Boiler cover - is it worth it and who to get it from?

We had a letter/notification from Corgi about their Homeplan. They or it said that 'this winter, avoid hassle and save £12.26* every month'

Below that it said 'Exclusive offer Sign up now, and we'll save you £12.26* every month over Homeserve - see the comparison below'

I had a "breskdown" when the car was only 9 months old. Faulty sensor. Previous one was 25 years earlier - caused by a local garage, who done a service, bodging an electrical connection with a matchstick - which fell out.

Insurance is only worthwhile for events one can't otherwise cope with finan cially. When you buy insurance, you pay the cost of repair x the odds of re pair, plus the running costs of a large corporation, advertising budget, pr ofit and so on. Its a no-brainer.

NT

SWMBO has had very very few reasons to call the RAC (we've moved to Autoaid now) out.

The last time was for a car that was a month old. Very very cold on motorway, and the diesel waxed up. They recovered her back to our local dealer (5 mins walk away).

For me, it was when I put petrol in the (diesel) car. [hides]

Easily done.....................

So are they are going to pay you? The Homeserve web site says their top service plan is £9.50/month (For the first year and with a £50 excess)

Not uncommon

But for every one that falls into your group there are a number (greater than one) who fall into a group who pay regularly and never need to claim and end up mightily out of pocket, thus paying for all of your repairs, the company admin costs and profit.

Which group does the OP fall into?

Does he feel lucky?

Later read the Exclusions etc and yes it is a £50 excess to pay. I have binned the letter now, and so won't be contacting them.

I often tow a caravan, I see it as essential for that at least. The last time I broke down, it was a few month old vehicle and the ECU failed. The manufacturers AA cover dealt with that. The time before was around 1990, when the coil lead fell off, which I dealt with myself. Before that around 1965, when the points failed, my stupid fault, but I was stuck 150 miles from home.

Really not nice breaking down on todays busy and fast roads - so cover is fairly essential.

I was only suggesting you use them until the boiler is fixed. And although they may cost a 'fortune' to run it may well be a smaller fortune than paying for insurance you may never need.

Like all these things, it's up to you to work out the pros and cons.

I only insure things I couldn't afford to replace if disaster happened. Like the house itself.

nonsequitor

NT

From my perspective, the older the boiler the more likely an easy DIY fix, but perhaps that's not what you meant.

Engage a good, reliable local gas fitter to do the routine servicing and forget about insurance. I did and when the boiler failed on a cold winter's day he was round within a couple of hours and fixed it (failed gas valve). Don't think he answers the phone on Christmas Day though, but then British Gas would not turn out either.

If you meant non sequitur - the older I become, the more essential I see break down cover to be.

Especially with a caravan on tow, a disabled wife with time limits on exposure and two dogs in the car.

That would be fine if such cover guaranteed prompt attendance. My past two experiences of breakdown cover (RAC & AA) says it doesn't.

My final experience which proved to me they weren't worth the bother was a waterpump disintegrating on the M1 just outside London, at about 1300 on a weekday. Took the AA almost 1 1/2 hours to get a recovery truck to us - not pleasant being stuck on a busy motorway.

The recovery truck driver was near the end of his shift or whatever so wouldn't take us and the car home. Instead, he insisted it could be fixed and took us away from London to a small general garage. Who, of course didn't have a pump in stock or were prepared to get one there and then. So had to wait a couple of hours for a second truck to take us and the car home. I'd have preferred to have it taken to my specialist - but by the time we got to London, was closed for the day. So had to pay to have the car transported there later. (I'd just had a minor op on a hand and couldn't do the job myself.)

So to summarise, roughly 6 hours to do a distance of about 30 miles.

Touch wood - the AA have always done me proud when needed.

I did have quite a good opinion of them once. And the RAC, come to that. But it only takes one bad experience to make me decide they're no longer worth it. Might be different if it was something you used regularly so could draw an average.