The old bike insurance question again

[Rhys W]

 I think I'd better insure my new carbon-fibre steed soon. I have used British Cycling's insurers in the past but I'm open to any suggestions. My home contents insurer have a limit of £1000, and ETA (of which I am a member) quoted a figure £80 more than what I pay for car insurance! What's the CTC like?

I'm not likely to use it for racing at the moment.

[Sergeant Pluck]

I was just about to ask this!

I have been with Butterworths but I am not sure if they continue to offer the best deal - it doesn't seem to be "full replacement value" anymore.

I was considering ETA but their policy seems to offer rather a lot of get-out clauses relating to theft by break-in.

Getting mine insured with my house contents is not an option for me at present, and their bike-specific policies do not appeal. 

[saturn]

I recently switched my home insurance to Marks & Sparks. They seemed to be competitive and they covered bikes with the standard premium at home and away from the home without any caveats about locks or without any value limits that are ever likely to bother me (I think it was £5k).

[rogerzilla]

+1 for M&S.  Keep an eye on the renewal notices though - we used to have their pet insurance and when they changed underwriters it became useless and (apparently) they lost most of their customers.

[toekneep]

+2 for M&S, just switched to them after loads of hassle trying to find someone.

[gonzo]

NFU mutual for me. Absolutely great cover and experience I've had with them in the past. Works out to be about 1 pound per every £100 per year from memory. I'm covered even if I ride into a wall!

Of course, all this in the thread assumes you can add it to home insurance.

[PhilO]

I looked at M&S a while ago, but was put off by the small print that required any losses to be reported on the day that they occur. I could foresee many circumstances where that wouldn't be possible or you'd have other priorities initially.

Of course, they may apply that condition pragmatically in practice - does anybody have experience?

[giropaul]

One of my friends self-insures. In other words, except where insurance is a legal requirement (e.g. car 3rd party) he covers himself. This includes at least 3 £2+million houses. His logic is based on sound statistics, and saves him a lot of money.

If we apply the same logic to bikes - say I have £10,000 new value in bikes (not difficult - 3 reasonable road bikes) (NB I will not have paid this for them, they could be second hand etc ., but an insurance company will value them at this on a new for old basis)

Unless you have a good (e.g. M&S currently) household "free" cover - the premium could be - at least £200+/annum. How often am I likeley to suffer an insured loss of that in any year?

[Paul Smith SRCC]

I think I'd better insure my new carbon-fibre steed soon. I have used British Cycling's insurers in the past but I'm open to any suggestions. My home contents insurer have a limit of £1000, and ETA (of which I am a member) quoted a figure £80 more than what I pay for car insurance! What's the CTC like?

Cheapest I find is add it to the household Insurance, although you state a limit of £1000.00 can you not pay an addition? If no would consider changing to a company who will, the quickest and most generous we have found when customers come in with a claim is the Co Op; personally I use Abbey National and have some insured over £1000.00

Paul_Smith
www.bikeplus.co.uk
.

[mrcharly-YHT]

I use ETA; costs about 8% of amount insured. I paid about £80 for £800 cover, include 3rd-party and breakdown recovery.

Dunno what you mean about caveats, they had far fewer than any other company I looked at.

[Sergeant Pluck]

One of the bits in their policy says:

Special Exclusions Applicable to
Section A:

This section does not cover:

1. Loss or damage arising from the use of
the pedal cycle(s) for racing,
pacemaking, time or reliability trials or
whilst practising for any of them.
2. Loss or damage caused by
depreciation in value, wear and tear,
cleaning, alteration, adjusting,
restoration, repair, maintenance,
mechanical or electrical breakdown,
scratching, misuse, or atmospheric or
climatic conditions.
3. Loss or damage caused by insects,
vermin, fungus, domestic pet or any
gradually operating cause.
4. Theft or attempted theft of the pedal
cycle(s) whilst left unattended in a
public place at any time unless
a) the pedal cycle is secured by
an approved lock attached to
an immovable object, or;
b) it is locked in a building/vehicle
where theft is occasioned by a
forcible or violent entry. In
this instance, the pedal cycle
must be stored out of sight.

So are you covered on Audaxes?

Out of sight? Well, yeah, it's out of sight until the burglary, and then it's in sight.

Is it truly new replacement for old? You'd have thought if you were paying a premium to insure to a certain monetary value, you'd be entitled to receive that full sum.

[mrcharly-YHT]

You are misreading it.

Look again - you are insured in a public place if it is locked to an immovable object, or if inside a locked building and out of sight. It doesn't need to be locked up and out of site. They also don't limit the time - other companies limited it to 8 hours, which wouldn't even cover leaving my bike at the station while I was at work.

The insurance is for a set value, not new for old. I upped my insurance from 700 to 800, they were quite happy with that even tho' I only paid £300 for the bike (as it is still below the 'new' value).

the audax question is a good one. I phoned and asked about this. They'd never heard of an audax. The phone conversation went something like this:
"What's an audax, is it a race?"
"No, there's no prize for first, you just have to ride around a set course and finish in time."
"so it's a reliability trial?"
"Not really. Anyway, what do you mean by saying it's not covered?"
"It means you aren't covered for crashes and the 3rd party insurance doesn't apply."
"So if my bike was stolen, I could claim."
"Yes"

If you want race cover, I think you have to buy that.

[Sergeant Pluck]

Ta mrcharly.

They do have a time limit for public places - 12 hours.

[gonzo]

You aren't covered if you're training for the above events!?!?!

I'm covered if I'm actually racing! £10 a year for my zipps is utterly awesome value I reckon.