Bicycle Insurance

Screw that.. aside from my normal home policy my bike insurance policy is me not being a jackass and leaving my bike somewhere it can be stolen. If I did pay that much per year I still wouldn't have peace of mind to leave my bike(s) on my hitch rack etc.
 
before I owned a home I had renters insurance with a special rider that covered sporting goods. Now that I'm a home owner things are not quite that simple. Your home owners insurance does cover your bicycles (with a deductible) but if you file against it, your HOI broker will drop you immediately. This happened to a friend of mine (whom had state farm at the time) because we had our bikes on a dakine tailgate pad and got rear-ended which broke the head tube on his frame and trashed his bike. He filed the claim, his home owners insurance paid it and promptly dropped him.

Do not expect to be able to file against your HOI for your bike being stolen or damaged. This really makes sense when you think about it because you should never file against your HOI for anything that doesn't have 5-6 digits.

You will have to carry an additional policy as stated above that specifically calls out the bikes and the value. It's not nearly as cheap to do as a standalone policy as it is to add to your renters insurance for some reason.
 
Shouldn't the other driver's insurance been responsible for that? My friends and I were rear-ended a few years back, all of us got new front wheels and forks paid for by the other guy's insurance. My insurance never got involved.

I did have renter's insurance with State Farm. After one vehicle break in and one stolen bike, around $3k each, they declined to renew my policy. I agree I wouldn't want to make a bike related claim now that it is homeowner's insurance, unless it is something very significant.
 
Ebruner said:
before I owned a home I had renters insurance with a special rider that covered sporting goods. Now that I'm a home owner things are not quite that simple. Your home owners insurance does cover your bicycles (with a deductible) but if you file against it, your HOI broker will drop you immediately. This happened to a friend of mine (whom had state farm at the time) because we had our bikes on a dakine tailgate pad and got rear-ended which broke the head tube on his frame and trashed his bike. He filed the claim, his home owners insurance paid it and promptly dropped him.

Do not expect to be able to file against your HOI for your bike being stolen or damaged. This really makes sense when you think about it because you should never file against your HOI for anything that doesn't have 5-6 digits.

You will have to carry an additional policy as stated above that specifically calls out the bikes and the value. It's not nearly as cheap to do as a standalone policy as it is to add to your renters insurance for some reason.
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evdog said:
Shouldn't the other driver's insurance been responsible for that? My friends and I were rear-ended a few years back, all of us got new front wheels and forks paid for by the other guy's insurance. My insurance never got involved.

I did have renter's insurance with State Farm. After one vehicle break in and one stolen bike, around $3k each, they declined to renew my policy. I agree I wouldn't want to make a bike related claim now that it is homeowner's insurance, unless it is something very significant.
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Gotta love that....we pay you all this money year after year, then the 1 time I file a small claim which turns out to be a small percentage of the money I have payed you over the years....you cancel my policy. What a racquet.
 
Going back to the OP, I don't think those rates are very good. Although on the flipside, this is for replacement cost not depreciated value, which is good.

I ran a quote using $5k, in CA, and IMBA member and got $43/mo or $501/year. Personally I think I'd be better off to self insure and put the $500/yr into a new bike fund. That fund covers obsolescence and new-bike-itis as well!
 
mtnbikej said:
Gotta love that....we pay you all this money year after year, then the 1 time I file a small claim which turns out to be a small percentage of the money I have payed you over the years....you cancel my policy. What a racquet.
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In all fairness, I think my renter's policy cost about $230/yr. I had it for 5-6 years at that point. So it cost them $ over what I paid them, in the end.

What I found out from all this is that few insurers will write you a policy if you have 2 claims in the last five years. None will, if you have three claims in that time frame. Not sure what happens if you are a homeowner whose lender requires you to have insurance and you get dropped because you have that third claim. It was hard enough finding a company to insure me when I had 2 claims, and it ended up costing double. I come out of that five year period this year so will be doing some insurance shopping this fall....
 
evdog said:
Shouldn't the other driver's insurance been responsible for that? My friends and I were rear-ended a few years back, all of us got new front wheels and forks paid for by the other guy's insurance. My insurance never got involved.
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It's complicated. We were the front most car in a triple rear end incident. We ended up cannon fodder because both of us were over insured and both drivers in back (whom were basically both at fault) were categorically under insured and were insured through shady no name insurance companies. Those companies split when they realized the dollar value of the personal property involved and this ended up in the limbo of personal property being transported in an automobile that was damaged by an under insured party. The over riding insurance that ruled them all ended up being home owners.


UPSed said:
Hopefully I have taken all of the preventive measures from having our bikes stolen. If it ever does happen though and they cancel us because we made a claim I won't regret spending less than a $1.14 a week for having that peace of mind.
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Yes and no, your renters insurance will likely triple if you file a claim, which lets be honest is still chump change even if it's a supplemental policy. If it were home owners, in this case, you'd likely end up paying triple which in my case, would mean a jump from 1200 a year to 3600 a year. Like people said above, your rates will double with a single claim in the last 5 years, and will triple with 2. Any more then 2, you’re not getting insured for a reasonable sum of money.


evdog said:
In all fairness, I think my renter's policy cost about $230/yr. I had it for 5-6 years at that point. So it cost them $ over what I paid them, in the end.


What I found out from all this is that few insurers will write you a policy if you have 2 claims in the last five years. None will, if you have three claims in that time frame. Not sure what happens if you are a homeowner whose lender requires you to have insurance and you get dropped because you have that third claim. It was hard enough finding a company to insure me when I had 2 claims, and it ended up costing double. I come out of that five year period this year so will be doing some insurance shopping this fall....
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100% true, but I’m still really confused by it. I’m not sure what the point of insurance is when you can just be dropped at will. I suppose that’s the contract, either of you can end it at any time if you’re not happy with it.
 
UPSed said:
Sadly it is the same with any insurance. Make a claim and your rates go up.
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Thankfully medical insurance isn't like this. Or we'd all be screwed....


Called the home insurance to ask a question, they opened a case, answered the question and closed the case. All in less than 5 minutes. Went to go rate shopping at the end of the policy and was told by AAA they wouldn't insure me because I had a case opened and closed even without a pay out.
WTF? ALL I did was ask a question, nothing more. Needless to say my insurance company who I've had for over 15 yrs got an earful. I kept them and will consider dropping them as soon as I can.

Allstate insurance if your interested. crazy... It's just nuts and makes no sense.

Moral of the story, don't call or ask about coverage.
 
Danimal said:
Thankfully medical insurance isn't like this. Or we'd all be screwed....


Called the home insurance to ask a question, they opened a case, answered the question and closed the case. All in less than 5 minutes. Went to go rate shopping at the end of the policy and was told by AAA they wouldn't insure me because I had a case opened and closed even without a pay out.
WTF? ALL I did was ask a question, nothing more. Needless to say my insurance company who I've had for over 15 yrs got an earful. I kept them and will consider dropping them as soon as I can.

Allstate insurance if your interested. crazy... It's just nuts and makes no sense.

Moral of the story, don't call or ask about coverage.
Click to expand...

We were with Allstate during the hurricane season of 2004 in Florida... Three hurricanes in 6 weeks. Without government intervention, they wanted to charge the full deductible for each hurricane for their several hundred thousand customers.

There were some angry mobs a'forming.
 
Ebruner said:
It's complicated. We were the front most car in a triple rear end incident. We ended up cannon fodder because both of us were over insured and both drivers in back (whom were basically both at fault) were categorically under insured and were insured through shady no name insurance companies. Those companies split when they realized the dollar value of the personal property involved and this ended up in the limbo of personal property being transported in an automobile that was damaged by an under insured party. The over riding insurance that ruled them all ended up being home owners.
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That sucks. Hopefully your insurance co can go after the responsible party's companies to recover the funds they had to pay out.

Ebruner said:
100% true, but I’m still really confused by it. I’m not sure what the point of insurance is when you can just be dropped at will. I suppose that’s the contract, either of you can end it at any time if you’re not happy with it.
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To clarify, I wasn't dropped by State Farm. They just declined to renew my policy when that year's term ended. They also didn't increase my rates after either claim. Before I proceeded with the second claim, I specifically asked them if making the claim would lead them to raise my rates. They said no. Technically that was true. What they failed to mention is that they wouldn't let me renew. I'm sure some companies would raise rates for your next renewal. What they are concerned with is that the claims history indicates you are more likely to have future claims as well. Like health insurance, they only want the "healthy" renters/homeowners who won't have claims, and want to jack up rates or get rid of those who do make claims. For that reason you really need to look at insurance as being for major losses only.
 
Interesting thread as we are about to renew our homeowner's insurance. Under personal property we get $1500 for "personal watercraft" which is for all of your items (not individual). Looking into a separate rider for that equipment. Bikes apparently are covered up to your personal property limit$.
And as a thank you for living in CA, our auto and home owner policies went up this year. Gracias to us!
 
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