In case you hadn’t thought of it…
Most homeowner’s policies will allow you to add items of value to your policy. For example, your bikes. They’d be covered in the event of theft (from your home, car, or elsewhere), accident, etc. You’d of course have to pay the deductible ($500 for example), but for as low as $1 a month, I think it’s a good idea.
I know more than one person that’d happliy pay $500 to replace a $4k bike after a run-in with a ditch.
That actually is good information. Thank you.
Before you add an item to your policy, though, remember: If you start making claims, they will raise your homeowners rates–often by quite a lot.
A friend added an expensive watch, which was then damaged. Insurance paid the damages, but he was then categorized as a ‘frequent claimant’ or some such. His rates went WAY up. (How high? He’d have saved substantially if he’d just bought a new watch.)
I doubt going into a ditch would b covered though. Under an HO policy you are only covered by loss from named peril. In other words those specific perils enumerated in the policy (typically, fire, theft, wind damage, etc). Your bike should already be covered subject to limitations and caps for personal property.
I took out my condo policy last year and asked if they’d cover my bikes if stolen or damage due to fire or natural disaster or whatever. The policy I got has a limit to what they’d pay off. So in other words I’d get screwed trying to replace two bikes if I had to. They added a rider to my policy that covers up to $10,000 or something like that just for bikes, and it came out to like 1.75 a month w/ no deductable.
Make sure there is no limit on what the policy will pay in the event someone steals your bike or if your place burns down. If you have more then 1 bike it may shoot your wad just replacing the first one and never get to the second or third depending on your collection.
I called my insurance company last week about my bikes. I’d heard that some policies have a $500 cap of the value of a bicycle. This is not the case with my policy, the bike is covered but there is a $500 deductible. What I could do is add specific insurance to the policy for the bike, which would mean no $500 deductible. It seemed like a decent idea until I was given the quote. I would need to lose a bike every two years in order to make this pay off.
I would suggest that anyone with an expensive bike contact their insurer to double-check the details of their contract.
I had a Santana Tandem stolen from my garage - and replaced by my insurance co. Small deductible. Bottom line - know what your coverage is so you can make an informed choice.