I’ve been insured by Pedal Cover who solely sell Axa insurance. I’ve made 2 claims in the last 4 years, I had a water leak in the bathroom that damaged the kitchen ceiling and I claimed my Austria IM entry when I needed the knee op. So now with new rules, I’m told that because I’ve had 2 claims within 5 years they won’t renew my policy and as Pedal Cover only use Axa the’re sorry but I need to move on. I guess everyone is tightening their belts in tough times.
So i’m looking for recommendations for other providers please.
Another example of pedal cover being a bit screwed by their AXA affiliation. I posted similar a month or so ago (mine was because my flat is in a listed building, and AXA no longer cover that).
In the end I went with a basic contents insurance policy (post office, under £50 - buildings insurance is covered by leasehold service charge) and then a separate Yellow Jersey bike policy. Worked out a bit cheaper than pedal cover once using the BTF 20% discount with YJ. And that way, I’ve diversified risk as YJ don’t charge premiums for claims.
I actually cancelled my YJ policy in my cooling off period. The current situation kicked off during that period of time. My overseas training camp got cancelled, I’m not riding outside currently, and my races are likely to be cancelled / delayed as well. Therefore I’ll just activate it when I actually need it. There’s no point paying >£250 for bike insurance when I’m not going to be able to do anything of the things it covers in the short term. May as well get 12 months cover from the point of time I need it
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interesting! I’ll need to check with PedalCover at renewal time as we live in a Grade 2 listed property which I have declared to them since we moved here 5 years ago.
Same. I’d been with them 7+ years. AXA now have a blanket refusal on any property built before 1850, or that has any Listed status whatsoever. So I’m afraid, based on what they told me, you will be declined a renewal. I got informed of this about 7 days prior to my existing policy ending.
so, how are your bikes currently insured if they get stolen from your place?? are they under the new contents policy??
No - but I’m never out of the flat. If I get burgled whilst I’m in the flat, then that’s likely a bigger concern being in London than the cost of the bikes. It would likely be a seriously violent act, and I’d be more worried about not being murdered!
In reality, I consider this risk as low.
might give Darren at PedalCover a call asap and see what he says
fair enough. different for us as we live in the country and bikes are in an outside building that could get broken into without us knowing although I have mitigations in place to reduce the chance of that happening (locked gate, CCTV for gate entry, locked outbuilding that can’t be seen from outside the house)
Yeah, for sure. I’d reactivate as soon as I was not wfh. But currently, one bike is permanently affixed to the direct drive trainer in the hallway (the more expensive one) and the other is up on the wall in the flat. To get to that, you need to get through an outside gate into the car park, through a communal doorway, and then through the corridors and through my front door into my flat. With everyone in the building permanently at home, I just can’t see that being high risk. Maybe I’ll live to regret my over-confidence, but I’ve paid for bike insurance for over a decade and never claimed. I can’t see the likelihood of claiming when I am nearly 100% of the time no more than 10m from my bikes being anything other than remote!
Thanks, i’ll probably do the same with YJ when things get back to normal and ill take a look at Post Office home cover.
just spoken to Pedal Cover who have confirmed that AXA will no longer cover Grade listed properties from renewal dates but until then we are still covered. it gives me the nudge to look at getting the property delisted - despite being old (1760’ish) it has no architectural significance and is only listed as we are in the curtilage of an Oast House (attached via another property).
bollocks - I liked Pedalcover and have been with them since not longer after they started up.
You need to check that point too. Pedal cover said to me that they are also blanket refusing properties built pre-1850
AXA are blanket refusing all grade listed properties independent of age - although the vast majority will be pre-1850. but if they are also refusing cover on any property built pre-1850, that’s a huge number compared to those that are grade listed.
I was told they are refusing to cover both.
Pedal cover said to me that due to a high volume of recent claims, AXA have basically restricted the properties they will cover under the bespoke pedal cover policy to a very restricted subset. The guys at pedal cover basically implied to me that they’ve had their legs chopped out from under them for a large number of clients.
yep - AXA seems to have nutmegged PC a bit. they are looking around for an alternative(s) underwriters to replace AXA for those customers who will leave due to the AXA constraints, but aren’t getting very far at the mo as the insurance market is in turmoil with eveverything going on with Covid.
my policy is due for renewal on 1/9 so there is no way PC can get new underwriters on board by then so I will be shopping elsewhere.
I am doing the same. We are always home. The chance of my bike being nicked at the minute is very low and as you say, if it gets to that point then the bike is the least of my worries. It lives in my spare room / office.
We also have the benefit or our kids making our house look like its already been turned over so the burglars go elsewhere!
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I was going to do the same but neighbours have just had 6 bikes stolen as a crew seemed to have tried a number of garages and sheds last night. Mine is secure but I would be pissed if it happened now, at least PC would cover me wherever the bikes were stored. I know many other polices are not that generous.
Lot of policies have strict rules on storage. Its why mine is in the house. In the garage I was looking at motorbike level of security needed. An epoxyed in ground anchor and massive chain. Also what I read was that on really high end bikes sometimes they will cut the frame and take it anyway to strip the parts. Why best race wheels probably cost more than the frame did.
So it lives in the pain cave
My son is moving into a shared house for his second year at uni. He taking bikes with him so we need to find a robust insurer who provided shared house cover for bikes. This is turning out to be a challenge so appreciate any leads on this…
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May not be much use but I’ve just got my renewal quote from pedalcover and it’s only gone up by £10
I know a lot of people have had issues with them refusing cover recently due to older homes I think.
It was also covered elsewhere, maybe the finance thread?