These policies are actually a form of theft insurance, not a warranty. Certain state have laws restricting the offering of insurance policies unless the offering company obtains permits and licenses from that state's board of insurance. For a product that costs about $40 or $50, the cost of getting such a permit might far exceed any potential profit.

Frankly, if anyone carefully (very carefully) reads all of the "fine print' of bike lock policies, you would not really expect to recover much of anything from them. Typical requirements include:

- filing a police report promptly

- supplying the broken pieces of the lock (to prove the lock was actually correctly locked)

- filing claims with your renter's insurance or homeowner's insurance

After you do all of that, you are paid the depreciated market value of the bike, minus whatever you will collect from your homeowner's insurance.

Bottom line: use a "gold" rated lock with the Sheldon Brown locking method. That way, you never need to file a claim.

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