Forum menu
Any one done a scheme themselves, any reason why you have to use an agent like cyclescheme ?
Reading between the lines it seems that there is no reason that the employer cant just buy the bike, reclaim the VAT, setup a salary sacrifice agreement with the employee, and off you go. I guess the simplicity of an agent comes in when you are in a HR dept, looking after 50 cyclescheme applications from employees you dont really know personally.
As someone who works in a small family business running it with my old man, can anyone give me a reason why I cant do it myslef, thereby not costing the bike shop 10% in agents fees a discount they may choose to pass onto me 🙂 and waiting 3 weeks for a third party agent like cyclescheme to send me a voucher ??
I work for a small-ish company and the only person interested in C2W to date is me. My bike on C2W is from Planet X and I simply used the company credit card to pay Planet X and they shipped it out. Invoice etc was done in the business name. Planet X gave me some sample C2W forms which I sorted with the boss and everyone is happy.
Sorted.
Yes I can see no reason why for very small family type business like mine why you would need to use an agent who skim what little profit that bike shops are making. I think my only issue would be how to put the bike through the VAT reclaim system
I bought my C2W bike (Giant Defy) with company credit card and made up the forms myself in word, accountants put it through the books and claimed back vat. The money is deducted through salary sacrifice before tax and NI. No way you need to use cyclescheme or alike
Yes the business can just buy the bike. It's how I did it. The only point you have to remember is that makes the employer responsible for the safe condition of the bike while they own it. I just said to my employer no problem make me the bike safety officer.
Just bear in mind that directors are only eligible if all staff are eligible - no keeping the perks to yourself!
I went through cyclescheme in my 3 man firm. Realised afterwards there was no need and could have just done it without them as others have said.
As above, plus I work for a charity also, no p[roblems.
If you are being a bit cute , you might also want to use the fact that cyclescheme and other providers take around a 10% commission from the retailer as a bit of a negotiating tool , ie propose to the retailer that youd prefer to buy it directly and would they be prepared to split the commission they would have had to pay with you , possibly netting yourself a 5% discount , so both you and the retailer are better off .
Wouldnt work in our case because we have a cyclescheme fee of 100 pounds , but in our case by simpling banging an invoice through your own payroll youd save yourself that fee .
Taking it a stage further , if you work for a bigger company , and you went direct to a retailer with a large cyclescheme it could work out to be quite a good negotiation tool for discounts ./ upgrades / a free bike !
oops posted twice