So you can pay the market value of thousands of pounds for a bike and the government still own it for another 3 years and can take it back at any time? Now that is a scam.
Cycle Scheme working out more expensive?
- Thread starter Nick1881
- Start date
So you can pay the market value of thousands of pounds for a bike and the government still own it for another 3 years and can take it back at any time? Now that is a scam.
Deleted member 66701
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Deleted member 66701
You're being dramatic. Or you don't know how the scheme works.
To clarify:-
1: The government don't own the cycle at any point.
2: For the first year your employer is the owner.
3: For the last 36 moths, it's whoever the "cycle scheme" owner is.
4: The only situation you have to return your bike is:-
a: If you leave your employer in the first 12 months. But you have the option to pay the remaining balance, minus any tax savings.
b: If you break the contract between you and the "cycle scheme" owner in the last 36 months.
I'm not aware of any occurrence of a "cycle scheme" bike being taken back.
Man of Honour
You can only borrow up to £1000 and the Government never own it.
The bike is basically yours when you pay the 36 months extended warranty.
Ok, so some semantics, not the government but someone else owns it for years after you've paid for it. The shocking bit is not who owns it but the fact that you as the person who has paid for it don't own it.
And yes you can only borrow £1,000 which is what makes it worse because you didn't even borrow some of the money you put into the high end bikes!
And yes you can only borrow £1,000 which is what makes it worse because you didn't even borrow some of the money you put into the high end bikes!
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Associate
In the early days of the scheme I believe one company (might have been the met police but don't quote me) tried to take bikes back from employees and it caused a massive uproar. Since then as Amiga says I've heard of no more cases. Cyclescheme.co.uk most certainly don't want any of the bikes back. What would they do with them? Think of all the marketing etc they'd have to do to sell them.
The wording used by cycle scheme companies is what worries most people. The company can not commit to actually selling you the bike at the end at any point as other wise the scheme would become a hire/lease scheme and you could then not benefit from tax and NI savings. Now if you were really worried that the scheme might take the bike back at the end of the extended hire period if you'd read the rest of the gumph you'd have found your answer. The bicycle is your responsibility, if it were to get 'stolen' then you still have to continue any payments outstanding. So if asked to hand it back, oh look, your bike has been stolen....This will never happen though, the cyclescheme companies do not want the bikes back, if anything they want you to get a new bike on the scheme every year!
You are not paying market value to extend your hire period either, well you are but you're paying the market value of a 4 year old £1000 bike. The 7% you pay to extend your hire period is a refundable deposit, not a final payment, it's all in the wording remember! After 3years and 6months of hiring the bike you receive an email then offering you the chance to have your deposit back and you return the bike OR you offset your deposit as final payment and you then own the bike.
Credit limit is set at £1000 but there used to be an option where if a company chose they could increase this value but I don't know of any that have applied to do this.
People look far too deeply into the scheme. It isn't a scam, it offers a saving, it opens up the opportunity for those with credit issues to get a new bike paying by installments interest free. You just have to understand that the wording used has to be used to keep the benefit the scheme offers.
The wording used by cycle scheme companies is what worries most people. The company can not commit to actually selling you the bike at the end at any point as other wise the scheme would become a hire/lease scheme and you could then not benefit from tax and NI savings. Now if you were really worried that the scheme might take the bike back at the end of the extended hire period if you'd read the rest of the gumph you'd have found your answer. The bicycle is your responsibility, if it were to get 'stolen' then you still have to continue any payments outstanding. So if asked to hand it back, oh look, your bike has been stolen....This will never happen though, the cyclescheme companies do not want the bikes back, if anything they want you to get a new bike on the scheme every year!
You are not paying market value to extend your hire period either, well you are but you're paying the market value of a 4 year old £1000 bike. The 7% you pay to extend your hire period is a refundable deposit, not a final payment, it's all in the wording remember! After 3years and 6months of hiring the bike you receive an email then offering you the chance to have your deposit back and you return the bike OR you offset your deposit as final payment and you then own the bike.
Credit limit is set at £1000 but there used to be an option where if a company chose they could increase this value but I don't know of any that have applied to do this.
People look far too deeply into the scheme. It isn't a scam, it offers a saving, it opens up the opportunity for those with credit issues to get a new bike paying by installments interest free. You just have to understand that the wording used has to be used to keep the benefit the scheme offers.
Man of Honour
I agree with the above, I wanted to sell my road bike but I can't.
I had the emails -
Deleted member 66701
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Deleted member 66701
If you sold the bike, who would know?
It says you're not allowed to make substantial modifications to it either - but I swapped the forks for steel ones (and sold the carbon ones), sold the front wheel and added an electric conversion kit.
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Associate
Dimple, you didn't 'sell' your road bike, it got 'stolen'....
I'll say no more on that one
I'll say no more on that one
Man of Honour
Little baby Jebus would be watching.
I'm riding it at the moment but I don't feel as 'safe' on it as my other two and has the months roll by it will feel even more unsafe for me.
I don't want to get into that argument again though.
Gixer has it pretty much on the money. My scheme came to an end. Cyclescheme gave me the options. I phoned them up to ask when would be convenient for me to drop the bike off with them, in Milton Keynes, in person. They bounced me from person to person before someone (presumably the guy in charge) cut a deal - we agreed on £70 (10% of the purchase price) for transfer of ownership. This was to avoid falling foul of HMRC 'benefit in kind' rules. If it weren't for such restrictions I think they might have said 'just keep it'. I don't know if they have a returns department now, but based on my experience with them, they certainly didn't back then.
Still wouldn't go with the scheme again though. Too much hassle. LBS did warn me.
Still wouldn't go with the scheme again though. Too much hassle. LBS did warn me.
Man of Honour
Is that after a year or the 4 years?
Like I said earlier, the bike is now paid for but for some reason it isn't mine until around July 2016!