Cycle to work scheme - any point?

[Guest2]

Did you not say you are saving 1k a month in some thread? Just buy the bike outright and be done with it. You're putting way to much thought into this.

Use the scheme or just buy the bike, don't over think it.

Not this month unfortunately, I have dropped hundreds on other things

I like to put thought into things, it makes them more worthwhile

 

[Skeeter]

A work mate of mine managed to get a £2k bike using a combination of a £1k voucher, credit card, and a friendly bike shop. It can be done.

The 10% still strikes me as a con. I wonder who mine was with?

Edit: cyclescheme.co.uk

 

[Guest2]

Yes, most bike shops will let you pay what you want plus the voucher. However financial services companies can give out vouchers much larger than £1000.

 

[Skeeter]

Oh running calculations on the cyclescheme.co.uk site shows you also save on NI payments, I forgot that.

Your £1000 voucher will cost around £680 + extended hire fee (£84).

 

[Skeeter]

Dp

 

[Gixer]

Age of Cycle
Acceptable disposal
Value as a percentage of original price
Original price of the cycle less than £500
Original price of the cycle more than £500
1 year 18% 25%
18 months 16% 21%
2 years 13% 17%
3 years 8% 12%
4 years 3% 7%
5 years Negligible 2%
6 years & over Negligible Negligible

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploa.../file/63929/cycle-to-work-guidance-update.pdf

This. If your employer took charge of the sale of the cycle at the end you could pretty much end up with zero purchase charge. However due to having to dot all the i's and cross all the t's legally most let cyclescheme handle this part. It is the reason I opted to let cyclescheme handle the sale. It also allowed employees to obtain another bike after the first year and not have to wait a further 3.6 years. Selling at the 4 year rate is easy money for cyclescheme.

I'm that unlucky I would be the one they would do a spot check on.

In all the years I run the scheme, which was about 3, no one ever had a spot check. You just have to be clever with your wording just like cyclescheme is with theirs. Your bike got stolen didn't it!!

 

[Deleted member 66701]

On a £1000 voucher (which I actually have to put £100 towards at Planet X as Cycle Scheme take 10%)

Don't buy from somewhere that adds a surcharge - find a good local indy instead. My local indy even kept the £100 discount on the bike.

I would prefer the bike to be mine, what if I want to sell it on?

Then sell it.


But yeah, overall, I agree that you have to take a good look at the numbers if you're poor in the 20% tax bracket. But if you're in the 40% bracket, the deals a no brainer.

 

[SexyGreyFox]

In all the years I run the scheme, which was about 3, no one ever had a spot check. You just have to be clever with your wording just like cyclescheme is with theirs. Your bike got stolen didn't it!!

I would have to prove I went to the Police & Insurance about my stolen £850 bike.
I appreciate what you are saying and I take far worse risks but I don't want to with this.

 

[Deleted member 66701]

I would have to prove I went to the Police & Insurance about my stolen £850 bike.
I appreciate what you are saying and I take far worse risks but I don't want to with this.

Why would you have to tell your insurance and Police that your bike got stolen?

 

[platypus]

Like many government schemes it simply doesn't go far enough.

We should be offering significant incentives to get people out of cars and onto bikes.

 

[Adam]

You can sell it but it's against the T&C's. A mate of mine sold his bike after a few months, continued paying the monthly payments and paid the final payment at the end. There is no way for them to check where the bike is plus you could say it got stolen.

 

[platypus]

Like many government schemes it simply doesn't go far enough.

We should be offering significant incentives to get people out of cars and onto bikes.

You can sell it but it's against the T&C's. A mate of mine sold his bike after a few months, continued paying the monthly payments and paid the final payment at the end. There is no way for them to check where the bike is plus you could say it got stolen.

Plus people abuse the scheme (of course), so they can't make it too generous unless they make the conditions stricter.

 

[UTmaniac]

Why would you have to tell your insurance and Police that your bike got stolen?

Well for a start, all these bike buying schemes clearly state the employee taking a salary sacrifice do not legally own the bike until they make the final one-off payment, upon which the ownership of the bike is transferred.

It does appear that the fairly recent rule changes on these schemes have made this "green/eco-friendly" incentive to be far less clear-cut, in terms of whether the employee will get a overall better deal, than simply buying bikes direct from stores (especially in end of season sales).

It seems that this scheme is likely to go the way of the Dodo through lack of use in the near future IMO, just like the tax saving scheme that was in place for buying computers.

 

[ubersonic]

Had sort of problems with this in work, when I say sort of, employees were using the scheme to get the bike, and it was all going as it should until we found out they weren't cycling to work. This was because they had used the deal to get a bran new bike for ~2/3 the RRP then sold them haha.

 

[{SAS}TB]

I got approx 43% discount on a bike and my starter gear (helmet, locks, shoes etc) for just under £1,000

Speaking to others at work who have had them there is a nominal charge at the end of the 12 month period (i think it varies from scheme to scheme ?) so definitely a good deal for me as I was going to buy one anyway

The only thing is the T&Cs say I should use it for 50% of my journey(s) to work

I live 28 miles from my office and work all over the country so, obviously, that aint gonna happen

 

[LordSplodge]

I just wait for next years models to be launched and buy last years at a heavy discount (and normally get a bike with better specifications)

Used the CTW Scheme once. Never again.

 

[grumpysculler]

The only thing is the T&Cs say I should use it for 50% of my journey(s) to work

Not seen your T&Cs, but I think that's the wrong way around. 50% of the bike's use should be for commuting - not 50% of all commuting done on that bike.

My employer sticks an 11% fee for an external finance company on it (buggers). Overall on a £1k bike I'll save about £180.

I don't usually find bikes I want in a sale (got a nice XC bike before Christmas, but that was lucky) so Cyclescheme works for me.

It's also worth pointing out that if you receive tax credits (e.g. because of childcare costs) then your salary sacrifice reduces your income so you end up getting another 42% saving on the purchase price.

 

[Gixer]

Had sort of problems with this in work, when I say sort of, employees were using the scheme to get the bike, and it was all going as it should until we found out they weren't cycling to work. This was because they had used the deal to get a bran new bike for ~2/3 the RRP then sold them haha.

This does happen. I had a BMX come through the system whilst I was running the scheme. Strangely I never saw the guy coming into work on it. Everyone knows though that no one is actually checking if the bikes are being used for work. I think the only stipulation was that over 50% of the bikes use must be for travel to work. Thus if the owner rode it a single time to work and stated that it has never been used since who am I to question things. The bike has been used more than 50% for travel to work.

I used the scheme twice to acquire bikes but that was back in the days when there was a VAT saving too so I saved a total of 35% on rrp on each bike.

 

[Gilly]

I bought off the Cycle2Work scheme, cost me £220 for a £450 bike with some other bits.

 

[UTmaniac]

Everyone knows though that no one is actually checking if the bikes are being used for work. I think the only stipulation was that over 50% of the bikes use must be for travel to work. Thus if the owner rode it a single time to work and stated that it has never been used since who am I to question things. The bike has been used more than 50% for travel to work.

I was under the impression these bikes are supposed to be used for at least 50% of journeys to/from work, not at least 50% of the bike's total use.

... In theory.