European Breakdown cover?

jhe

Help! I am going round in circles here.
Need breakdown cover for the end of the month, 8 days in France.
have priced up on various online sites,for the amount of cover greenflag seems decent.
so for the 8 days I need price comes out at £42 direct with greenflag or £116 for the year.
£39.99 for Green Flag through Voyager for the 8 days.
or for 1 years cover through comparethemarket £64,£26.50 of this is for European cover
I have phoned GreenFlag to ask the difference in policies and if cover differs, they cannot tell me because it would be taken out through a compare site even though the cover is with Greenflag,
anyone taken out a policy in this way? I am more concerned really that i will be fully covered for breakdown abroad,

redux

If you're likely to go more than once, or even just to have cover here in the UK, you might as well have an annual policy.

I'd go for either Quoteline Direct, which now places it with The Rescue Service for £59, or join the ADAC in Germany for €84, which you can't do online, but email them (in English will be ok).

jhe

thanks redux. just checked quoteline .
Quoteline offer £100 towards accommodation in event of breakdown Greenflag are offering £45 pp for all travelling.
Quoteline offer up to £150 alternative transport- Greenflag are £250.
thats assuming the cover with the comparesite is the same as Greenflags own site.
dont really need breakdown cover in this country but we are thinking of another trip to France next March but undecided yet, so I am thinking might be best to take an Annual breakdown policy out

Grumps

Hi. I go to France 3 or 4 times a year and, before now, have never bothered with Breakdown Cover. My own car insurance covers repatriation of the vehicle and I have contacts both sides of the Channel whereby I can get picked up or dropped off. Hence I am not interested in any overnight accommodation package (per person).

However, perhaps with age, and the complexity of modern vehicles, perhaps it is something I should consider?

Considering that I first started going to France in....1990, and that the Breakdown Cover, per visit, with the RAC, in those days, was something like £75. Multiply that number of years with the number of visits and, that adds up to a lot of Wonga.

Having put some figures into Money Super Market, I'm getting back an annual fee of £58.85 with the Green Insurance Company. There do seem to be some limitations in that it only covers the 1st hour of roadside assistance. Although, TBH, if it can't be fixed in an hour, then it's going to be a 'Garage' job.

I use a specialist Broker so I would always check what they have to offer, but this seems to be a suitable package at a reasonable price.

Iceweasel

Just in case redux's reference to ADAC didn't make it clear -

The ADAC membership of €84 is for a year anywhere in the world - not just mainland Europe.

So it includes full UK cover as well as say an accident with a hire car in the USA.

ADAC gives far more comprehensive cover than any of the others.

Probably due to the fact that the ADAC is a true motor club - for the benefit of it's members - rather than a business out to make profit for it's shareholders.

jhe

Thanks Iceweasel and redux your replies are much appreciated.
thats good advice regarding ADAC for driving worldwide .
The furthest I will be driving though is Paris
It seems a lot simpler to me and I feel more confident to book with a company that has a UK call centre and accepts payment in GBP

jhe

Grumps wrote: »

Hi. I go to France 3 or 4 times a year and, before now, have never bothered with Breakdown Cover. My own car insurance covers repatriation of the vehicle and I have contacts both sides of the Channel whereby I can get picked up or dropped off. Hence I am not interested in any overnight accommodation package (per person).

However, perhaps with age, and the complexity of modern vehicles, perhaps it is something I should consider?

Considering that I first started going to France in....1990, and that the Breakdown Cover, per visit, with the RAC, in those days, was something like £75. Multiply that number of years with the number of visits and, that adds up to a lot of Wonga.

Having put some figures into Money Super Market, I'm getting back an annual fee of £58.85 with the Green Insurance Company. There do seem to be some limitations in that it only covers the 1st hour of roadside assistance. Although, TBH, if it can't be fixed in an hour, then it's going to be a 'Garage' job.

I use a specialist Broker so I would always check what they have to offer, but this seems to be a suitable package at a reasonable price.

we to used to travel regular to France, Belgium with the car but that was back in the 90's, havn't been back with the car since then, we always if I remember correct took out cover in those days with the AA but I don't remember it being anywhere in the region of £75!! but then maybe i didn't look into the amount of cover we were getting to deeply back in those days.
yes I also noticed the Green Insurance, looked into reviews for lots of companies lots of good and bad for all of them!
think I was just playing safe with a familiar name with Green Flag,but they do seem to offer reasonable cover but just a big difference in price between their own site and comparethemarket, thats assuming they both offer the same level of cover
we have a newish car and I am pretty confident it wont breakdown but who knows! its just peace of mind to take out the cover.
our own car insurance covers us comprehensive driving abroad in case of accidents but there is no extension available to our policy to pay extra for european breakdown insurance

InsideInsurance

Ironically, in the wholesale market UK only and UK + EEA cover where it will be packaged or cross sold is the identical price. The number of overseas claims is tiny as (1) most in these cases dont actually use the car overseas and (2) those that do normally check the car over more before going than they would for a trip to the supermarket.

A number of packaged bank accounts include european breakdown cover as part of the insurance bundle they give you. If this is a one off trip it may be worth a temporary upgrade on your bank type to get the free insurance and then downgrade again on your return. Obviously just check the minimum duration you can hold the package for

Iceweasel

jhe wrote: »

Thanks Iceweasel and redux your replies are much appreciated.
thats good advice regarding ADAC for driving worldwide .
The furthest I will be driving though is Paris
It seems a lot simpler to me and I feel more confident to book with a company that has a UK call centre and accepts payment in GBP

I can well understand that jhe. Your requirements sound pretty straight forward.

As I make several lengthy European trips every year sometimes involving 11 or 12 countries I needed better cover than the AA or RAC etc. could provide.

When the cost reached £150 for the year I felt ripped-off - so when I discovered I could get better cover for approx half the cost - it became a no-brainer.

Especially as most UK companies say 'Europe' but restrict cover to the EC plus Norway and Switzerland. There are a load more European countries than that!

Anyone travelling outside the EU needs to check what cover they actually have.

davetrousers

I have a Nationwide Flexplus account, which costs £10 a month which includes European breakdown cover, travel insurance and mobile phone insurance.

jhe

Thanks everyone.
Not really wanting to change bank accounts. My own bank has an account for £15 per month for the extras, including phone insurance,( son tried to claim for this once but thats another story!).Travel insurance we have pre existing conditions to declare.
so really just wanting stand alone breakdown insurance.
Insideinsurance- quite a few of the european breakdown providers I have read up on also have a clause that says the car has to be serviced and maintained to the manufacturers standards. so i guess that lessens any possible claims