Hi
Have been with M&S for years because of the 4k cover-I have 5 nice bikes!
Changes to cover level to 2k means I decided to shop about using money supermarket.com in the first instance.
Am getting quotes of £135 for buildings and contents with all bikes specified!!!!
This seems incredibly cheap (M&S renewal was £500) but I have raised excess and removed emergency cover.
Live in a suburban area which is reasonable and not made any claims recently.
Am I missing something
Cheers
Steve

Does sound cheap, Halifax adds about 0.9% of the insured value of the bikes to the policy for me

that sounds pretty good to me mine came in at £330 for B&C with £2.5K for my bike and £10K for home cinema

Am getting quotes of £135 for buildings and contents with all bikes specified!!!!

Are the bikes insured anywhere, or just when they are in the house?

Double check the policy Ts & Cs. Just been through that myself after M&S stuffed up the renewal, and a lot of places will gladly let you specify expensive bikes but then the small print limits the cover.

Ended up going with yourcoverinsurance.co.uk (Allianz) after trawling through some of the previous threads on here, so thanks to whoever posted that.

Try NFU

Had a quote off lloydstsb last nite after my M and S renewal came in at £515 !!
Lloyd’s quoted me £266 and then £60 cash back after 80 days !!
So I’ll be making a call the marks tonite to say thanks but no thanks !

You’re not missing anything.

Marks and Spencer home insurance is now ridiculously expensive and their customer service (another thread when I get myself round to it!) is appalling.

Had exactly this with m&s.

Wife rang the cancellation line and spoke to a bloke who explained that I could specify individual bikes to £4k and that they wouldn’t charge me any more for the privilege as they had’t identified the change to us previously.

I love the people who man the contract cancelation lines. They have lots of superpowers unavailable to the renewal guys – tried it with phones and just about anything else you can imagine. Always provides a benefit over standard renewal.

Pym

Just a quick up date
Been on to M&S and specified the bikes and the premium went up to £850ish
Increased excess to £250 and removed away from home cover and it dropped to £750 ish.
Said I wasn’t going to renew and they didn’t make any effort to keep my custom.
Phoned NFU and for a policy similar to the old M&S policy with bikes specified and got a quote of £450.
Need to check the actual level of cover with the money supermarket.com quotes but there certainly seems to be a huge variation
Cheers
Steve

AA – 9k of specified bikes for a £40 increase in premium. Global theft cover.

My m&s renewal just came through too with a 100 quid increase so I will be looking around.

The other thing they’ve done is change the wording about bikes. If you look in the ‘what is not covered’ bit of Contents at your home, there is an exclusion ‘by theft of any unattended pedal cycle unless in a locked building or secured by a suitable locking device to a permanent structure or a motor vehicle’.

In my mind, this means the end of open theft from your home. I.e., you need to lock your garage or lock your bike up inside it (this may or may not be a problem for you – I’d also question what the hell a suitable locking device is).

The same exclusion applies to Contents away from your home. So the wording doesn’t seem to cover bikes locked in the boot of a car, unless it’s locked TO the car.

While I bet the ombudsman would have fun with that, I would tread carefully. I did meet one of axa’s supply chain guys last year and pedal cycles were being a big issue for them so these restrictions aren’t entirely a surprise.

Can you guys who have moved from M&S or got alternative quotes post up if the the other companies offer ‘new for old’ cover on bikes stolen or if they charge wear and tear on them and reduce the values accordingly?
cheers

Always check the MSM quotes. What tends to happen is when you click the ‘buy’ link you get taken through to the insurer’s website, half the info is missing, you put in the bikes etc and the premium suddenly is somewhat more.

Also, as others have said, some insurers ask you to specify valuables that will not leave the home and those that will if they are over certain amounts. It may be you have only specified for cover within the home.

Those premiums seem too cheap to me for their not be be something missing.

Cheers

Danny B

granny ring – the Allianz/yourcover policy says

Items other than clothing and household linen.
a.
We will pay to replace items which are totally lost or destroyed. The replacement item will be based on the specification of the original item.
We will not take off any amount for wear and tear or loss of value as long as:
i the sum insured is enough to replace the Contents
; and
ii the replacement is carried out straight away.

If you do not replace the Contents which are totally lost or destroyed straight away or if the sum insured is not enough to pay for replacement of the Contents, the amount we will pay will be the market value of the totally lost or destroyed items.

Bike cover parts say

(endorsement of policy schedule for specified bikes over 1K)

Pedal Cycles – Security Requirement
The following applies in respect of the item described as :
1. Theft of accessories is excluded, unless they are stolen at the same time as the cycle;
2. A locking device approved by Us is to be used to secure the cycle when it is left unattended at Your home or elsewhere. We will not pay for loss or damage due to this requirement not being met.

And under general exclusions

Theft of a pedal cycle unless a locking device is used to secure the cycle when it is left unattended elsewhere than at your home

I’ve emailed them to confirm what ‘locking device approved by us’ means, will update later,

/\ Item 2 seems to conflict with the general exclusion. So do you need to have your bikes locked using an “approved” bike lock even when they’re in your home?

My AA Cover stated my bike had to be “locked” to something or behind a “locked door” with car doors and boots being an ecxlusion.

I checked quiute thoroughly on the phone before accepting – this was OK:

a) It can be in an outbuilding behind a locked door with a yale type lock and a padlock (which I have, mine are also locked together through the frames witha Magnam chain / lock). Lock types did not have to be specified.

b) My Thule rack, as it has locks was acceptable if the bike was nicked from the roof. Being nicked from inside the car was not acceptable.

c) Yes they depreciate over time, but don’t they anyway, and from my POV I’ll probably not buy something as expensive again anyway? Also in my case all my bikes have been bought at Sale prices (at least 1/3 off)but insured at RRP.

d) In all cases I have to demonstrate forced entry / breakage – to avoid doubt over whether the locks were engaged.

In addition I get the defacto standard £1500 single object and up to £3000 shed cover for my helmets / tools /kit etc.

All for £40.

Follow up on Allianz – nothing in writing, but on the phone they said that at home they’re fine then in the (locked) house or in a locked garage/shed as long as it’s within the property boundary, and away from home secured with a SoldSecure approved lock.

I’ll have to dig out the policy for M&S and have a read through.
Bikes are kept in the house at the mo but was need to check if the insurance value reduces if stored in a locked shed.

c) Yes they depreciate over time, but don’t they anyway, and from my POV I’ll probably not buy something as expensive again anyway? Also in my case all my bikes have been bought at Sale prices (at least 1/3 off)but insured at RRP.

Yes of course they do but I would be a bit wary of depreciation values that insurance companies put on bikes of bikes if not a new for old policy tho. I guess they use a sliding scale guide.
But if you had a 2k bike for example that was nicked a year or so down the line, how much would they value it at……?

I would feel happier knowing I could get a bike of the same value.

How are people affected when it comes to renewal but they’ve made a claim in the previous year?

We’ve made two claims for theft away from the home (one bike related, one not) and the number of companies that will quote according to ComparetheMarket etc substantially diminishes and my existing provider comes in cheapest again.

All the prices are bumped up though due to these claims. Anyone getting a cheaper quote, despite having claimed in the last year or so?

Just rang M&S to cancel – very helpful. 6 years with them (and no claims) and they let me go without even asking “Why?”.

I guess I’m just not an M&S type of customer…

Hi
Same thing happened with me.
Ended up going with NFU
£460 Not the cheapest but I got the cover I wanted including any one bike away from home at a time and all bike s covered at home
Cheer
Steve

Well that’s a good start. Allianz won’t even quote on my postcode! I thought burglaries were meant to be way down – I’m surprised some areas are still verboten

M&S seem to have changed their cover criteria yet again in the last month or two. Their new system quoted 10% more for a smaller property in same area WITHOUT buildings cover. Nuts

I’m getting an AA quote that’s stupidly cheap = less than £200 against £600+ for M&S.

Individual bikes added as valuable items. Any number up to 10k in total

Excesses are a lot higher on the AA cover. Also when you build up the cover, the price rockets.

If you’re paying more than £130 for home insurance, you need less stuff or more bravery.

Excesses are a lot higher on the AA cover. Also when you build up the cover, the price rockets.

I’d always up the excesses anyway – not worth claiming for small amounts as you just pay it back in premium in future. Cover looks fine.

Nationwide? Bikes covered inside and out.

Option is ‘Accidental damage and away from home’. Covers worldwide. Can specify level of cover (think I took 5k). Can then add bikes as additional specified valuable items up to 10k of additional items in total.

Lower value bikes covered within the 5k. So, for example, if I went away with two £1500 road bikes, a £1000 laptop and two (specified) £3000 mountain bikes would be covered.

Not theft from unattended car. Not theft of unattended pedal cycle(s) unless the bicycle is locked in a building or attached by a security
device between the cycle frame or back wheel to a permanently fixed structure.

No cover for sports equipment damaged while in use.

Are your bikes still under £4k each?

If so, give M&S a bell anyway. They waived the increase for me without even being asked to.