Just thought I would share this with the masses that perhaps do not shop around for their insurance or like me have been relying on M&S to give decent cover for their contents and bikes and in my case buildings too.
My original cover was great value for money so I stayed with them as they still worked out cheaper and better cover than other companies and separate bike insurance but next months renewal just came in at a fraction under £600 ( I had no claims for 20 odd years till the hail punched holes in my conservatory roof and I had to claim June just gone and had protected no claims on the policy).
Went online and did accurate comparison for other providers, specifying bikes and values etc etc and accidental and away from home cover. M&S as a new customer came back at £440, AA came in at £237! Tried the ring them and barter but they made no attempt to retain my custom, not even for the £440.
Bottom line is Axa who underwrite M&S insurance appear to not want bikers any more!!

£237 seems like a good deal to insure buildings and contents including a bunch of bikes. May well be that M&S thought that the risk was just too high to try to compete with that price. Well done for finding a bargain!

To be fair I expect a good price I live in a low crime area with full security locks on doors and windows and a house alarm etc etc. Only three bikes and two of them are of value in insurance terms.

it’s always been the same with M&S as far as cancelling and renewing goes – they’ve never offered me a cheaper renewal so I cancelled and restarted. Now their new policy cover doesn’t offer the same bike conditions as the old one, so last time I just renewed at a highish price
( http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/ms-insurance-****-plus-lucky-me-content )

Next time round I’ll prob look v hard elsewhere – I’m not in a high bike theft area so might dump some cover for cheaper premiums anyway

I was with M&S and their last renewal was twice the new contract price, so I left them and went elsewhere – seems an odd way to reward loyalty!

Suggsey, out of interest how much are the ‘value’ bikes?

But continuing customers get the old level of cover, new ones only get bikes covered up to £1000 per bike.

Just renewed my M&S Insurance. Went up by £1 a month.

The reason I’m with m and s is the bike cover part. You don’t get that if you take out a new policy. Many other insurers fall waaay short of the m and S cover so you’d end up paying more to top it up or take out extra cover (I have 7 bikes in the garage, so massively impractical).

We did separate out our buildings and went with direct line who were much cheaper.

I’ve been with AA for a few years now. the renewal quotes always come in higher year on year but a quick check online (get ref No) and a phone call see’s the price tumble. I’m around the £220 mark and that includes two bikes on the policy insured both home and away. Bikes are insured for £2300 & £2500 so I’m happy with the price.

Aa don’t do new for old on bikes. Whatever you insure for they will deduct wear and tear plus est market value and you will have an offer based on those calculations

NOT what you bought the bike for…

My M&S quote came down this year. Not surprised they’ve changed terms – burnt on too many expensive bike claims! Their exposure on top end bikes must have been massive!

I had 2 bikes which I built up and insured them each at what I deemed replacement cost.

I’ve now sold both bikes and gone to one bike, again got a frame and built up to my own required spec.

So should I insure it for the sum of it’s parts or at the cost as if I was to walk in the shop and purchase it fully built?

weird my M&S renewal went up a bit, i rang them about 2 weeks ago, and as long as a single item (including bikes) is no more than 4 grand its covered. no matter how many you have. thats what they said anyway.

Yes, that was their old terms, which are maintained for renewals, however if you’re a new customer they’ve changed the item limit to £1000 (or £1500?) and adding bikes at their true value sends the quote skyward.

Basically, don’t let the cover lapse!

ah, phew

Im with njee

Im paying best part of 600 quid to insure my bikes but like nick i have silly number of money tied up in bicycles and tools.

I looked at moving companies and no one even got close to covering my bikes without trying to get my tools covered. Even specialist bike insurers wouldnt touch me on the bikes and would only insure 3 max

Ive maintained my old policy for ages . It went up by 53 p this year.

I found AA a good price for cover including bikes, have now changed to Esure which is even cheaper at £250 for buildings and contents including named cover on £5000 of bikes. That’s in Bristol too. Of course if I ever have to claim with them I may find they are not so good.

including named cover on £5000 of bikes

But does that cover ‘away from home’?

what njee says, older terms much better than new for a collection of high value bikes, ours went upon renewal but only nominally and IMO worth it for the level of cover and lack of hassle in covering high value bikes.

So should I insure it for the sum of it’s parts or at the cost as if I was to walk in the shop and purchase it fully built?

the latter unless youve kept every single receipt, as that is the replacement cost of the bike and what an LBS would value it at if they wrote you an insurance receipt. If youve built your bike up carefully with an eye on bargains like I have it would be impossible to replace like-for-like for what youve spent.

I am currently an M&S old T&C customer and hope to stay that way if I can justify it to the Mrs (otherwise we’ll end up with a much cheaper contents insurance with me paying a huuuge bike insurance fee myself as it’s just me with the silly bike collection).

Every time I see thread like this I feel jumpy though – 7 bikes some of which are worth a bomb (Cervelo p3c TT bike with zipp wheels and disc for example) but I came by half the components by odd routes with various levels of paper proof and at 6 years old in the case of the p3c I might get stung on any policy that’s not new-for-old even though it’s mint with a silly low number of miles on it.

What’s the collective opinion as to how to get proof of worth for a bike when you don’t have full rrp receipts for all of it? Just take copious photos of it from every angle of all components (and I guess with you in it maybe?) ready for a valuation when the worst happens or take it to a shop for a valuation now?

There seems no point in paying out a ton for insurance unless you have what you need to make a claim when the time comes.

photos to prove it has the spec you claim, photos of you with it to prove its yours, and if/when it gets nicked LBSs will normally write an insurance valuation “receipt”.

The photos also help if the bikes get nicked and recovered. I have all my serial numbers (shocks and sus forks as well as frames) recorded and all my stuff is listed on

http://www.immobilise.com

which most police forces should be checking when they recover stuff. Crime records are only force wide, so if your bike gets nicked and crosses a force border and an officer there finds it in say a house search, they wont know its nicked as it wont be on their force crime system.

I found AA a good price for cover including bikes, have now changed to Esure which is even cheaper at £250 for buildings and contents including named cover on £5000 of bikes

And is that 2 bikes at £1500 and one at £2000, or one at £4000 and one at £1000, because that makes a colossal difference.

I am currently an M&S old T&C customer and hope to stay that way if I can justify it to the Mrs (otherwise we’ll end up with a much cheaper contents insurance with me paying a huuuge bike insurance fee myself as it’s just me with the silly bike collection).

Eh? You’re a couple aren’t you, with collective income/expenditure?

Or do you each pay for your own everything?

my renewal is due next month
Ive not phoned to check all the fine print but a quick run through online it seemed Nationwide’s new policies offered cover like M&S used to, decent price too, but that was partly as Im an account holder with them

Looks to be £3000 individual item limit, certainly not bad.

Edit: £2000 limit on ‘pedal cycles’ with loads of exclusions including no accidental damage cover etc. Not bad, but M&S was better.

Eh? You’re a couple aren’t you, with collective income/expenditure?

Or do you each pay for your own everything?

It’s the modern way don’tcha know.

All normal stuff paid by the “house” and we are both left with toy money (same amount left each although different incomes put into the pot). It means if I want to spend money on something stupid (eg a n+1 bike I already have a gazillion of) I can without justifying it to anybody and similarly if she wants a totally unnecessary 25th handbag who am I to argue. It’s all good. Worked for 18 years of argument free* coupledom.

Insurance is “normal stuff” but extra insurance costs to insure my toys sounds like I should probably shell out for it.

* this is clearly a lie!

Him most expensive bike was ‘only’ £1500 but it is a hardtail (self build).
Its interesting having started the thread and I am sure it is linked to the bike aspect. It would be cheaper for me when I buy my full suss in the very near future to insure the bikes separate with bike specific insurers as I already have the gold secure locks etc from my last expensive bike that I insured specifically with a bike specific policy.
Guess its a sign of the times…………

I haven’t read all the posts but M&S have also changed their policy in that bikes have to be listed now it doesn’t have that blanket “Anything under £4000” clause anymore. Thing is, is AXA as good? IT may well be asignifically cheaper but if £10,000 worth of bikes get nicked and they’ll only pay out £200 then it would’ve been worth paying the extra for M&S.

Insurance is one of those things no one likes to pay out for …. until they need it then they are happy, likst holiday insurance!

It would be cheaper for me when I buy my full suss in the very near future to insure the bikes separate with bike specific insurers as I already have the gold secure locks etc from my last expensive bike that I insured specifically with a bike specific policy.

Really? Most of the bike only policies seem incredibly expensive!

The esure cover includes away from home. Not sure about crash damage though. £5K consists of £2500, £1500, and £1000 bikes. Another bike is under the £500 named item limit.

NFU are worth checking out too, esp if you want home & contents cover. Bike covered with no hassle (Mojo) and less than half price of previous insurer.

The thing that put me off AA was it only seemed to cover anything in garages up to £1000, even with more expensive bikes declared.

Though I may have interpreted it wrong, it may be something to check for yourself.

I was tempted by the price of the AA but when I really quizzed them about it they said that even though you list the value of your bike, the amount they pay out takes into account wear and tear at their discretion, and for that reason, I’m out.

M&S, Direct Line + countless other supermarket brand insurers wouldn’t touch my bikes.

Green Insurance on the other hand: £23 a month for £10k of bike cover, some fairly expensive jewellery, and all the usual home contents insurance.

Might help if we had real deterents for bike theft – hanging, drawing and quartering, maybe the odd flogging for theft of supermarket ‘specials’ and hanging for nicking anything carbon.!
Sorry if this offends those with slightly more liberal thoughts, I did tone it down for those seemingly in this ‘majority’, currently!