OT: Breakdown Cover

I think most of the other ones are just a call centre with an addressbook of local breakdown firms. They call out one of those for you, and they may be quicker or slower depending on how local they are and how busy.

Another suggestion is AutoAid, which is like a kind of insurance policy for breakdown. You call them, they call out a breakdown firm. You pay the firm and claim on the AutoAid insurance. They tend to give you a policy with all the trimmings for the price of a basic AA/RAC, and the price is the same for everyone (although I think there's a supplement for older cars). I've not claimed but heard that they pay out on claims promptly and don't wriggle.

I've only had to call breakdown once, and that was the local firm provided via my car insurance. Which is another option worth investigating if you're near renewal time.

Theo

My insurance co recommend "Britannia Rescue".

That's because they get a commission

Mayday has worked for me (covers car and caravan) on the two occasions I needed them. The premium as remained stable for (at least) the last 3 years.

Someone who is _not_ happy with the RAC relates his horror story here:

Yes, I watched that recently. What a sorry tale, abysmal RAC performance.

I hadn't realised that a substantial influence on short relay trips was avoiding tachographs.

I do see on X a number of police postings where recovery drivers have been caught without tachographs when necessary.

Chris

actually, no. They own the company.

I have whatever comes with my bank account (Nationwide). About £200pa, and includes phone and travel insurance, and probably a few other things.

I think mine (Emergency Assist Ltd) are like that, I pay about £30/year, and haven't ever needed to call them, so can't really comment further.

I use them. I had to use them once to take the car from my home to my garage. The lorry was quick and my next year's bill no dearer.

I use Rescue my Car which charges me around £26/year for rescue - national recovery. The price dependant on the age and model of the car, my car is a 8 year old Ford Focus.

They do other policies that may offer more, or less, for more, or less, money

If I call them out I have to pay the one off excess of £40, so its £26 for piece on mind (I do regular 250mile journeys) and £66 if I call them out for the first time in that year. If you call them out more than once a year it's only the first call out where you have to pay the excess. They want a card payment for the excess when you phone them.

You really need to read their T&C carefully.

I think they cover the car and not you driving other peoples cars.

They call out local companies that provide roadside or recovery assistance. In around 15 years I've called them out twice and on both occasions it took around 90 minutes before help arrived, one time was a bank holiday in the middle of no-where. On both occasions I was recovered, once around 190 miles to home and on the second occasion around 15 miles to a local garage (close to where I was staying at the time).

Be aware that long recoveries can involve dropping you and the car at motorway service stations to be picked up again by a more local recovery company. Having said this around 30 years ago I had the same with the RAC where the car was dropped off in one of the depots and I had to wait

Possibly the higher costs with some of the better known companies is because they offer assistance on your home driveway but I believe now the T&C now may limit the number of times that you can call them out to start your car because of a knackered battery or engine.

Even better value if it is a joint a/c as the same fee covers both of us.

I've had to use whoever Nationwide use at the time but on the two or three occasions in the past 7+ years the service has always been fine.

In article snipped-for-privacy@candehope.me.uk>, charles snipped-for-privacy@candehope.me.uk> scribeth thus

Yep good firm that lot, used them and so does the rest of the tribe and they were very helpful when needed and use local breakdown service companies..

AutoAid

Frank