So – anyone used one of the specialist cycle insurers for their bikes?

Specifying my bikes on my M&S policy (about to renew) is now going to cost an extra £600 a year which is a little hefty! I suppose the good deal with a £4k unspecified items limit was too good to last.

Thinking of CTC or CycleGuard etc or any home insurer with a better deal.

Try Hiscox for general house insurance – they cover bikes.

I don’t work for them before anyone asks!

cant say as i blame them really…you’ll be generally alright if you own just one sensibly priced bike, still be way cheaper than insuring seperately….think mine is about 80 quid more for the same cover as named item plus you are covered away from the home automatically too…..

if you own 3 or 4 bikes at a couple of grand a piece its gonna be dear…..cant blame them for that though, the 4k limit for one bike was always ridiculously cheap, let alone people 3 or 4 bikes upto 4k each claiming 10-15k a claim…

its still dearer than id hope for, but to be honest the cover seems the same (ie, no stupid locks etc, and the fact included is cover away from home still makes it cheaper than seperate cover…

Try NFU Mutual – they were no more expensive than anyone else but offered excellent cover for bikes without loading the policy too much.

They also tend to come out top in the surveys of the best insurers to handle claims.

You can’t blame them really. I bet they’ve had a fair few claims for shed/garage thefts running into thousands per claim.

When did they change their policy?

They also tend to come out top in the surveys of the best insurers to handle claims.

😯

Where do I put my rating in?

I’ve had two claims with them recently. One took 5 months the other 13 to get sorted.

Co-operative are good. Been with them four years and just upped my total ‘bikes and contents of the garage’ cover to about £5k (more than I need) for only about an extra £30 per year. Lady on the phone couldn’t have been more helpful too.

Maybe you were just unlucky.

http://www.nfumutual.co.uk/company-information/awards-industry-ratings/

Halifax do mine. Roughly £10k replacement value in total for all bikes. Agreed value/like-for-like/new-for-old/etc. Costs me an extra £12 a month on the normal contents insurance.

When did they change their policy?

+1

We renewed in October and i didnt spot anything about the up to £4k un-named items chainging. 😐

@The Flying Ox

Do you have to specify all the bike details when you take out the policy, and update them every time anything changes?

That was what I loved about M&S even more than the price – just take out the policy and don’t worry about it.

(I renewed last month, so I’ve still got nearly a year of the good times before I have to choose something different)

Dave

Burchy1 – Member

When did they change their policy?

+1

We renewed in October and i didnt spot anything about the up to £4k un-named items chainging. 😐

+1 – Hoping it only applies to new polices??

We renewed in October and i didnt spot anything about the up to £4k un-named items chainging.

AFAIK the change in policy only applies to new policies taken out after a date (last week some time); if you renewed before that, you are fine for this year.

Dave

phew renewed a couple of months back – so what is the new limit on M&S insurance for bikes then?

@ alfabus

Yes, I listed each bike’s spec when the policy was taken out. Also recorded everything on the immobilise website with photos and serial numbers, just to be sure.

i found esure cheaper than m&s

Although, £600 a year for fully comp on a car worth in excess of £10k wouldn’t be that bad.

TBH, £600 compared to the cost of having to buy new bikes after a theft is preferable to me, as someone who had £8k worth of bikes nicked at the start of the year.

Although the dog insurance is about this much this year too 😐

Thanks for all replies – M&S just changed the policy to bikes up to £1k, though curiously didn’t mention this on my renewal quote – it’s in the wording though.

Halifax sounds good at £144 for £10k worth of bikes.

Although, £600 a year for fully comp on a car worth in excess of £10k wouldn’t be that bad.

It’s significantly more than I’d pay for that (admittedly my current car is almost worthless, but I didn’t pay anywhere near that much 10 years ago when my car was worth £10k+, and I doubt I’d pay much more if I did get a new car). I suppose it’s possible M&S might quote me significantly less than that due to living in a very safe area, but it seems unlikely.

As said above, you cant blame them, but surely now they’re going to lose out eventually. Everyone who went with them for bike insurance will go elsewhere, l will be when l come to renew.

So what’s the alternative for a bike over £2000, checked Halifax and they don’t cover any single claim over £2k from garage or outbuilding, ensure cover bikes upto £500 ????

My M and S is due to renew in a couple days, don’t see anything here about the change in cover?

EDIT: Called them and they said if took a new policy out then the 1k limit would apply but as I’m renewing as an existing cutomer then I still have the 4k limit. Happy days. Aside from the £31 a month premiums….

I didn’t pay anywhere near that much 10 years ago when my car was worth £10k+

Car insurance has rocketed recently. I struggled to get less than £600 on my 57 plate Transit (given, it’s a van) with my missus as first driver with 15 years no claims and no accidents or tickets.

Anyway, this is off-topic.

If Halifax don’t cover a single claim over £2k, and ESure are that low… what’s NFU Mutual like?

And, OP – what was the amount you were insuring the bikes for with M&S (ballpark), just to give an idea of what to expect.

Cheers

Ricks

yes I need to ring them as they say nothing with the quote they have not included any policy or what it means just 8 pages about me and whether I have aflat roof or how long I leave it unoccupied.
I will laso ring them to se eif the 4 k still applies

just a quickie as above, im pretty sure if you are a current 4k limit customer your renewal will still be the same! thats how they worded it when i spoke to them, basically your old policy should remain the same 4k limit if its a renewal, this new cover is for new policies only….

as above if the chap has had a renewal through after 8/12/2011 and its the same as his previous then it proves renewals will continue to have the same 4k limit!

when was your renewal letter through fontmoss?

Thats interesting about renewals still covering up to £4k. Surely that means they will be whacking up the renewals though? £1k limit is too low for anyone who has a half decent bike (especially with the recent bike price hikes)

+1 for NFU Mutual. I have 2 bikes including a £3k one under my home contents insurance and it costs £240 a year for everything. They cover for personal liability and also for breakages on itemised (eg bikes) items.

I have made one claim with them – all sorted within two weeks and most of that time was me getting replacement quotes.

Halifax certainly do cover over £2k, unless they’ve moved the goalposts too. And mine are in the garage.

Halifax and ensure state hey don’t cover £2k bikes on the website so I assume it will need to be arranged over the phone…

eandl insurance do bike cover for £13.73 per month for a £2400 bike… My post code area though

I have always cancelled my M&S policy and got a new one each renewal time – this generally saved me about £100-200 each time.

If they are letting us keep the 4K limit, but only on renewals, I’m still going to have to pay extra as I won’t be able to use the ‘cancel, renew online’ trick.

Could be cheaper than the alternatives though.

Dave

You could get m and s to match the new quote with your renewal? Sure they would to keep business

Tried that before… they always said they couldn’t do it and I should just cancel and get a new policy online.

It seems obvious (to me) that if you are renewing they will keep the cover as before as you are renewing. Unless of course your circumstances have changed, for example you made a claim for a bike in the last period. But posts have been put on here for months if not longer that if you’d made a claim for a bike, M&S were only offering £1k unnamed. So all they have done in effect is applied this to new policies, to reflect the number of claims received for bike losses. I’ll be interested to do some research when my policy finished next summer. In the past bike specific insurance has been horrendous. I looked through CTC some years ago and I think there was a limit of about £1500 (90s) and even to cover that much you were paying £300-£400 a year.

Rickon

Was previously just relying on getting £4k per bike max.

New quote was for £10k of bikes in total.
Will have to ring them to check if i fall into this renewal at existing terms category or not. I always used to do the cancel and renew trick to get the best deal.

Slight hi-jack: I’ve got M&S insurance and just been sent a renewal notice, next year’s premium is £1350!!!! This seems rather high, this year was £1200 but I didn’t get my arse in gear to change over. Problem is we’ve made two claims in the last 5 years (storm damage to roof and a burglary) and I think they’ve got me by the short and curlies!
I’ve got a large 4 bed semi in a decent postcode, how much do you guys pay in comparison? Am I being completely shafted?
Will any other insurers want my business at a reasonable price?

Barclays was my cheapest – bikes up to £2.5k

Rubbish, looks like as we’ve had a theft when we renew it’ll be for named bikes now then. I think it’ll have to be a call on which bikes to insure, and calculating what I can replace for £1k at trade or second-hand.

I think the driver for all of this is the apparent increase in bike thefts over the past couple of years, exacerbated by an increased market and over-egged pricing for new bikes.

I’m sure a couple of Rottweilers would be less than £600 over the year 😉

MUDSHARK: Is that as many bikes as you like for up to £2.5k?

headfirst – I had a 25%+ hike from M&S last year. When I tried to get them to reduce it they knocked £50 off. Oh how I laughed! Switched to Hiscox – cover not quite as good away from home, but a few hundred quid cheaper for me. NFU were always in the ball park on quotes, but the faff of listing all the bikes meant I always stayed with M&S. Hiscox renewal quote was OK, so I just stayed with them again. Next time I’ll probably get the local NFU guy to do another quote for me as well.