Plus is the Voucher treat similar to a cheque by the bike biz (I.e has to clear) etc
Handing over the voucher is like handing over cash. In fact, you should only hand it over when taking receipt of the bike itself.
As for how long it takes? Depends on your HR. I've seen instances in some companies where they saved all the applications up till the end of the month before sending them off to Cyclescheme. A bit of a pain if you applied at the start of the month! Cyclescheme seem to turn them around pretty quick though.
It's all down to HR. We're a small company that recently signed up and my boss and colleague managed to turn two Genesis bikes around in a week, from initial inquiry, to picking the bikes up – and the bikes weren't even in stock when they started the process!
Can take a day or eons. Depends on your HR people.
i got mine in about 5 days from filling the form (picked up the bike the next day) - but we have tiny (one person) HR dept.
HR- it will take as long as you dislike.
I'm bloody confused by the cyclescheme's t&C's - it says at the end that you have to pay them 'market value'. I always thought it was a nominal fee agreed with your employer (but now Cyclescheme own the bike not your employer?!)
[i]a nominal fee agreed with your employer[/i]
it used to be but then people took the wee so it's now a percentage of purchase price (quite a large one I think).
So really its pointless for the hassle. I might as well just get a 0% loan from my boss and buy a close-out bike of my choice.
You dont need to run a "scheme" or get a "voucher" to take advantage of the C2W thing.
I run one at my work place, staff just buy a bike on their credit card and I refund them, or the office credit card and hand me the bill. I bought a credit licence so there is no £1000 limit at all.
I then deduct this gross from their pay, after claiming back the VAT. So thats a 0% loan, tax free 🙂
Its my balance sheet, so I value the bike at the end.
I charge them the balance over the next year or two. Simple and easy - they just sign a document I give them which says how much they pay, and its a company bike till they pay it off etc.
If you think you may leave your company within the first 12 months of joining the scheme then probably not worth doing it, because you will be hit with paying off the balance of payments + the final ownership fee.
If you think you will be with your company longer then its well worth doing it as you get the tax benefits (32% saving) + spread the cost through your salary.
The end of scheme transfer fee can be handled in various ways so minimise the cost. For example some people do a P11d and others do the service which company's like Cyclescheme and Evans offer where they offer you an ongoing agreement.