Breakdown cover: Get the cheapest roadside recovery

TraceyS_4

Just a note for money savers. Living in sunny Norn Iron not all of the recovery companies are available here so we have to use a local garage or the two biggies. I got renewal forms through from the AA today, quoting me £ 46.00 basic roadside recovery for the next year. I chequed with the RAC and they could do it online for £33. I called the AA and they offered to reduce my fee to £34.50 with a guarantee that they would keep the price low for the next 4 years. I call that a result. :T

kkp6

I'm looking for 10 days cover in France next week - managed to get cover for £25 from http://www.insureandgo.com/Breakdown-Insurance.html which seems good value

thanks for the useful posts!

MarkyMarkD

There's a lot of delusion in this thread - and in Martin's original article to be honest - about the "value" of Tesco Clubcard vouchers.

A £10 Tesco Clubcard voucher is only worth £10 if you would spend it in the shop, if you didn't use it to buy your breakdown cover. If your real alternative use of the voucher would be to buy another Clubcard deal, priced at £40 but probably worth £30 or so, then you are actually losing £30 by using it to buy breakdown cover. And hence the "bargain" breakdown cover you are buying for "only" £30 of Clubcard vouchers is actually costing you £90 worth of other Deals you are missing out on.

By all means use Clubcard vouchers for breakdown cover, if you would otherwise just spend them in the shop. But if you would otherwise buy other Deals, don't delude yourself that the breakdown cover is "only" costing you £30 or whatever, and hence reject AutoAid which genuinely costs only £36.

CurlyPreston

Any ideas on good deals for van cover? Autoaid and auto national don't cover and I'm a bit stuck!

help2save

I have been with AutoAid now for just over a year.

In my first year I had to call them when I got a flat tyre (with two children under 3 in the car). As my car is a 7-seater Touran, there is no spare!
The recovery truck came out to me within 30 minutes and took me, the children and the car to a garage where the tyre could be replaced.
I have just renewed again for this year and got a flat on the M25 last week (again with the two kids in the car!). No problem, recovery with me again within 30 minutes and took us all to a tyre garage.

I have to say that the recovery for a flat tyre is only covered as there is no way the car can carry a spare, but have had great service both times and would recommend to all!!!!!
:j

leviathan

Wondering if anyone might has some reccommendations for which company to go for.

I've no need for a road side assistance service. I'm mechnically well minded and the 3 occassions in my life I've needed to call the breakdown service the car was never going to be fixed (eg: seeing inside the engine).
Basically if I'm calling them I need a tow to somewhere.

I've been with Britannia via CSMA and they've been good but it's expensive for what it is.

I doubt it, but is there a no frills service which will just two you to your destination?

money2008

Hello
I have just received my RAC renewal and its £72
At present I have Joint, Roadside Cover
Can anyone tell me if they know of any other company that would be cheaper
Basically I only need it for myself so I am covered when driving to work etc
I think £72 is a little steap
Thanks

Rat_Power

Has anyone got experience of using the Mitsubishi Assistance UK & European Breakdown Recovery package? I was recently automatically registered for this service by my local garage as they carried out a 'franchised service' on my Ford Ka which I've owned since new. The cover provided is comparable to my RAC breakdown cover and is free so I agreed to be registered but it would be great to have feedback on Mitsubishi's breakdown service to know whether or not it really is any good or as good as the RAC.

Armed with my new, free cover I rang the RAC to amend our breakdown policy from a joint membership to a single membership so my partner could still be covered with them. But I was told that I couldn't amend my membership because my renewal payment was being 'processed'. I was annoyed at this because my membership was not due to be renewed for another 9 days or 7 working days.

Surely this delay is excessive and is in breech of some sort of consumer protection law. I know when I buy something on my credit card I can view it on my online statement the next day so why does the RAC need 7 working days to 'process' a payment when they already have all the credit card details.

To add further insult to injury the RAC then told me that the earliest I could amend my membership details and request a refund for a single membership was 4 November ie another 4 workings days after my credit card account would have been debited on 29 October.

I was very unhappy about this state of affairs and then luckily for me Martin's MSE weekly email arrived and in the course of reading about the O2 broadband best buy I discovered all about cashback sites of which I was unaware. And now having read other people's experience of using cashback sites for breakdown cover I decided to cancel our RAC policy outright and start again using a cashback site for my partner's cover. Funnily enough I never would have done that if the RAC had just allowed me to change the policy when I originally rang them! And now they have lost a long-standing, previously happy and loyal member. And so has BT broadband for that matter. I do hope someone from RAC customer services monitors sites such as Martin's because then they would get some useful, honest feedback vital to their business and maybe learn about how to treat their customers fairly in future.

Sorry about the length of this missive but anyone thinking of using RAC should be aware of the above.

Long live Martin's MSE website.

Rat_Power

Has anyone got experience of using the Mitsubishi Assistance UK & European Breakdown Recovery package? I was recently automatically registered for this service by my local garage as they carried out a 'franchised service' on my Ford Ka which I've owned since new. The cover provided is comparable to my RAC breakdown cover and is free so I agreed to be registered but it would be great to have feedback on Mitsubishi's breakdown service to know whether or not it really is any good or as good as the RAC.

Armed with my new, free cover I rang the RAC to amend our breakdown policy from a joint membership to a single membership so my partner could still be covered with them. But I was told that I couldn't amend my membership because my renewal payment was being 'processed'. I was annoyed at this because my membership was not due to be renewed for another 9 days or 7 working days.

Surely this delay is excessive and is in breech of some sort of consumer protection law. I know when I buy something on my credit card I can view it on my online statement the next day so why does the RAC need 7 working days to 'process' a payment when they already have all the credit card details.

To add further insult to injury the RAC then told me that the earliest I could amend my membership details and request a refund for a single membership was 4 November ie another 4 workings days after my credit card account would have been debited on 29 October.

I was very unhappy about this state of affairs and then luckily for me Martin's MSE weekly email arrived and in the course of reading about the O2 broadband best buy I discovered all about cashback sites of which I was unaware. And now having read other people's experience of using cashback sites for breakdown cover I decided to cancel our RAC policy outright and start again using a cashback site for my partner's cover. Funnily enough I never would have done that if the RAC had just allowed me to change the policy when I originally rang them! And now they have lost a long-standing, previously happy and loyal member. And so has BT broadband for that matter. I do hope someone from RAC customer services monitors sites such as Martin's because then they would get some useful, honest feedback vital to their business and maybe learn about how to treat their customers fairly in future.

Sorry about the length of this missive but anyone thinking of using RAC should be aware of the above.

Long live Martin's MSE website.

money2008

money2008 wrote: »

Hello
I have just received my RAC renewal and its £72
At present I have Joint, Roadside Cover
Can anyone tell me if they know of any other company that would be cheaper
Basically I only need it for myself so I am covered when driving to work etc
I think £72 is a little steap
Thanks

Can Anyone Help??