Cycle to Work… do the numbers really stack up?

Plus the £1000 the bike is reduced by…

As others have said, if you don’t want to pay extra for a sale bike buy one at full price that doesn’t have the admin fee.

There seems to be the belief in this thread that you cannot use a cycle to work scheme voucher against a discounted bike?

No, some retailers won’t accept Cyclescheme vouchers on discounted bikes, because the fee Cyclescheme charges would kill what’s left of their margin. Other retailers charge a surcharge to cover the cut that Cyclescheme take.

Let’s not lose sight of the fact that a lot of end of season/last year’s bike sales are subsidised by the manufacturer. For example, do we really think that the retailers were sucking up huge losses last year when Spesh halved the price of the Kenevo SL overnight before the new one was released?

Don’t forget the final purchase fee of 3-7% at the end of the lease.

There isn’t a final purchase fee with the Halfords/ Tredz run cycle2work scheme if you extend the lease at the end of the initial term, for zero additional payment.

Technically the bike is still theirs, but really, it’s a work around.

https://www.cycle2work.info/employees/faqs/

Once your hire period has come to an end, we’ll get in touch to discuss your options. This will include the opportunity to extend the hire of the cycle at no additional cost until HMRC deem the value to be negligible. This is typically 4 or 5 years, and once this agreement has finished you will become the rightful owner!

re shops not accepting vouchers on discounted bikes – i had that happen to me in a specialized shop so i just went elsewhere. I refuse to believe that when the bikes had a 50% discount that the cycle scheme voucher charges would eat up the profit…. when a bike is 7k down to 3750 – but they want to charge me 7k – someone was about to see $$$ – if i had paid 7k for that bike the bike shop would have made £3250+ what ever the normal profit margin was on the discounted bike minus the cyclescheme charges

Been here a couple of times and you will save money. But I came to the conclusion its better when you’re all in the upper tax bracket. Benefits are less lower down the food chain and not siginificant enough to not own the bike etc etc.

when i did mine there was a) lost the bike i wanted cos it took so damn long to get a certificate b) got charged the admin fee and c) final balue wiped out the rest of any significant benefit.

wouldnt bother again. If i couldnt afford the bike or couldnt save up for it I’d just interest free credit card it with some cash back.

one big plus is money comes out of your pay before hitting your bank account so the only benefit I could see was my missis didnt really know how much the bike cost and I didnt really have to be as squaky clean abouy it!!  So it made family harmony a lot easier. Other than than, tis a bit of gimmick / hype IMHO.

It worked for me as a lower rate tax payer. RRP of £3300, 12% discount applied by cycle solutions, no admin fee, no final payment. Can’t remember exactly but it was sub £2k cost to me.

12% discount applied by cycle solutions, no admin fee, no final payment.

That was the deal I got too. I think the discount is offered to certain larger employers. It feels a bit snidey though, because IIRC the 12% off is only applicable if you get the bike from them (rather than a bike shop), and might possibly be just them not charging themselves the ‘admin fee’.  So it felt a bit naughty, however I needed an ebike (to actually cycle to work!) for health reasons, and my main other option was Ribble, who had about an 8 month lead time.

Still though, I was happy with the deal I got.

Can’t remember the specific numbers but I saved over 20% when I got my Cotic last year. I mean any savings on an already reduced bike and interest free monthly payment is a win in my book.

Not sure if it’s been mentioned but I always forget that you get charged VAT on the month salary sacrifice