The Netherlands - Bicycle Insurance (Fietsverzekering)

(image: karateinsurance.com)

In essence, bikes are essential if you want to live in the Netherlands for a long term. Because of that, there is actually such a thing called the bicycle insurance, or in Dutch, fietsverzekering. I knew you can buy insurance for cars and house, but bike insurance is something new to me. I didn't know about this until the bike that my landlord lent me was stolen yesterday.

Unless you live in a big city or own a car, it's hard to survive without a bike in the Netherlands.

Biking is rather safe here beacuse there are designated paths for bikes almost everywhere, so the only danger you will face on the road is hitting fellow bikers or pedestrians. Or maybe dangerous car drivers. In Wageningen, where my university is located, sometimes you just have to walk on a bike lane because they only care about the bikers. Before I was able to ride a bike, I actually had to do that frequently and bikers in the Netherlands don't like to go slow. I even had to write "please build more paths for pedestrians" in the student satisfaction survey.



Parking your bike is very easy, too. There are many designated parking space or poles on road sides. Recently, Rotterdam Centraal Station just opened a cool underground parking space just below the station.

Just go swoosh on the travellator

It looks like a parking garage for cars!

Why should you buy insurance for your bike? I mean, it's just a bike!
I did some research, and this site mentioned that according to Telegraaf, a Dutch news agency, 450,000 bikes are reported stolen every year. Meanwhile, according to CBS, a statistics agency, only one out of three theft incidents were reported in 2008.

It's kind of sad that I'm only one out of the 450,000. I feel so puny. Tsk.

Is it worth the money? I mean, you can get second-hand bikes for 40 euros.
The cost of bike insurance in the Netherlands can go as low as 2 euros per month at HEMA. Like car insurance, the premiums depend on the type of bikes you own and in some cases, age and city. The bigger the city, the more expensive the insurance cost. For example, from the same company, you'll have to pay 6.50 euros if you live in Rotterdam and only 3.75 if you live in Wageningen.

And by the way, some bikes just cost a lot.

(image: fietsenwinkel.nl)

This kind of bikes can cost you around 500 euros. Meanwhile, you can buy an old, used car for as low as 800 euros. The electric bikes? 1500-2000 euros. Imagine the pain of losing it.

How does it work?
What they do is they will give you money based on the purchase price. They will also make sure to take into account depreciation. Meaning, if your bike costs 80 euros from the shop and you've been using it for more than 3 years, you'll get less money back from the insurance.

That's why it's good to keep the receipt of your bike. It's probably difficult to still get a receipt when you buy a second-hand bike, but some people still keep the receipts. When I bought my first bike, I got a receipt from its previous owner :)