built myself so no off the shelf equivalent, I had a few receipts for bits of 1 bike, I thought I was stuffed, BUT..
I supplied photos, of each bike, with a full list of components & the cost of each part, or its currently available equivalent as RRP, I was clear that I had listed RRP. Direct Line did send a very nice lady around to my house for a chat & they paid out in full for each bike about 3k in total.

Similarly the house was broken into the year before and a small collection of vintage watches was stolen amongst other things, I did a similar list & again paid in full.

I will never use another insurer.

And no I don’t live in a dodgy area!

Direct line tell me that they don’t cover any bikes over 2k (she may have said 3k) away from the home. They can quote for over that for cover at home though.

Managed to tweak the excess / cover on M&S renewal to a slightly more palatable level which is looking favourite at the moment.

I’m waiting for my M&S renewal to come through at the moment. Will be interesting to see whether they allow me to keep the 4k limit I currently have – and how much they’re going to raise the premiums this year to do so.

Hmm, how do I know what my M&S policy is on?

States unlimited cover for contents, and the Specified items states “You have told us that you have the following items, sets or collections worth £4,000 or more”, so I kinda assume it’s still the same 4k limit as it’s always been.

Got my M&S renewal through the other day – is actually cheaper than last year – couldn’t see any changes on it policy wise…

I had a custom build and so had my LBS do a written quote on its spec which the insurance company was happy with.

I wouldn’t expect Home insurance to cover for accidental damage or away from home on bikes.

There are limits to cover but if you are realistic on cover there are a few options.

Just switched to barclays, you can name individual bikes, was £200 a year cheaper than my M&S renewal

and £200 is more than my actually policy costs…, where are you, Oldham?

My M&S didn’t go up this year, still on a ‘renewals’ policy so £4k bikes.

Hmm, the new quote thing on the M&S insurance page only lets you choose up to 5 bikes worth more than £1k…