Cycle to work scheme surcharges/commission fees

ozburt

If buying your bike from a listed local bike shop through Cycle to Work you will get charged a commission fee/surcharge depending which scheme is used and can vary between 5-15%. 
Can this be incorporated into the full cost of the bike so that it is deducted from your monthly salary? Or is it treated as a separate entity? 
I want to avoid having to pay this fee from my pocket and have it deducted monthly as part of the total cost (cost of bike + surcharge) but don't know if it is possible or not.
Has anyone using any of the Cycle to Work schemes had any problems doing this?
Thanks 

Ballard

From what I gather you have to cough up this amount out of your pocket.

My employer has put a scheme in place temporarily as several people now want to cycle to work. They picked Halfords but I want to upgrade my bike to something better than Halfords sell so that’s no good to me. I can, however, use Tredz who are a Welsh outfit.

Tredz do have the sort of bike I want and for the price bracket I’m looking at (c£2,400) I would save around £730 tax. Unfortunately, because my employer requires that the full sum is repaid this tax year the bike falls into the highest post-scheme fee bracket of 25% so I’d have to pay Tredz £600.

i see no point in doing that. I’d rather pay the tax to the government and go to a shop for expert advice and fitting (Tredz would be an online purchase).

I believe that Evans Cycles do not charge any fees so if you have the option of using them they’d be worth a look. Sadly my workplace opted for Halfords. 

Winnfam

Hi,
I had a similar experience today when I spoke to an independent bike shop. My employer uses the Cylcle2Work scheme which I believe is Halfords but it is possible to convert that voucher to somewhere else.  I’m not sure if it is at this point that a commission is charged to the independent shop.  The bike shop owner told me that the bike I wanted would have to be sold to me for an extra £200 over the RRP to cover the cost of the commission (15%) taken by Cycle2Work.  The shop owner explained that he had to do it in order to remain profitable which I was sympathetic to.  

I rang Cycle2Work and they would not confirm what the commission was but I sensed they had been challenged on this before.  They also said that part of the commission was justified as it facilitates the sale with the bike shop with whom I would otherwise not make a purchase which I get but that’s a classic example of a large entity holding a small business to ransom. 

There are other bike schemes that are not for profit and I think these should be promoted as this is after all a government initiative.  The more people query this with their employer, the better the scrutiny they will come under.   

[Deleted User]

Cyclescheme went to 15% in 2016 as well, some retailers factor that into the voucher e.g. Paul's Cycles who sell older year bikes at big discounts would cap the amount you could use at £900 due to the commission being included in the voucher total (guess it was 10% previously). If you're buying a bike that is in the old system capped at £1000 it was manageable, under the new setup where you could, in theory, buy a £10k superbike maybe less so. Halfords do say they can get most bike brands so not impossible to use them and just keep using the LBS for servicing and parts

Nebulous2

I’ve never had much enthusiasm for cycle-to-work, but I recently saw this about them reducing commission. It doesn’t seem to have been universally welcomed by bike shops. 

https://road.cc/content/news/cyclescheme-slashes-retailer-commission-rates-277589