AA RAC

Because they were purchased by insurance companies and have gone hill fast since covering less and less things.

They make more money because people don't know the actual likelihood of a breakdown.

I was with the AA for 29 years, privately and through my employer. I called them out precisely twice. If they had just charged for each breakdown, I would have saved a fortune. (Though perhaps I was just lucky.)

It can be done:

I asked a local recovery firm what their rates are: £90 per callout. But of course the chances are you're going to be somewhere not local when you break down, so you really need a service that puts you in touch with the nearest 24h recovery firm to make true PAYG work.

Theo

Nope, since the war, cars dont break down very often at all and we don't need someone else to change a flat tire.

Jim, I need after-sales service on your Advent notebook because the CMOS clock battery has failed! :-)

I destroyed a lap top trying to replace a cr2032 be careful.......

Is this not the same for all kinds of insurance and cover though? Back in the day of VCRs, part of the price was for 6 month service visits including heads. After a while as machines became more rreliable, it went yearly, then not at all, there was also an extra charge inf the head went for some. I used to change my own on the Philips machines as they were basically drop in replacements. However the more complex trick play machines needed half the machine to be taken apart to change the video heads and then aligned again afterwards. Brian

To me product insurance is akin to horse race gambling. The bookie (insurance company) knows more about it than you and the odds ae set accordingly

As I regularly do 250 mile journeys I use Rescue my Car which last year on a 4 year old Ford Focus cost £20. The first time I call them out I will then have to first pay them the (compulsory) £40 excess fee. This is for the rescue to home if the car cannot be fixed service.

Rates may have changed and it may depend on the age and type of car

They will call out a local (to your breakdown) garage to come out to you. I had to use the service to recover to my home and they can be a bit slow turning up - but I was in the middle of no-where in Wales :)

For many years I paid the equivalent of the £20 just for piece of mind and not had to pay the excess because I've not had to use the service.

Interesting, I hadn't seen them. They aren't so competitive if you have an older car (£45 for basic cover).

If you play the introductory offers / cashbacks / etc, you can typically get basic breakdown cover for about £30. May be some combination of single car, single driver, only away from home, only tow to the nearest garage, no onward transport. But that's roughly what you'd get from a PAYG deal anyway.

Where it gets complicated is if you have multiple people and multiple cars, you end up paying for either a multiple of the number of cars or the number of people. Even though, in real life, they may not spend any more time on the road.

Theo

Well, I've got Earth straps to hand.

Only problem is that the Earth Mat is connected directly to the mains Earth (TT installation not PME) and not through a 100kOhm resistor.

They can be pretty fiddly. When replacing CR2032s in my old clunker tower PCs, I've used a strip of sticky tape (eg duck tape) to hold them while I guide them into the socket.