Maybe one for law experts? I took out breakdown cover last year for my car at £66.94 and the renewal is £77.28.
After a bit of typing on their website - a very similar car to mine at a nearby address as a new customer would be paying £66.94 today for 12 months breakdown cover.
The new rules don't come in until January IIRC.
Not a clue.
I think it is coming in for "ordinary" motor insurance, don't think it is here yet
Sorry, don't know. But NFU seems to offer a breakdown package with insurance that is cheaper than the usual suspects.
They're amenable to discussion. I moaned once and they came up with a better plan for me, wife and cars that saved me about £11 one year. Also when I stopped buying it through my insurance (Direct Line and Greenflag are owned by the same company) and went direct to Green Flag the price was £28 cheaper than joined to my car insurance renewal!
So it's always worth a polite discussion/moan/grimace etc.
I've been with this lot:
Seems like there are also PAYG breakdown services like:
where you pay nothing unless you breakdown, which might be worth it if you rarely breakdown or can handle many of them yourself. I'm not sure if I'm brave enough to cancel my policy rely on startups like this yet though.
Theo
For insurance there are new "anti price-walking" rules coming into effect from 1st Jan, not sure if they extend to breakdown membership though?
Theo pretended :
Thanks
The first one suggests £99 to be rescued, with 30 minutes roundside work included.
The second one offers a sort of bidding system to rescue you, you choose the quote to accept.
Yes, I do and have paid for unused cover for many years. I might look at this a little more when my present cover ends.
While the FCA investigation was mainly into motor and home insurance, they stated that they fully expected to find the same thing in other products and intended for the rules to cover them in the same way. Whether they have actually done that I don't know.
I notice their adverts running on radio, you know the one with a lot of rude words altered, seems to be saying that the prices are low for new customers. Its the same way most of the internet companies carry on, give a discount to the new but keep rising the cost to the existing customer to subsidise the new ones. The question is, does this policy actually work? Are people so loathe to change or haggle, or does it not matter and its expected, Insurance companies have been at it for years. Brian
Sounds like for now it only covers breakdown if sold as part of car policy, not separately
and I don't believe apply to this type of product anyway
whilst it is technically an insurance policy, it's isn't personally calculated insurance.
It's a one-size-fits-all product for which the "normal" annual fee ought to be fully discoverable at the point that you receive the "new customer" discount.
Hm,
looks like a business model that destined to failure
It seems so. It is those who pay the full cost when they renew each year, that subsidise those who move for a better deal or haggle.
At each renewal I am prepared to move, armed with prices, then haggle. The haggling generally works and I get a new customer discount, or sometimes even better. It only takes a few minutes and save myself many pounds per year doing it.
Why?
When I had breakdown through my car insurance, it was a local garage tow truck that came out. Presumably they're on some kind of breakdown network - ie insurer contracts with the network (who have numerous insurers as customers), then network contracts with garages. When you call them out, the network calls the nearest local garage for you.
If a local garage has a tow truck anyway (they do accident repairs, say) why not have a system that puts you in touch with them and pay them directly? Then they get paid when people use them, and the overheads of not using the service are minimal.
Theo
[...]
I am as much of a tight-wad as anyone but I would NEVER go for the cheapest breakdown cover.
First I want a company that actually runs breakdown services. If they are just running a phone service referring you to any old local tow truck then you may as well just use google on your own phone.
Secondly all these companies will first try and get you to pay up front with your own card (which obv you do because you are desperate), then they have a handful of ready made excuses for not paying out, like it's your fault for not maintaining your car, you were involved in an accident, you need to claim against the tyre manufacturer/your house insurance/another driver etc.
So often they aren't providing any kind of service at all, just taking your money. To get any value you need to go with a reputable breakdown service.
TW
Good idea if it works. I was with the AA for 30 years, privately and through my employer, and only called them out twice.
Don't know the answers I'm afraid, but FWIW I do all that through my current account (nationwide) - about £150pa for breakdown, phone and holiday insurance.
Theo explained on 24/08/2021 :
+1If you had a database of such local breakdown companies, then you could simply find the nearest one and ring them yourself.
All these companies are doing is simply offering a single contact system, where they find your nearest ones, ring round and offer them the job.
TimW explained on 24/08/2021 :
You don't know that, you are guessing. More research needs to be done.
The main advantage of being on a network like these or AA / RAC is it possibly more likely they will have people on call when you break down at ten to midnight on Christmas Eve. Whereas the local garage will be shut and there's no way to extract the mobile number of the guy with the breakdown truck from their website, and he probably wouldn't answer a random person ringing at that time anyway.
Although there's a good question as to whether these PAYG networks will have coverage at those times, or if it'll be like taxi apps where the drivers just sign out when they feel like, leaving you without anyone to pick you up.
There's something to be said for being on the AA/RAC/etc network so that you're slightly higher up the priority list when everyone is stuck in a snowdrift and calls shoot up. But that assumes you drive in that kind of situation in the first place.
Theo
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