[Closed] Cycle to work scheme - do you have to buy a whole bike?

I discussed something similar with my LBS when I was thinking of getting a bike via CTW.
As we understood it, the £1000 was the maximum loan allowed and could be put towards a bike that cost more. I could top it up with my own cash, or supply the parts needed.

Depends how cooperative your LBS is.
I wouldn't bother asking at Halfords.

Thanks for the reply.
I already have most of the other parts though so would really only want the frame and forks.

i part bought an orange 5 frame on it, hoping to do the same with a complete p7 this year.

A lot of bike shops don't want to know but find the right one and you're in.

depends if you are good mates with your lbs or not.

the voucher approval system just asks for the make of bike.

if you say wanted to get F & F totalling a grand and swap out all the rest from an existing bike your friendly lbs could just quote you for a 'bike' that costs a grand but thats made up of new and existing parts.

not legal though but hey ho...

You will be [b]leasing[/b] the frame from your employer who [b]may[/b] decide to sell you it after the 12 month [b]loan[/b] period whereupon there will be an assessment of condition and the final payment agreed as a result.
Frame and forks are not within the rules of the scheme I believe.
If the LBS do quote you a bike and you stick your bits on and your employer thinks it's still worth 20% of voucher price are you willing to pay that or walk away and leave all your bits on the 'bike' the LBS quoted you for?

Yeah, I realise those are 'the rules', but I've yet to hear of a single person who has not been given the bike at the end of the period. Has anyone here had to buy theirs at the end?

Yes, it's not uncommon, 5%+VAT for me.

there are shops out there that will do it. I'm not going to name shops on here just in case they get into trouble, but a couple of my mates have recently got campag chorus groupsets on the C2W scheme, so it is possible!

In the early days of the scheme I got a F+F no-questions asked by employer/LBS/voucher scheme company but tired it a while back and no-one wanted to know.

As a further note to what Barney said do make sure you have some kind of 'cover'/insurance/pot of money in place should the bike get stolen in the load period. Happened to a bloke at work who was uninsured, but had to keep up the payments for 9 months on an item he didn't have. May get even worse if you still have to pay for the F+F and recoup for the cost of the rest of the finishing kit not covered by the lease.

I've bought parts in the past but they're really starting to tighten up now so it'll get harder. As a result, most are charging the 5% sort of figures discussed to buy it at the end of the scheme. I've never heard of any company wanting to keep the bike as that'd just be a hassle for them.

@cynic-al
Do you mean at the end of the scheme they asked you to buy it for 5%+vat of the original cost of the bike? So assuming it cost £1000, you bought it for ~£60 at the end?

My last one was %5 also!

I thought it was within the rules to put the £1000 towards a bike that cost more.
Have I got that wrong then ?
You can add other items like a helmet and a rack up to a total value of £1000 if the bike costs less, can you not top up if it costs more ?

Regarding the risk of having to hand back a bike that you have spent your own money on upgrading and losing those upgraded parts, buy a £10 second hand supermarket special from your local free ads paper and swap the bits over on to your CTW bike a week before it's due back. 😉

packer - that's how mine works.

packer - yes.

Do you mean at the end of the scheme they asked you to buy it for 5%+vat of the original cost of the bike? So assuming it cost £1000, you bought it for ~£60 at the end?

The maximum price of £1000 includes the VAT surely? so it would just be the 5% of that which is £50.

It think the [i]"5%+vat of the original cost of the bike"[/i] bit means the cost of the bike ex-VAT.

IIRC, the final 'buy' payment is a separate purchase to the loan, so VAT is chargeable on the sale. The original purchase of the bike by the company for the purpose of the lease to you is separate.... maybe....

I was certainly charged VAT on my last bike, but then the sale price to me was £1. Accounts department got a bit of stick from the accountants for that.... 😉

I think std practice in my scheme is to charge a £5 - but your employer is allowed to charge a 'fair value' or something like that - so check what byour own company do...

[i]I've yet to hear of a single person who has not been given the bike at the end of the period. Has anyone here had to buy theirs at the end? [/i]

I've yet to hear of anyone who's been given the bike, everyone I know (including me) has had to buy the bike (for a small amount).

And no you can't buy just parts, it's intended to get people a bike to ride to work on rather than buy them better suspension for their weekend hobby. Naturally if you succeed you'll be morally obliged to retract any disparaging comments you've ever made about MPs' expenses, that sort of thing 🙂

You are not supposed to buy parts, the C2W form that the retailer claims the money back from the scheme needs a frame number on it.

We were told (by cyclescheme) that you can't even have a cycle computer on the C2W scheme after a few were bought on the scheme

Yes you could cheat the system, but they are clamping down on misuse of scheme.

I'd say that if enough people misuse the scheme it will be stopped & no one will have the chance of getting a discount on a bike

I got a frame on CTW scheme. Bit more than £1k and put the rest to it myself. There could be ownership problems if you were to leave work and they got funny about it.
Ask a few shops if they would do something as a lot won't.

I am having the run around at the moment trying to get accessories on the scheme. I have a bike, and there's no chance i can get round the wife for a new one, but i really need accessories such as a new helmet, locks, jacket, quality pump and shoes plus a decent bag....when you add all this up it,s not cheap and i was hoping the cyclescheme would help me out.....but NO. it's a new bike or nothing. A few shops have said they might consider fudging the paperwork for me but they are charging a commission to do this and when you tot up the cost of bits from say Merlin it comes in loads cheaper. So IMO (and it is just MO) I would like to see the scheme help keep people on the bike once they are cycling to work, a few winters of riding to work and back every day and your gear is shagged.

Could have got it first time round donks?

No the bike wasn't from the scheme...our firm have only just signed up to it, New MD is a cyclist. Thing is I have spent (like the rest of you) bloody thousands on bikes over the years and cycled to a from work long before the schemes were introduced and am just a little peeved (in a throws toys out of pram kind of way) because I qualify for nowt when a couple of people at work who will never (because they work on site) bike to work have bagged them selves fairly nice bikes. One even joked that to qualify he will come in occasionally with one trouser leg tucked into his sock.

Oh well.

i understand that the final "purchase" payment is used to change the legal/financial definition of the loan so that the employer doesnt need a credit licence, or something along those lines (not my area of expertise but did have it all explained to be by someone who was).

Some organisations and/or HMRC are supposed to be clamping down on abuse, and using the final payment as a means to do so. I heard a story of a met police officer who was charged ~£300 as "fair value" final payment for his year old thousand pound bike, which sunk most of the point of using the scheme.

And yes I know of someone who bought pimpy mavic wheels on the scheme.