Hey. Looking to upgrade my bike but clearly worried about accident and/or theft in NY and Brooklyn. Any recommendations on some sort of cyclist insurance for someone who doesnt have any type of car/renters/homeowner insurance? I searched google but everything was either in the UK or for motorcycles. Thanks in advance, Josh

If you live in an apartment you should get renters insurance. It should cover theft of your bicycle. Just make sure you have enough coverage and not too high a deductible.

thanks. I live in law school housing and its neither required nor necessary. It comes furnished and my laptop has its own insurance. Nothing else is really of much value. Also, even if I had renters wouldnt that only protect it from being stolen in my apt. What if it is stolen on the street or an accident occurs. Id hate to see a $2k investment go down the drain.

Renters insurance is pretty cheap. You need onlly purchase enough to cover the value of the belongings you want to insure. Check with a broker as various plans have different coverage. You may or may not need riders for things like cameras, computers etc. I have coverage with Travelers. They cover my kayak even though it is not stored in my apartment. They also cover my bicycle. In the past I have had things stolen from my car and was able to collect through my renters insurance after filing a police report. Also make sure you have receipts for anything of value that you want covered. Insurance companies like taking your money, but when it comes to paying out they want to see receipts.

thanks for your advice. After calling many companies I got in touch with someone at Nationwide who told me about inland marine insurance, something just for movable property. She is calling me back tomorrow with a Brooklyn quote and I will post what she says. Thanks again

A virtual $10 says it will cost more to insure the bike for a year than what you'd get paid if it ever does, in fact, get stolen. :D

Dude, you're in law school. The details about renter's insurance should be a breeze to research. :D

Yeah i actually just checked with one of the companies i sell. there is an endorsement that you can add to a renters/homeowners/tennant policy that would cover the bike. Some one is going to get back to me on exactly what the coverages are and if there is a difference in the coverage if the bike is off premisis.
if you want i'll let you know.
and a renters policy with only that much coverage shouldn't cost you much per year even with a low deductible. you're only insuring 2-3kish, most renters policies are closer to 10k-20k or more and only cost a couple hundred a year. most homeowners policies are well under a thousand a year and those cover the dwelling itself as well as the personal property and liabity.

kyle

Thanks for your help Kyle. I was looking for personal experience, not the details about renters insurance as USA Zorro suggested. Nationwide called me back and said they couldnt offer it to me since Brooklyn is a coastal town and how they are trying to cut down their liability after Katrina (dont they realize we dont get hurricane). For people in other places it is only about $100 for the year and seems good cause it covers theft, damage, and accidents elsewhere (So if Bacci wants to figure out 100 for the year and youd receive 2500 if the bike was stolen or lost, you lost the bet). As far as renters, some said they would only cover theft in the apt, some said theft everywhere but I havent found one that would cover damage. Kyle if you could let me know what happens, I would appreciate it. Thanks

I got a call back from my underwriter(just so you know this isn't personal experience. i am an insurance agent that doesn't mind using some of his resources and free time to help a fellow cyclist, haha) anyway i do have good news after speaking to them the absolutely do cover it for loss and theft on and off premisis(anywhere) it is an endorsement to the renters or homeowners policy(endorsement # HO-461). you would have to take out a renters policy and add this endorsement and schedule the bike(scheduling just means that you're specifically listing THAT bike for a certain amount of coverage, just in case you didn't know). it would probably require an appraisal or at least the receipts. anyway what you can do is get the renters insurance for the minimum(not sure what that is in new york) and add the above endorsement to schedule the bike. They also cover it for damage, the only time they wouldn't cover it from what she was telling me is if you were moving to a new place and stored it there before you moved in, so don't keep it in an unoccupied building. aside from that the only time it wouldn't be covered is if you were struck by a motor vehicle and that is because the car insurance would cover it anyway. i'm trying to find an agent in new york that sell this company since now i know they cover it, i'll let you know who i find, they should be able to give you more specific advice since they're more familiar with the policy guidelines in that state.

as for the flood risk. yeah companies are getting pretty insane about it in new jersey as well. it's pretty ridiculous. that's for a different thread, probably a different forum all together. haha.


well i hope that atleast some of that long winded post helps you out. i'll let you know tomorrow if i can find an agent close to you for you to get in touch with. unfortunately i got to the city pretty often but never to check out insurance agencies. ahaha

kyle

out of pure curiousity before going home i did a quote for myself with a $3500, great coverages except for i had the minimum for personal property($35,000 in NJ) it came to $352.49 for the year. and i tried to make this expensive. if you do get a policy i'll recommend this, don't cheap out on the liability to others coverage, i quoted this with $500,000 of coverage and it costs $30 a year for that or an extra $20 for $1,000,000 in coverage. not worth it to skip out on that. i wouldnt' be surprised if you're quote was closer to $200 for the year though.

at least the commission on this isn't a whole lot so i don't feel bad that i can't sell it to you. haha, just kidding actually, to be honest i don't get paid by commission anyway.

i'll let you know tomorrow when i find an agent in NY.

out of pure curiousity before going home i did a quote for myself with a $3500, great coverages...
I presume that's $350/yr or so for renter's insurance that will cover property, notably a bicycle, for theft and/or accident. Except in an unoccupied apartment.

Is there a deductible for that? E.g. bike gets stolen, $1,000 deductible, then he only gets replacement value -- e.g. eligible for $1500 for a $2500 bike, minus the deductible, so he gets $500?

It's still a good idea to get renter's insurance if he has other stuff worth insuring, although not sure that is the case for a law student really. Personally I think the dude would be better off getting a used $500 steel road bike and a $25 chain lock, but that's just me.... ;)

Thanks for all the help. I got through to Geico and they allow a minimum of $5000 property to be covered for renters. Its a $250 deductible but its only $106 a year. It would cover theft to the bicycle on and off premise and he said would even cover things like vandalism. He did the same about an accident that id have to sue the driver. $250 for a $2500 bike seems like a good deal to me. I guess its goodto have also in case other property in my apt is destroyed like a tv or something. Also has 100k personal liability and all that other stuff. I think this is the best deal so far I found. They didnt mention anything about endorsing and scheduling the bike but i will look into it. Thanks again.

I presume that's $350/yr or so for renter's insurance that will cover property, notably a bicycle, for theft and/or accident. Except in an unoccupied apartment.

Is there a deductible for that? E.g. bike gets stolen, $1,000 deductible, then he only gets replacement value -- e.g. eligible for $1500 for a $2500 bike, minus the deductible, so he gets $500?

It's still a good idea to get renter's insurance if he has other stuff worth insuring, although not sure that is the case for a law student really. Personally I think the dude would be better off getting a used $500 steel road bike and a $25 chain lock, but that's just me.... ;)

that one actually didn't have any deductible. the way that company does it actually is replacement cost, but the way it should be, but yeah if he got the bike for 2000 and now can get one in the same condition for $1500 then they would give him that, however if that bike now somehow costs $2300 to replace that's how much he'd get also. So either way you're getting the bike you had back.
Just be careful about that, it sounds silly and i'm not saying they're a bad company at all, i'm just saying that in NJ they have a reputation for not rushing at all to pay claims. a lot of body shops actually require the insured pays the claim and they can wait for the check when they have Geico and a couple other companies. Again not trying to talk poorly about them, just warning you that if something does happen you might be waiting a while for your money.

check to that they have it as full replacement cost(that's what i was talking about earlier in the post). Otherwise you get a check for the bike minus the deductible minus depreciation.

forgot to say before too, check and see if they'll cover your bike if it's damaged in a crash that doesn't involve a motor vehicle. for instance if you hit a pedestrian, would the bike be covered and more importantly would the liability coverage cover any injury to the ped?
i'd ask that stuff and if it isn't covered see if you can get it added to the policy. it might cost a bit more but in my opinion would be completely worth it.


Kyle