Cycle To Work Scheme

[Charlie478]

Anyone any idea's on this, my empoyer takes part in the cycle to work scheme but you can only join it once a year and can only buy a bike and accessories from Halfords. I thought if they did the scheme they did the scheme, not you can only join on a certain date and surely it's unfair if you can only go to one shop. Are they right ?

Thanks

 

[Mussels]

Like most companies yours has chosen the lazy option of using a middleman, this restricts your choice a lot and makes it more expensive.

 

[jerrysimon]

I also found out when I ordered my Brompton, that scheme middle men take 10% from the shop as well!

Regards

Jerry

 

[Charlie478]

ah
so am I right in thinking I can pretty much order what I want then through Halfords but pay a 10% approx handling charge for them administrating the scheme for my employer. I'll need to ask for more information from my employer about it I think as I really don't fancy anything Halfords actually sells, except the Halfords Professional Tool range which I think is very good value but doesn't really come into the cycle to work question.

 

[Patrick]

ah
so am I right in thinking I can pretty much order what I want then through Halfords but pay a 10% approx handling charge for them administrating the scheme for my employer. I'll need to ask for more information from my employer about it I think as I really don't fancy anything Halfords actually sells, except the Halfords Professional Tool range which I think is very good value but doesn't really come into the cycle to work question.

Looking at their website (Halfords cycle2work) it looks like Halfords don't charge an admin fee, but you are limited to buying from them and the time limit is something they impose (probably to keep admin costs down).

There's another common Cycle-to-Work Scheme agent called CycleScheme, they let you buy from a wide range of shops, but they charge the shops 10% commission.

Patrick

 

[gbeton]

Hi

My employer used the Halfords cycle to work scheme and it is still a reasonably good deal for the employee (obviously the employer makes money out of it through NI and tax contribution reduction).

The only electric bikes they seem to be doing at the moment are Powabyke, Gocycle and (if they haven't barred any new orders) Urban Mover. However, this does change from time to time and I believe that they have just added another couple of suppliers - but unfortunately Wisper is NOT amongst them. They will only let you order up to £1000 so some of the more expensive ebikes will not be available to you.

I ended up going for a Powabyke X-6 and have found it really good - but I suppose it depends on what you want out of it at the end of the day!

Graeme

 

[HarryB]

My company used the Halfords scheme and it is reasonably good (and in many ways better than Cyclescheme). You are not restricted to their bikes (and I would say that the Boardman are very good value for money and great bikes) or electric bikes. You can ring up their advisors and they can source almost any bike. In my case I bought a Kalkoff from 50 Cycles through them - sure I lost some of the discount £100 but I got a voucher from Halfords for £100 - enabling me to buy Marathon Plus tyres amongs other things. We are now with Cyclescheme which brings its own problems.