Bke Insurance alternatives to M&S

Would anyone recommend places like protect my bubble? I don’t need home insurance as I’m still living under the parents roof, On protect my bubble I’ve specified a custom bike *not yet asked for invetory* And set the value on the scale between £1200-£1800 and they are asking for £120 a year, I find that resonable? That’s on there “adventure” cover. Has anybody ever done insurance through sites like this?

Oh, and Hello (First post, although I’ve been lurking the site for months 🙂 )

After reading this thread I have just binned them, I went from £430 to £220 for comparable insurance (bike up to £2000, 2010 Orange 5 would not be worth any more anyway and insured outside the home) so Happy days.

Willber, have Direct Line changed then?
They used to have a £500 bike limit and needed to specify and pay extra for higher value bikes.

FM, who are you with now?

Churchill done online but they will not go above £2000 for a bike and standard for outbuildings is £2000 (total) but I phoned to check bike would still be insured if in outbuilding and they raised my outbuildings limit to £5000 FOC.

im with sheilas wheels

have to specify bike over £500,, no probs, covered in house, in shed, and out and about

Looking for insurance for my 5 as my contents only goes up to 2.5K. Cycleguard have a discount if your a British Cycling member. Has anyone tried this? How much do you get off?

After spending hours trying to find insurance I’ve gone with LV. We have a Ventana El Conq full sus tandem and if we didn’t want to pay £75 a month it would have to be uninsured. Thankfully LV will cover 7 bikes including the tandem, contents insurance with accidental damage – and all for just £25 a month. Bargain! (This is approx £300 a year, and 4 bikes over £1500 in value).

Schmiken, can you give my some detail of what you discussed – I’m with LV and couldn’t get that deal for 3 bikes circa £6k. They wanted £532 per year. Could it be location perhaps – I am in London.

I’ve an email address in my profile if you rather not post it.

That’s fine, we’re in a quiet part of Loughborough so it’s probably more to do with location than anything else. It was four bikes listed as above the £1500 limit and we’re also renting – so not building insurance as well.

Not reading all that sh**e, but for me, Green Insurance have been magical as far as quotes go.

1 x £3500 bike
1 x £5000 bike
1 x £2500 bike

Insured at home and away, agreed value.

£28/month, and that includes the normal £75k house contents plus some named reasonably pricey extra things.

Disclaimer: not a willy waving contest, because there are plenty of folk out there with drastically more expensive stuff than I own, but it gives a better idea of premium/value over someone who has 3 Halfords Apollos insured for £30/year and lords it up over the CycleGuard plebs.

EDIT: And I don’t live on some sparsely populated island either, should you think the premium is falsely low. I’m fairly central Edinburgh.

For info.

m and s: £750.
A plan broker: £680
nfu: 344.11
yourcoverinsurance: £270.

Home and buildings with 2 specified high value bikes. Some of the companies wouldn’t let me change excess or get rid of some of the bits I didn’t want.

Mine is due for renewal in a couple of months.

Will look at comparisons also but you need to compare like for like as in ‘New for old’.
Some/a lot of companies are wear and tear on bikes so you need to factor than in to the equations as well.

My M&S renewal letter came today, so timely thread revival, chaps!

Slightly off topic but help if you need it:

None of the insurance companies people have quoted above will insure you if you’ve had more than 1 claim in the last 5 years (some 10 years). We had the car broken into and my wife had her hand bag dipped (2 and 3 years ago now), both away from home. Esure and Morethan both paid out but neither of them nor the other companies mentioned above will now insure us (or my bikes) because they are all classed as ‘low risk’ companies in which investors can make a quick return.

If anyone wants a good all singing all dancing insurance policy and is in a similar situation with past claims then Glen Insurance in London brokered a great deal for us. Doesn’t sound so great at a cost of £700 but compared to quotes of £1500 off the few regular names that were prepared to quote they certainly helped, and by all accounts I am now covered for my fridge content if I take that out with me !

(As Mrs Excitable said last night though, we could have bought a new camera, iPod and sunglasses without claiming off the policy and we would still be better off in the pocket by the time we have finished paying the extra for the special policy – what a sh1tty world we live in)

Apologies excitable as it’s easy to be wise after the event, but you do make the good point that it’s not worth claiming for less than £500 or so (or maybe even for less than £1000). Our only ever claim on the household policy was for a bike frame I bust, which was at least more than that (I got more than I’d paid for it secondhand!)

After spending hours trying to find insurance I’ve gone with LV

You’re specifying expensive bikes? I just checked them as my car insurance is with them (and I get a discount through an organisation I’m in) and they say to call them for bikes worth more than £2000.

I’m going to have to make some decisions on what I think my bikes are worth I guess – with a £4000 limit I didn’t really have to think about it.

I’m rather confused re LV and how schmiken has managed to get his insurance so cheap. I was quoted £1200 by them for 2 @ £4K plus 3 others! All excluding buildings insurance I might add.

What I couldn’t get them to understand was my questions about values if anything got stolen. They couldn’t understand the concept of buying a frame on its own and speccing components but I then complicated the matter by saying that I did tend to upgrade various components over time.

It seemed to be that they would place a value on the age and it sounded as though I could potentially end up with not a lot of money. One then questions what’s the point of insurance!

So it was back to M & S and their doubling of my premium but feel happy that they offer full replacement value.

Sorry if it’s added to the confusion. 😳

Does anyone know how insurance companies view components/

I have 7 ‘built’ bikes many more in storage in bits so technically not a bike just a collection of parts.

Just got my renewal so time to start looking 😥

Green insurance – the only company that would give the total value cover I needed.

GB

Green insurance – the only company that would give the total value cover I needed.

Hmm, work out a bit price-ily for me.
I think I’ll end up largely investing in more locks and things.

As mentioned above. Not sure every ones comparisons are like for like.

I looked at Sheila’s, LV etc. loads of exclusions in the small print and not New for Old iirc.
Ended up taking the M&S renewal (though I did refine/improve the quote by logging on TG the M&S website and refining the excess etc).
£4.8k bike and other non specific bikes added ~£70 to my annual premium.

Great cover from M&S IMO and importantly less small print & New for Old confidence

What are people’s experiences with self built ‘frame and parts’ builds – especially with the odd second hand fork or RD etc in there? Just tot the receipts up and check the Insurer is happy with this?

…and if you maybe don’t have all the receipts?

Lots of photos recommended? (obviously in addition to a list of any serial numbers present)

Finally, older s/h bikes. Let’s say a couple of years old bike in sound condition but not new to me that would cost a few thousand pounds new. As a car, I’d expect to insure the replacement value of *my* bike – is this the same?

Sorry… just confused. The bike collection is growing and I’m starting to think I should cover it…

Nationwide worth a look too, got a quote from my local branch. £223 premium for bikes upto £5000

I’m rather confused re LV and how schmiken has managed to get his insurance so cheap.

Agreed – I only got as far as an online quote, but even with my supposed discount, by the time I’d added away from home cover for 3 £2000 bikes it was already more than my M&S renewal, and still with less effective cover given I’ve got 4 bikes worth that or more.

^^^ this ^^^

Vinc lots of photos / videos and something from the friendly LBS if they’re in the mood (mine weren’t the last time I asked, even though I offered to pay proper workshop rates)

grtdkad – Member

Vinc lots of photos / videos and something from the friendly LBS if they’re in the mood (mine weren’t the last time I asked, even though I offered to pay proper workshop rates)

Ta. Kind of like getting a jeweller to say what rings and stuff are worth… makes sense.

Thankees and apologies for slight thread-jack 🙂

Nationwide seems like it might be the one, no need to specify up for bikes up to £2k, if I’m reading the T&Cs right.

For stock bikes with a few extras, take a picture and document. For fully custom take a picture, then when you need to make a claim, get a reputable bike shop to provide a replacement quotation on a like for like basis.

Just be sure to have a good picture. For us, no receipts were necessary at any stage on our new for old policy,