Any experience of cycle to work?

GSXRMovistar said:
From my own experience I can't think how they could have simplified it any more, not one bit of it was complicated. :confused:
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Really, how about you having to pay to own the bike at the end, you have it over X amount of years, do you really own the bike or your employer ? So many grey areas and just saying no one ever does this is nothing but confusion.
 
I'm currently waiting on my certificate which is a bit frustrating as my bike is sat in the bike shop ready to go! My estimate for the completion from Cycles Scheme is 16 days based on my previous company history.

My company recently upped my limit to £3K partly due to me pointing out how popular ebikes are now and how much they are to buy! However I then decided to go for a gravel spec bike instead and upgrade it later with a conversion kit (factory bikes are too limited). I do commute 3 days a week on my bikes so no problem there not that they'll check.

Cost was £938.99. My estimated saving is £300.48 and the difference is paid by me over 12 months so as far I'm concerned it's my bike after that.
 
bimbleuk said:
I'm currently waiting on my certificate which is a bit frustrating as my bike is sat in the bike shop ready to go! My estimate for the completion from Cycles Scheme is 16 days based on my previous company history.

My company recently upped my limit to £3K partly due to me pointing out how popular ebikes are now and how much they are to buy! However I then decided to go for a gravel spec bike instead and upgrade it later with a conversion kit (factory bikes are too limited). I do commute 3 days a week on my bikes so no problem there not that they'll check.

Cost was £938.99. My estimated saving is £300.48 and the difference is paid by me over 12 months so as far I'm concerned it's my bike after that.
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Nearly. You have 1 final payment to make - about 25% of value I think, or you sign to hire it for another 3yrs, then pay market value of pennies after that. Then it's yours... Technically until that final payment it's still being hired.
 
chroniclard said:
So does your employer actually have to pay for the bikes upfront?

There are only 7 of us and its only likely me thats interested, unsure if my boss will go for it. (I want a 3.5k ebike so quite a substantial saving to be had)
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It's a £1000 limit for the achene regardless of employer isn't it? Above that you have to contribute the full amount?
 
helpimcrap said:
Nearly. You have 1 final payment to make - about 25% of value I think, or you sign to hire it for another 3yrs, then pay market value of pennies after that. Then it's yours... Technically until that final payment it's still being hired.
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From re-reading my agreement my hire period is 12 months and the cost of the bike is covered by the 12 payments and my savings come from the Tax savings. So no final payment in my case as I am able to cover the payments from my salary easily. There must be limits to what can be taken from an individuals salary based on circumstance though.

So maybe I should have gone for a more valuable bike and hoped they would forget the final payment :)
 
chroniclard said:
Thought the limit was scrapped last year.
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It was, it's whatever the company is happy with setting as a limit now. A mate who owns his own company has just set his up and put a £12k SC Heckler through it. My place it's a £4k limit with a clause that you have to be able to afford to pay back the full value of the bike from whatever your salary is during your notice period (and still not be below the minimum wage).
 
Do you have to get your certificate for the exact amount you're spending?

I've been doing up my old bike and need a few more cheap bits. Helmet, better pumps, spare inner tube, seat bag, bottle but not much else. Wondering if it's worth the aggro to save £30 ish :confused: Also I don't want to get the certificate/voucher for one amount and then due to multiple items have it be wrong due to price changes etc :confused:
 
Scam said:
Do you have to get your certificate for the exact amount you're spending?

I've been doing up my old bike and need a few more cheap bits. Helmet, better pumps, spare inner tube, seat bag, bottle but not much else. Wondering if it's worth the aggro to save £30 ish :confused: Also I don't want to get the certificate/voucher for one amount and then due to multiple items have it be wrong due to price changes etc :confused:
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You can either
  • Plan your spend and apply for a certificate to match, some vendors will allow you to reserve a bike/parts whilst you do this.
  • Obtain a certificate for X amount and drawn down on it as needed, although easier to just spend all at once by adding extras to complete the amount.
Some vendors will even allow you to top up above the certificate amount however in your case I wouldn't bother with the whole process just to save £30.
 
GSXRMovistar said:
however in your case I wouldn't bother with the whole process just to save £30.
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Yeah. I literally just need to buy;
  • Bell
  • Water bottle
  • Saddle bag
  • Spare inner tube
  • Decent pump (maybe one to carry, one larger with gauge)
I can't see all that coming to anywhere near £100! Plugging some numbers into some calculators seems to suggest I'd save less than £30 on £100 so kinda pointless right? Am I working it out right?
 
I had a Cycle To Work deal around 7 years ago and I thought it was a waste of time.
On £850 worth of stuff I eventually saved around £30 after the 4 years was up, I did put all the paperwork up on here about 3 years ago to prove it.
When I was buying another bike on Cycle To Work the bloke said he could knock £100 off if I paid cash so I just bought the bike.
 
SexyGreyFox said:
I had a Cycle To Work deal around 7 years ago and I thought it was a waste of time.
On £850 worth of stuff I eventually saved around £30 after the 4 years was up, I did put all the paperwork up on here about 3 years ago to prove it.
When I was buying another bike on Cycle To Work the bloke said he could knock £100 off if I paid cash so I just bought the bike.
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That doesn't sound right unless you don't pay any tax.
 
Psycho Sonny said:
That doesn't sound right unless you don't pay any tax.
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It's why I don't recommend it.
I put all the documentation on here around 3 to 4 years ago to show how it can go against you.
The bike won't actually belong to you until after 3 (or 4 years) but when my payments were over they wanted X amount (around £79) for me to now buy the bike otherwise it would go back to them.

Things may have changed now.
 
SexyGreyFox said:
It's why I don't recommend it.
I put all the documentation on here around 3 to 4 years ago to show how it can go against you.
The bike won't actually belong to you until after 3 (or 4 years) but when my payments were over they wanted X amount (around £79) for me to now buy the bike otherwise it would go back to them.

Things may have changed now.
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Tbf, you may be the only person in history to have to pay something at the end :P I will definitely keep recommending it to people myself. I've used it twice myself and will probably use it again before long for upgrading parts :)
 
SexyGreyFox said:
It's why I don't recommend it.
I put all the documentation on here around 3 to 4 years ago to show how it can go against you.
The bike won't actually belong to you until after 3 (or 4 years) but when my payments were over they wanted X amount (around £79) for me to now buy the bike otherwise it would go back to them.

Things may have changed now.
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They way it worked for me is I got a £1k bike for £600
 
AndyCr15 said:
Tbf, you may be the only person in history to have to pay something at the end :p I will definitely keep recommending it to people myself. I've used it twice myself and will probably use it again before long for upgrading parts :)
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Here you go, you can see from the agreement that Section 5 gave me 3 options.
The time between section 4 & 5 was about 3 years.
One was give it back, I can't remember the second and the third was make a final payment to keep it.
As you can see Section 6 says I've decided to give them money.

cyclescheme.jpg
 
The value of the bike should have incurred a 7%(if over £500) deposit they call it to put it through the exentended hire agreement with cyclescheme.

If the bike was £1000 you will have paid £56.67 off your net wage for 12 months and that final fee making it around £750 to own a £1000 bike.

You are reducing your gross wage by £83.33pm so you don't pay tax/ni on that amount hence £56.67pm comes off net which is were the saving is made.
 
SexyGreyFox said:
the third was make a final payment to keep it.
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Tbf, you may be the only person in history to have to pay something at the end :p I will definitely keep recommending it to people myself. I've used it twice myself and will probably use it again before long for upgrading parts :)

(I'm not sure the relevance of the screenshot? Are you suggesting I said it wasn't true? Not that the screenshot proves it is of course, but I wasn't contesting that :) )
 
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