Traveling without breakdown service: in case of breakdown, who can i call?

skiddy2k

hi, going to be travellling today in the last minute from london to birmingham.

i dont have breakdown cover with anybody but was wondering if i happend to need assistance from a breakdown service, can i call the AA or RAC to come and help me out?

i was told it'l cost me an arm n leg, anyone experianced this before? who did you call?

thanks in advance,
skiddy

Woby_Tide

someone did it here last week, cost about £50 more than the normal 'online' price as they were already broken down. One of the two also specified they would only tow a certain distance as it was new policy i.e. max 50 miles tow

loobs40

found this on the rac website

Broken down?
If you are broken down at the moment please call 08000 280964 to speak to an advisor and quote WJ0003. You will be able to join and get Roadside assistance today.

loobs40

My boyfriend broke down on the M6 recently when his clutch cable snapped. Luckily he managed to get the car back to North Wales, albeit slowly.

I decided it was time to get him membership of the RAC using my Tesco Club card vouchers, which I duly did. On the very day his membership came through he was on the M6 again and this time had a minor shunt with the car in front . Unfortunately since his car was more or less held together by rust and mud, he had to call out the RAC and he was duly towed all the way back to North Wales where his local garage declared the car a write off.

I dread to think how much the towing charges would have been had we not joined the RAC

richardw

Some breakdown services don't cover breakdowns within the first 48 hours of membership, so be careful.

IsabelleMedusa

I actually work for an international breakdown insurance and can tell you the following (dont worry i will only give info I know)
First first: if you call one of them they may tell you that if you are not covered with them they would have to charge you some handling cost on top of the towing (handling fee can be from £50 to £150!!!) or they will just tell you that they wont help you. Call out is in the region of £55/£60 inc of 20miles round trip for them, count £0.90/miles for extra miles as round trip (garage to you, to your destination, then back to base) judgine
As our freind mentioned earlier they may not want to take you all the way to your destination, they could just say "we can take you to the nearest repairer" (classic) this all depend on company policy (and policy wording if you choose to take one)
Some breakdown insurance will not take vehicles over 10 years, and if they do they more than likely ask you for a premium.
And if you choose to get a cover, make very sure you read the policy wording, never presume that you are covered for an incident..............................I could go on and on and on.....if you have further queries about some details (although I cant really tellyou which one to buy i will be glad which points to look out for in the small print and confusing large print)
Have a safe trip