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Get a 30% discount on Cycleplan insurance
Purchase Cycleplan insurance here for a 30% discount
If the link doesn’t work properly, go to www.cycleplan.co.uk and use the discount code RAF61 during checkout
If ordering by telephone, quote RAF61 to get a 30% discount.
What is cycling insurance
It’s not insurance for your bikes, it’s insurance for you. Cycling insurance or cyclist insurance means public liability insurance and personal accident insurance.
It’s a common belief that “Bloody cyclists don’t have insurance” but in fact millions of us do.
Millions of cyclists have third-party liability insurance that would cover damage or injury to someone else or someone else’s property. Millions of cyclists have cycling insurance to cover accident and personal injury.
Do you need cycling insurance
You might not care about liability insurance, but perhaps you should. Personal accident insurance has a much more obvious benefit to you. Liability insurance is something you should consider, especially if you ride regularly and ride for commuting.
Clip the wing mirror of a parked car and you could be getting a bill. Worse, have an accident with a pedestrian and you could be found liable and end up with a big court settlement against you. It happens. Even if you are a very careful cyclist it only takes a careless pedestrian stepping out in front of you and a court could decide in their favour.
A recent high-profile case involved a cyclist who collided with a pedestrian. The pedestrian stepped out without looking while using her mobile phone. Despite millions of cyclists all agreeing that it was surely the pedestrian’s fault, the court ruled that the cyclist had not slowed enough and not made enough allowance for unpredictable pedestrians and was found at fault. he ended up being forced to pay tens of thousands in compensation.
How much is cycling insurance
You can get full cycling liability and generous personal accident cover for under £30.
Some policies include other benefits like a 10% discount at Halfords or Evans Cycles. With a large purchase at Halfords or Evans, the discount could make your policy effectively free and even give you a profit.
What’s the best cycling insurance
There are several providers of cycling insurance including liability insurance and cyclist personal accident insurance. The top 3 providers are British Cycling, Wiggle, and Cycleplan.
British Cycling liability insurance
British Cycling is a cycling club and event organiser, not an insurer, but membership includes insurance. The first kind of membership is for leisure riders and commuters. British Cycling Ride membership includes:
- Liability insurance for commuting and leisure – up to £15 million
- Legal support
- Discounts on bicycle insurance
- 10% off everything at all Halfords stores
- 10% off everything at all Evans Cycles stores
Ride membership costs £38.70 per year if you pay by direct debit. There are discounts for juniors and a family deal at £89.10
The 10% discounts could easily make the policy pay for itself. The only problem is that there is no personal accident insurance.
To get personal accident insurance you have to choose the Race Gold membership. Race Gold gives you a racing licence and liability insurance during British Cycling race events. You get the same discounts as the Ride membership. You also get personal accident insurance with these headline benefits:
- Death £10000
- Disablement £25000
- Hospitalisation £25 per night up to £750
British Cycling Race Gold costs £78.
Wiggle cycling insurance
Wiggle have packages that include bicycle insurance along with liability and personal accident cover. If you need cycle insurance too, it’s worth checking the price.
The Assist package offers just liability and personal accident insurance for cyclists.
Wiggle Assist cover includes:
- Public liability cover up to £2 million
- Personal accident cover
- Emergency physiotherapy after an accident
- Emergency private medical and dental treatment
The personal accident cover includes these benefits:
- Death £10000
- Disablement £10000
- Private physio or dental care £300
Wiggle Assist insurance is priced according to your age, gender, location etc. For me it was a mere £24 per year.
Your price may vary.
Cycleplan cycling insurance
Cycleplan cycling insurance is underwritten by Aviva. You can choose a policy that includes cycle insurance, or just liability and accident.
Cover includes:
- Public liability up to £5 million – choose 1, 2 or 5 million
- Personal accident cover
You can choose from three different levels of personal accident cover. This is a great option if you are looking for a higher level of cover for only a small extra premium.
The personal accident cover also includes physio, hospitalisation and dental benefit.The levels available are:
- Death £10k, £25k, or £50k
- Disablement £10k, £25k, or £50k
- Physio £150, £300 or £500
- Hospitalisation £0, £30, or £30 per day
- Dental £100, £175, or £250
There is also a very useful broken bones cover of up to £250. Cyclist personal accident cover is really for the worst case but unlike the others, Cycleplan has worthwhile benefits in the case of more minor injuries.
You can also choose to include cover for theft, loss of earnings, competitive use, and foreign use. There’s also an excess waiver for just £0.62 which means £0 excess on any claim.
With £1 million public liability and £50000 accident cover, the policy is just £28.12.
You could add multi-trip cover for holidays worldwide for only an extra £2.95. The same extra cost would also get you cover for competitive use.
Who’s the winner for best cycling insurance
It depends what cover you need.
Cycleplan cycling insurance offers the most generous personal accident cover, which swings it for me. If I’m going to pay for personal accident cover for cycling, then i want the highest possible payout in the worst case scenarios.
Cycleplan insurance is provided by Aviva which suggests they could be relied upon. The cover offers the most customisation and the prices are very competitive.
Being able to add multi-trip cover for Europe or Worldwide holidays is another massive benefit. Many regular travel insurance plans do not cover you for cycling.
Contact cycling@toseethe.world if you want a referral code for 30% off Cycleplan policies worth £75 or more.
British Cycling is more expensive but the retailer discounts could make it a freebie if you’re planning to buy a new bike.
Wiggle cycling insurance is a reliable and well-known business and a fine alternative to the other two options. It’s cheaper than British Cycling if you want personal accident cover. As with Cycleplan you can get cycle insurance at the same time you get liability and accident cover.
With any of these products be sure to read the policy wording and make sure you understand what is covered and what is not covered. The details and opinions offered here are a personal view only and should not be relied upon.
