Breakdown cover

almoststew1990

almoststew1990

almoststew1990

Soldato
Joined
12 May 2011
Posts
6,305
Location
Southampton
Is it best to stick to the main ones AA / RAC / Greenflag? Is one head-and-shoulders better or to be avoided or are they much of a muchness?

I'd be going for my car only with the roadside towing and on-the-drive assistance too. It seems to be about £125pa for both, with RAC a little cheaper. Greenflag much cheaper, £81.
 
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OK so... which provider is best? Considering most of time it will be a 26 year old male by himself, I'll be pretty low priority, so I don't mind paying a bit more to not have to wait!
 
Might be worth checking with your bank that you bank with as it might be included if you pay a monthly fee for the account services. i.e im with Natwest which i have a platinum accout that includes green flag cover and other bits and pieces such as mobile phone cover and travel insurance
 
Does anyone know whether you have to 'use' the FlexPlus account, ie regularly pay money into it (aside from the monthly fee) in order to reap the benefits?
 
Jez said:
Nationwide flex plus, check out the benefits. It's not worth buying outside this...
Click to expand...

It depends on the sort of cover you want.

For example, I would always prefer to be recovered to my chosen garage. But all these bundled breakdown services (that I have seen) only allow for a local recovery. My RBS, for example, is a 10 mile radius from the breakdown, so pretty useless if I'm in the next city, 20 miles away, when I break down.

I had this once on my P38. They couldn't fix it at the roadside, and so could only recover me 10 miles up the road. I didn't want some numpty who was completely clueless about these things to be looking at it, nor did I want it recovered to the nearest LR dealership either. Luckily it was only the EAS had tripped so it was on it's bumpstops, but I could, and did, drive it the 60+ miles to my preferred garage, minus the 10 miles the guy actually took me up the road (it was on his way home anyway thankfully).

So last year I went through quidco, and saved about £75 with the AA. They want £180 roughly to renew, but I wont be doing that.

Of course, if you're happy with just the basic recover to nearest garage, then the bundled breakdown service with Nationwide will do nicely. Plus the mobile phone insurance is decent too. And worldwide travel insurance is a bonus.
 
I agree with you, but the nationwide cover is relay anywhere within europe, all over europe, plus home start, and onward travel, for you and your wife/partner. Its absolutely fully featured. Cover which the normal companies would charge an awful lot more for :)

(Plus you get no quibble mobile insurance with no pre reg required, and world travel insurance, again for both of you).
 
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xs2man said:
It says in th epolicy documents that its only recovery to a "local garage"
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No, it doesn't (although the wording is hard to read and convoluted, always best to check the policy with any of these insured offerings). Refer to my post above for the level of cover. It is the best cover you will get and is joint for £120/annum with the other non breakdown policies bundled in which are also worth having if you both travel and both have a reasonable phone. :)
 
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I joined Green Flag last year - cost me about £60 for everything except European coverage.
So home, rescue, recovery, onward travel, etc.
Renewal came through this year, £80.
Checked Quidco and an equivalent policy from either the AA or RAC would end up costing in the region of £60. Rang Green Flag and they matched it - so I'm with them again.

Going forward I'll just use Quidco and cycle between them so I'm treated as a "new customer" each year for maximum discounts.
 
Jez said:
No, it doesn't (although the wording is hard to read and convoluted, always best to check the policy with any of these insured offerings). Refer to my post above for the level of cover. It is the best cover you will get and is joint for £120/annum with the other non breakdown policies bundled in which are also worth having if you both travel and both have a reasonable phone. :)
Click to expand...

Are you sure?

If your vehicle cannot be driven because of a
breakdown, we will:
• Transport your vehicle, you and up to 7
passengers that are in the vehicle at the time
of the breakdown to a local place of repair if
repairs cannot be completed at your home
address or at the roadside

If the fault or damage cannot be repaired at
the local repairers by the end of the working
day on which the breakdown occurred, and the
breakdown occurred more than a ¼ of a mile
from your home address, we will transport
your vehicle, you and up to 7 passengers to a
destination of your choice in the UK (we will
not pay for any other recoveries)
Click to expand...

That's a straight quote from the policy document. Put the LOCAL bit in bold. It means they will recover you to a local garage first, and only relay you if they can't fix it that day. Slightly different than just taking you straight where you want / need to go.

Also...

What isn’t covered

• Any recovery costs other than to a local place
of repair if the breakdown occurred at your
home address or within a ¼ of a mile of your
home address
Click to expand...

All this info can be found on page 7 of the flexplus breakdown policy document.

As I said though, it depends on what level of cover you want. That might be fine for you.
 
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xs2man said:
That's a straight quote from the policy document. Put the LOCAL bit in bold. It means they will recover you to a local garage first, and only relay you if they can't fix it that day. Slightly different than just taking you straight where you want / need to go.
Click to expand...

That sounds like it'd be a lot more convenient if you're on holiday half way across the country or something anyway though, no? If they can fix it, then happy days. If not, you get recovered home anyway.
 
Yeah sure. In that circumstance it is handy.

If you breakdown 50-100 miles from home / your preferred garage though, who knows where you'll get?

For me it's a bit different I guess? I am relatively rural, and often visiting cities between 50-150 miles away (at least 2-3 times a month, often more), and often with my kids. So if I can get recovered to my preferred garage straight away, I can easily make arrangements for my kids to get home from there so they aren't hanging around a garage all day.

Compared to the once or twice a year I might actually be properly on the other side of the country.

Anyway, I do have, now, this packaged flexplus account, so can use their service if I need it (worth it for me for the travel insurance and mobile insurance anyway). Plus I will likely get another breakdown policy that covers my getting to where I want, when I need it.
 
I recently took out an AA policy, i think i've got the relay and onward travel, didn't require home-start.

Total cost was £99, and with TCB i think i'll get back almost £50. So £50 policy for 12 months isn't too bad.
 
I was given a years free cover with the AA when I bought my last car, I can only assume its the lowest package (claims to be worth 125 quid) and hopefully I never have to use it but what I do like about it is the app is handy for storing information about mine and my other half's car (service, insurance and mot due dates) and another pleasant surprise is the member discounts on restaurants. I've saved about 60 quid so far this year as you get 20% at quite a few places.
 
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