Breakdown cover: Get the cheapest roadside recovery

Aletank

dennyboy wrote:

I'm afraid I disagree with Martin on this one, just got RAC cover for myself and the misus for £63.99. http://www.rac.co.uk/web/breakdowncover/uk/;jsessionid=1B3D2F7DEDEE98EF50B0232CBE3E3FB5
However went through quidco and got £20 back, which makes it £43.99. This is Solution 2 with homestart the lot. You do have to setup a direct debit, just make sure you cancel on the 10th month (put it in your diary).
I do think it is more "hassle" to reinburse than simply cancel a DD on my online banking

Would cancelling your Direct Debit be enough to cancel the policy after 12 months?
Why do you cancel on the 10th month then ?Why not the 2nd or 8th or 11th etc?

anniecave

I am also not sure about the Tesco Vouchers via the RAC.

I think the prices in the article may be incorrect.

Going to:

http://www.rac.co.uk/web/breakdowncover/uk/?affinity_name=omgaff

there is no RAC Roadside At Home that I can see for £80 web price!

RAC Roadside/Recovery may be solution 1 that doesn't include "at home" or could be solution 3 that does include "at home" - they are the same price on the rac website!

RAC Roadside/Recovery & Onward Travel should be solution 4 so that should include "at home"

anniecave

just looked at the tesco clubcard website and that doesn't say whether "at home" is included or not!

Guest_Room

I have to agree with the poster who said you get what you pay for. In the case of care breakdown cover, the main factor for me is whether the attending resource is likely to fix my car at the roadside - and that invariably means that RAC or AA will win hands down.

Don't be confused by the figures which all breakdown companies quote which state that they fix 80%+ of breakdowns at the roadside. First of all, this excludes terminal failures (like a siezed engine, RTA damage or other major breakdown which could never be fixed at the roadside); it also includes faults like run out of petrol, wheel change and flat battery which will always be fixed, regardles of who attends.

The critical breakdowns are the ones in the middle. And in my experience, only liveried patrols will have the parts, expertise and - most importantly - time to attempt to repair these. Local garages do not carry stock of parts - if they need a part, they call a local motor factor and it is delivered to them the same day (within hours). This is not an option when their mechanic is at the side of the road. RAC and AA Patrols do carry huge range of spare parts, including leads, plugs, connectors and all the usual bits that go wrong in cars.

And they receive a bonus based on the number of cars they fix at the roadside - so it is in their interests to fix you if the possibly can.

For this reason, RAC and AA will always represent better value than all the others, even though they may not always be the cheapest.

MarkyMarkD

So cynical, Guest_Room.

This is a somewhat ancient anecdote, but I had an alternator replaced on the hard shoulder of the M5 on a bank holiday several years ago.

The total bill was under £100.

The repairer was a local independent recovery operator, called out by the police because I didn't have any breakdown cover.

I don't believe that the AA/RAC have a monopoly on undertaking major repairs to get you going again.

Car faults are also far less likely to be easily repaired at the roadside nowadays - failures tend to be more catastrophic and to require main dealer attention IMHO.

mad_cash_cow

"Any ideas on cheapest single trip european cover. This was sort of mentioned in the article and Ifollowed the link to moneysupermarket.com but couldnt find it there.
Cheers"

I second this. Quite happy to go with AutoAid, but not if adding 10 days in France will bring the total to more than one of the "big names" packages that include European travel. Has anyone found quotes for a few days in France, apart from using the link on the AutoAid website itself?

Thanks!!

The Cow

dennyboy

Aletank wrote:

Would cancelling your Direct Debit be enough to cancel the policy after 12 months?
Why do you cancel on the 10th month then ?Why not the 2nd or 8th or 11th etc?

Hi Aletank, Yea there should be no problem setting up a direct debit then cancel it. It is the fact that you have setup a DD that gets you the big reduction as the RAC know most people couldn't be bothered to cancel (Except us MSE's of course!) so setting this up is good enough for them.

I was only said the 10th month as this is near towards the end and you probably wouldn't get too many letters saying you have cancelled your DD & do you want to setup again as they would probably try to keep you as a customer. So cancel when you like, maybe soon after payment of the DD, its up to you when you cancel, although don't leave it too late. So your quite right, I just put that for the hell of it! Sorry it was a bit misleading in hindsight.

JuniperBerry_3

mad_cash_cow wrote:

"Any ideas on cheapest single trip european cover. This was sort of mentioned in the article and Ifollowed the link to moneysupermarket.com but couldnt find it there.
Cheers"

I second this. Quite happy to go with AutoAid, but not if adding 10 days in France will bring the total to more than one of the "big names" packages that include European travel. Has anyone found quotes for a few days in France, apart from using the link on the AutoAid website itself?

Thanks!!

The Cow

Yes, this needs some more MSE type research, best I've found for 4 days to Germany in the summer is £16.76 which is Europ Assist via Insureandgo.com

mad_cash_cow

Thanks JuniperBerry,

£25.84 for 11 days in France. Much cheaper than any others I've found. I couldn't work out whether OH was also covered to drive though

invernowie

I have emailed Auto Aid twice to ask for info regarding response times in the Scottish Highlands. Some companies regard Inverness as a 'remote' area, and provide a lesser service.
Auto Aid have not replied to my enquiry.
Is this the type of service I can expect if I take out a policy with them, and live in the Inverness area?