Why is bike insurance so insanely expensive????

Why is bike insurance so insanely expensive????

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Discussion

Kermit power

Original Poster:

28,634 posts

212 months

Wednesday 23rd July 2014
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I've just been looking at cycle insurance policies for a total of three bikes worth £5,800. The cheapest I could find was around £650!!! yikes

This is the same as my unlimited buildings and contents insurance with all sorts of add ons, and more than I was paying to ensure a 4.6 litre V8 with an insured value of just over twice that!!

How on earth are bike insurance companies justifying their premiums? To make it more annoying, all the cycling charities are in on the act at these sorts of prices as well!

Matt_N

8,900 posts

201 months

Wednesday 23rd July 2014
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It is mad, mate enquired about covering his Colnao Tecnos in order for it to be fully covered when he went out to OZ a few weeks ago, £360 for the year!

Even adding a bike to my home insurance adds £10 a month.

ChrisMCoupe

927 posts

211 months

Wednesday 23rd July 2014
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My guess is that the claim rate is very high given how common crashes and in particular theft is.


P-Jay

10,551 posts

190 months

Wednesday 23rd July 2014
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Theft is a massive problem, they're virtually untraceable once they're gone and fraud is much, much higher than almost any other type of insurance other than mobile phone cover (so I'm told).

il sole

287 posts

143 months

Wednesday 23rd July 2014
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I agree, I've just bought a new bike (2nd hand granted) but it was still £2.5k, and to insure it for it's RRP - £4.5k it's over £500 a year!
Instead i've started a savings account with £50 a month going into it - hopefully I won't need to use it and after a couple of years I'll have a useful deposit for something outrageously expensive :-)

Kermit power

Original Poster:

28,634 posts

212 months

Wednesday 23rd July 2014
quotequote all
Result! biggrin

I just went Go Compare --> a broker called One Call --> A buildings & contents policy with AXA with all the cover I need, including the bikes covered as named items for less than I was being quoted just for bike insurance!!! rofl

HereBeMonsters

14,180 posts

181 months

Wednesday 23rd July 2014
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It's because people think a bike lock from the pound shop is adequate to secure their new £1000 CTW scheme jobby.

I saw it this morning, in fact. Bloke on a Cube LTD, looked brand new, locking it up next to me, using a 3 digit combination lock that I wouldn't trust to lock my mudguards up with.

Only bike I leave at the station is a 20+ year old Merlin, worth about £100. With £100 worth of locks on it.

MadDad

3,834 posts

260 months

Wednesday 23rd July 2014
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Just renewed our house insurance with eSure, £11k of bikes (x5 bikes) insured away from home put £60 on the annual premium - for the same level of cover (excluding racing) cycleguard wanted over £700......

Kermit power

Original Poster:

28,634 posts

212 months

Wednesday 23rd July 2014
quotequote all
HereBeMonsters said:
It's because people think a bike lock from the pound shop is adequate to secure their new £1000 CTW scheme jobby.

I saw it this morning, in fact. Bloke on a Cube LTD, looked brand new, locking it up next to me, using a 3 digit combination lock that I wouldn't trust to lock my mudguards up with.

Only bike I leave at the station is a 20+ year old Merlin, worth about £100. With £100 worth of locks on it.
That makes sense on the surface, but surely the sort of person that would take out bike insurance (whom I would imagine is in the minority of bike owners) would be the person most likely to also have decent locks...

ChrisMCoupe

927 posts

211 months

Wednesday 23rd July 2014
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MadDad said:
Just renewed our house insurance with eSure, £11k of bikes (x5 bikes) insured away from home put £60 on the annual premium - for the same level of cover (excluding racing) cycleguard wanted over £700......
MadDad, I'm with Esure and I'm fairly certain when I last checked with them (2 years or so ago) they would only insure up to £1500 total value. Will contact them again, thanks.

ETA: Have sopken to Esure and to insure a bike worth circa £6k it put my premium up by £260pa. Not too bad considering there is no excess on listed items.

Edited by ChrisMCoupe on Wednesday 23 July 13:58


Edited by ChrisMCoupe on Wednesday 23 July 13:58

GarryDK

5,670 posts

157 months

Wednesday 23rd July 2014
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My bike insurance with natwest costs me £15 a month for a total of £2600 worth of bikes.

HereBeMonsters

14,180 posts

181 months

Wednesday 23rd July 2014
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GarryDK said:
My bike insurance with natwest costs me £15 a month for a total of £2600 worth of bikes.
Despite the repeated claims? wink

GarryDK

5,670 posts

157 months

Wednesday 23rd July 2014
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HereBeMonsters said:
Despite the repeated claims? wink
Only claimed once. 3 weeks ago lol. And I am pretected against theft.

Bedford Rascal

29,469 posts

243 months

Wednesday 23rd July 2014
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Kermit power said:
That makes sense on the surface, but surely the sort of person that would take out bike insurance (whom I would imagine is in the minority of bike owners) would be the person most likely to also have decent locks...
Hopefully. in any case, all the stand alone cycle cover that I've seen stipulate the lock quality that must be used. "Gold secure" if the bike's worth any kind of cash.

anonymous-user

53 months

Wednesday 23rd July 2014
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Do the cheaper policies stipulate so many super dooper locks that claiming would be impossible?

Kermit power

Original Poster:

28,634 posts

212 months

Wednesday 23rd July 2014
quotequote all
Jimboka said:
Do the cheaper policies stipulate so many super dooper locks that claiming would be impossible?
The AXA home insurance policy just says it has to be locked to an immovable object or car if not in a locked building. There's nothing to say what sort of lock has to be used.

From what I can see, the cycle specific insurers are just raping people!

Dammit

3,790 posts

207 months

Wednesday 23rd July 2014
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The cycle specific ones are a joke when compared to insurers like Hiscox - and they won't insure above a certain value either.

My more expensive bikes are only insured when in the house- i.e. when I'm away at work etc, as otherwise it was too expensive.

Give Hiscox a whirl, they were quite good for me.

MadDad

3,834 posts

260 months

Thursday 24th July 2014
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ChrisMCoupe said:
MadDad said:
Just renewed our house insurance with eSure, £11k of bikes (x5 bikes) insured away from home put £60 on the annual premium - for the same level of cover (excluding racing) cycleguard wanted over £700......
MadDad, I'm with Esure and I'm fairly certain when I last checked with them (2 years or so ago) they would only insure up to £1500 total value. Will contact them again, thanks.

ETA: Have sopken to Esure and to insure a bike worth circa £6k it put my premium up by £260pa. Not too bad considering there is no excess on listed items.
Good by comparison with the cycle specific ones but still a bit odd, they have itemised mine by bike with the biggest value being 5k, then 3k then a 1k each, but thinking about it I only added the 5 and 3k bikes, so 8k of bike value pushed the premium up by £60 as the others were already on the insurance. Either way, still relatively cheap by comparison - and gives me cover/peace of mind away from home!

JMDWestley

1,079 posts

223 months

Thursday 24th July 2014
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The other week I saw a nice young girl 20s on a bike, she cycled up to the front of a local shopping outlet and the proceeded to lock her bike to a nearby post. She successfully done this however it was only a flexi lock and the post was just a stump about waist high with nothing ontop.
She buggered off inside, bike was still there 5mins later though

JMDWestley

1,079 posts

223 months

Thursday 24th July 2014
quotequote all
The other week I saw a nice young girl 20s on a bike, she cycled up to the front of a local shopping outlet and the proceeded to lock her bike to a nearby post. She successfully done this however it was only a flexi lock and the post was just a stump about waist high with nothing ontop.
She buggered off inside, bike was still there 5mins later though