Viewing 31 posts - 1 through 31 (of 31 total)
  • M&S Insurance Change
  • JCornford
    Full Member

    I have my buildings and contents insurance with M&S for several years now as bikes were covered within none specified items under £4K without effecting the premiums, this made them by far the cheapest insurer, this has now changed, they now only cover bikes under £2K. I just thought I would flag it up for people incase you miss the small print in your renewal.

    nickdavies
    Full Member

    I thought it was down to £1K now? I’ve had to declare my HT @ £1500 🙁
    Was a lot better when it was 4K limit!

    chakaping
    Free Member

    £2k when I last spoke to them.

    Would £1k be for new customers and £2k existing ones maybe?

    There have been a few similar threads if you are looking for alternative insurers OP.

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    JCornford
    Full Member

    cheers chapaking, i”l search for them.

    fubar
    Free Member

    I’d be interested if / where the £2K is coming from as I’m an existing policy holder and the only reference I could find is in the online policy documents say £1k.

    Dibbs
    Free Member

    The last I renewed (September) the cover stayed the same if you renewed, but if you took out a new policy (much cheaper due to the discount) you got the lower value cover.

    Rickos
    Free Member

    Mine has just auto-renewed this week with M&S with £2000 for unspecified bikes and then I have 3 bikes specified for £5000 cover. I pay about £49 a month. Is that any good?

    cinnamon_girl
    Full Member

    It seems that when policies are renewed one gets hit. I’ve ended up staying with them but do search out other threads, loads of info to look at.

    My premium has virtually doubled but, for me, it’s peace of mind that if anything got taken then I would not lose out. You’ll need to specify the bikes too if they’re over £2K and what their value is.

    myheadsashed
    Full Member

    try upping your excess – my insurance increased £90 a yr.
    my old excess was only £50, now £200 kept the cost right down.

    hora
    Free Member

    You pay £50 a month for household insurance???

    RustyMac
    Full Member

    Depending on your insurance requirements check out royal sun alliance. There quote as significantly less than M&S for my home and contents cover including my bikes at home however if I wanted to add cover away from home the policy doubled in price and put it well above M&S prices.

    What I found with M&S was that for my renewal this year the cover dropped from 4k/ bike to 2k and that if I was to go online and get a new quote and the 20% discount it worked out more expensive due to new quote having a 1K limit on bikes.

    Think I pay about £45 / month for my insurance however I am sure this is being bumped up by some of my neighbours 1 of which who have been turned over 3 times in the last 2 years for bikes in their shed and 2 have lost various bits of gardening kit.

    Rod
    Full Member

    We’re up to £130/month now… I wish it was still £49! (And that’s with the excess bumped up)

    Any past claims will bump it up and the area is a big factor as well.

    It went up another chunk this year despite an extra year of no claims and reduced cover – but the alternatives are pretty limited (especially when you have a >£2k claim for burglary in the last 5 years)

    andyl
    Free Member

    When I renewed with M&S back in November they told me there was no change and it was still £4k cover. I pay £20 a month for contents only.

    myheadsashed
    Full Member

    You’ve got until next renewal to do your research then!!! 😉

    njee20
    Free Member

    Depending on your insurance requirements check out royal sun alliance.

    RSA = More Than, they were good when I did a comparison to M&S before the changes. Had to name bikes, but the quote was reasonable.

    br
    Free Member

    We’re up to £130/month now… I wish it was still £49! (And that’s with the excess bumped up)

    Streuth, was it worth actually claiming for the £2k?

    FWIW We pay less than a 1/4 of that.

    stumpy_m4
    Free Member

    My renewal came on Friday from M and S … have had a quick look and noticed mines up to over £500 a year now , but didn’t look properly … will take a look later now this thread has reminded me !

    andyl
    Free Member

    Well none of my current bikes are worth more than £2k.

    But I do have a 2nd hand yeti 575 frame to build up. Does it have to be covered for the new amount? Feels wrong to insure something you bought 2nd hand for the full amount and get a new one if it gets stolen.

    aracer
    Free Member

    I specified one £4000 bike and one £3000 one. By increasing the excesses to £200 (from £50) the renewal was only £3 more than the original quote without any specified bikes. I spent the best part of a whole day ringing around other companies and nobody else was getting near the amount M&S were charging – most companies people suggest aren’t even interested when you have >£10k worth of bikes in your garage. One which would quote wanted me to specify any bike worth more than £250, which is a real pain when I have a garage full of bikes most of which are still worth less than the £2000 limit for unspecified bikes under M&S (as I said to the chap on the phone, I’d have to specify a kids bike, a bike trailer and also a unicycle which you probably don’t even have a category for).

    aracer
    Free Member

    Feels wrong to insure something you bought 2nd hand for the full amount and get a new one if it gets stolen.

    It would be an interesting conversation if my expensive uni got stolen (however unlikely that might be) – though come to think of it I’m also covered if it gets broken, and that’s a huge amount more likely. I only paid £350 for it, but a replacement would be ~£1500!

    hora
    Free Member

    Do you guys still keep your bikes in your shed/garages?

    No chance for me as a scumbag getting drunk for free on the proceeds of my property is more important to me than any insurance comfort.

    I’ve never bothered with insurance on bikes. I have a brick built shed. A shed and a greenhouse. Never trust them with anything valuable.
    Plus. Over a grand a year? Fack. Seriously. Thats dead money.

    trail_rat
    Free Member

    My garage is more secure than your house hora so do stop playing that record.

    hora
    Free Member

    People dont tend to be inside garages late at night. Whereas people sleeping can be disturbed in side a house. I’ll keep the record playing thanks. Apart from one recent opportunist house/bike theft. How many STOLEN shed/garage threads are there on here? Plus thought it was secure with ground anchor etc?

    Or a simple answer: inside my house you’d meet a claw hammer in the darkness. In my shed I wouldnt have a clue whats happening.

    😆

    trail_rat
    Free Member

    Mate , just cause your in the house dont think thats any deterrant in the slightest.

    I dont believe for one minute your wife lets you keep them in the bedroom

    hora
    Free Member

    Its a higher level of risk. I imagine alot more people are cased but dont realise as the theft is aborted due to house and/or look of the owner etc.

    Own a bike bag? Its perfect to use store a bike

    aracer
    Free Member

    I’ve seen a few threads about bikes being stolen from inside houses on here recently.

    Anyway, if you hadn’t noticed from the above I have far too many wheeled contraptions to keep in the house – well unless I designated a special room for them – I suppose a big one with an internal access door and a big external access door might work 😉

    hora
    Free Member

    List them. Define recently compared to shed/garages.

    grtdkad
    Full Member

    aracer speaks the truth. Very similar experiences here, after we specified our more precious bikes the premium varied by only a few quid. I have not found any other competitive quote like for like comparison.

    fubar
    Free Member

    Just come off the phone with M&S after discussing my renewal so thought I’d report my discussion.

    I asked them about my non-standard bike build and confirmed that I had to declare pedal cycles over £1k on renewal. I gave a valuation of £2k and that raised my premium from £320 to nearly £450 (they were happy to take the current value rather than the new price). I asked if I could chose not to insure it and keep the £320 premium but was told that as I’d told them I had the bike this was not an option (unless I had it covered on another policy) as I was a greater risk of being burgled. (Increasing both building and contents excess to £250 does being premium down to £370 so may go with that but still…)

    Kind of wish I hadn’t called them.

    mtbtomo
    Free Member

    The renewal documentation I got through last month highlighting the policy changes clearly states ‘unspecified bicycles up to £2000’. I specified one bike above this limit and it raised the policy by about £4 a month. Still not too bad I didn’t think.

    fubar
    Free Member

    Sounds like they have 2 tiers of bike cover going on so not sure why I’m on the lower rate. Checked the policy docs thinking it was a new change but the policy docs I get (showing £1k limit) are dated September 2012. Perhaps last year I didn’t accept the renewal and instead requoted on the internet for a cheaper quote but got put on less favourable terms than some here. Lucky for some / unlucky for me. Lesson here is to check the cover amount on renewal as some people are getting £1k and others £2K cover !

Viewing 31 posts - 1 through 31 (of 31 total)

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