Cycle insurance whilst travelling

[hel]

Hi all

My partner and I will shortly be setting off on a long (i.e. up to a
year) cycling trip around Europe, which I am looking forward to
immensely, but I'm having a lot of trouble finding the right insurance
to cover us.

We'll be popping back to the UK to visit every couple of months, so an
annual travel insurance policy that allows for trips up to 90 days seems
like reasonable option... but I can't seem to find one that will let you
claim more than about £400 for a single item - a bit of a problem, given
that our bikes are worth more than this - my partner's (brand new ICE
QNT trike) is worth close to 2K. We're bringing laptops too, which
present a similar problem.

So now I'm looking at separate cycle insurance - still no joy. I can't
find one that will cover you outside the UK for a decent amount of time,
so I was wondering whether anybody here had any experience of such
things, or knows of an insurer that will meet our needs.

Any help would be much appreciated!

Thanks,
Helen

--
http://bikehippies.blogspot.com/

 

[Tony W]

"hel" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Hi all
>
> My partner and I will shortly be setting off on a long (i.e. up to a
> year) cycling trip around Europe, which I am looking forward to
> immensely, but I'm having a lot of trouble finding the right insurance
> to cover us.

What about 'Gap Year' type insurance?

T

 

[Ian Blake]

On Tue, 04 Apr 2006 12:39:18 GMT, hel <[email protected]> wrote:

>Hi all
>
>My partner and I will shortly be setting off on a long (i.e. up to a
>year) cycling trip around Europe, which I am looking forward to
>immensely, but I'm having a lot of trouble finding the right insurance
>to cover us.
>
>We'll be popping back to the UK to visit every couple of months, so an
>annual travel insurance policy that allows for trips up to 90 days seems
>like reasonable option... but I can't seem to find one that will let you
>claim more than about £400 for a single item - a bit of a problem, given
>that our bikes are worth more than this - my partner's (brand new ICE
>QNT trike) is worth close to 2K. We're bringing laptops too, which
>present a similar problem.
>

Have you tried ski insurance companies. They need and do cover more
than £500 single items. try www.snowcard.co.uk.

Also are you a member of the CTC? This is not a new problem so if you
contact them for advice they should be able to point you in the right
direction.

 

[Nigel Cliffe]

hel wrote:
> Hi all
>
> My partner and I will shortly be setting off on a long (i.e. up to a
> year) cycling trip around Europe, which I am looking forward to
> immensely, but I'm having a lot of trouble finding the right insurance
> to cover us.
>
> We'll be popping back to the UK to visit every couple of months, so an
> annual travel insurance policy that allows for trips up to 90 days
> seems like reasonable option... but I can't seem to find one that
> will let you claim more than about £400 for a single item - a bit of
> a problem, given that our bikes are worth more than this - my
> partner's (brand new ICE QNT trike) is worth close to 2K. We're
> bringing laptops too, which present a similar problem.
>
> So now I'm looking at separate cycle insurance - still no joy. I can't
> find one that will cover you outside the UK for a decent amount of
> time, so I was wondering whether anybody here had any experience of
> such things, or knows of an insurer that will meet our needs.
>
> Any help would be much appreciated!


Do you have house contents insurance ? If so, put your belongings,
including bikes, on the house policy.

I've recently swapped my house policy to Marks and Spencer (on suggestions
read here), because they have a £4000 limit per item before you need to
discuss it with them, and will insure any and all of your possessions whilst
travelling. There is a specific answer on their website to the question
"does that £4000 limit also cover cycles", the answer is yes. This
constrasts with my previous insurer who'd moved to a 10% of purchase price
per bike per year approach, plus rather onerous requirements on locking
things everywhere, even in the house, which was meaning my cycles would have
cost more to insure than the rest of the house buildings and contents.


So, if the M&S policy will let you travel as much as you plan (Check the
small print), then I think it may answer all your possessions issues.


For general travel insurance (medical repatriation and travel disruption), I
use Snowcard; they do insure non-winter sports as well as winter sports.



- Nigel
--
Nigel Cliffe,
Webmaster at http://www.2mm.org.uk/