Breakdown cover through insurance any good?

gazfocus

Picking up a new car (an 04 reg) on Saturday and just trying to sort out the insurance and breakdown cover. The insurance company are offering National breakdown with recover to my home for £4.50 per month (instead of the £10.50 per month that RAC quoted).

The cover is through Call Assist which I understand are a network of smaller/independent recovery services.

I don't object to paying the extra for RAC if the extra is worth it but just wondering what your thoughts are.

forgotmyname

Depends on the terms and what cover you require. It maybe just a get you to the local garage type of cover instead of all the options of homestart and onward travel.

I pay extra for the RAC but i get a much better product that suits my needs. Mine even covers towing my caravan and will take the caravan to any destination i choose and then bring it back if required.

gazfocus

forgotmyname wrote: »

Depends on the terms and what cover you require. It maybe just a get you to the local garage type of cover instead of all the options of homestart and onward travel.

I pay extra for the RAC but i get a much better product that suits my needs. Mine even covers towing my caravan and will take the caravan to any destination i choose and then bring it back if required.

Thanks. As above, the price quoted from the insurer is to include recovery to my home or any destination within the UK, rather than a 'nearest garage' type cover, but neither policies included onward travel (although that was an extra £2 a month with either policy.

I am leaning towards paying the extra for RAC just because I know it'll be RAC coming out to me rather than an independent.

EssexExile

Our insurer wanted to charge £80 for Green Flag whereas going direct we got exact same cover for under £50.

dacouch

I've used it before a few times and generally find they attend faster than RAC / AA as they're using local recovery companies so they tend to not have to travel so far.

The other thing I have found better than RAC/AA is they tend to send a recovery truck out as the first response as opposed to RAC/AA who send a transit van out and then if it needs recovery they then call a tow truck so you endure another wait

Inner_Zone

gazfocus wrote: »

Thanks. As above, the price quoted from the insurer is to include recovery to my home or any destination within the UK, rather than a 'nearest garage' type cover, but neither policies included onward travel (although that was an extra £2 a month with either policy.

I am leaning towards paying the extra for RAC just because I know it'll be RAC coming out to me rather than an independent.

Unless its changed both the AA and RAC used to sometimes use local subcontractors depending on location, demand etc.

InsideInsurance

Many companies use locals.

Certainly Greenflag used to be all local companies but paid for a few of them to paint their trucks in the GF livery.

Similarly when my old Saxo broke down the RAC initially sent out their own van but when it was decided it needed recovering I had to wait again for a second vehicle to attend and this time it was a local company.

AA used to be the only one that was 100% their own vehicles but dont know if that is true or not any more.

Iceweasel

Because one of my vehicles is a 1998 camper which is overweight and too old for many of the breakdown/rescue companies I joined the ADAC.

€109 (£80) for both my wife and I - any vehicle, anywhere in the world.

Better and more comprehensive cover than the AA, RAC, et al can offer at any price.

I gave up on the RAC a couple of years ago when the membership went over £200 including the European Cover.

I checked a few weeks back before I renewed my ADAC membership and the RAC price for the cover I need has reached £248.83.

I checked the AA too - they wanted £205 for my wife and I, plus an additional £298.86 for European Cover.

So the AA are having a laugh aren't they - over £500 compared to the ADAC's £80- and the cover is less extensive.

The great laugh is that if I phone the ADAC for breakdown help in the UK - it'll be the AA that are sent as they are the ADAC's UK partner.

Car_54

dacouch wrote: »

I've used it before a few times and generally find they attend faster than RAC / AA as they're using local recovery companies so they tend to not have to travel so far.

The other thing I have found better than RAC/AA is they tend to send a recovery truck out as the first response as opposed to RAC/AA who send a transit van out and then if it needs recovery they then call a tow truck so you endure another wait

That's all true. However the other question is whether they can actually solve your problem. AA/RAC will send a patrol maybe 80-90% of the time, and claim they fix 80-ish% of breakdowns.

The others will always send a contractor, who may not even try to fix it. Yes, you get towed home more quickly, but you've still got a dead car.