Boiler broken - one off repair or annual boiler cover?

Rosaespanola

My boiler has been playing up lately and has now stopped working at all, and I'm not sure whether I'd be better just paying for a one off repair or if I should look at getting boiler cover. It's about 7 years old and I've been fortunate that I've never had any problem with it until now, so I've never needed to look into this sort of thing, and it seems to be a bit of a minefield with loads of options for different types of cover so I'm thoroughly confused and hoping someone will be able to advise me!
The boiler is a Potterton Promax Combi and is currently showing the error code E168. A friend who is a plumber (sadly not in my area) has told me it is likely to be an issue with the circuit board, and a local plumber has quoted me a price of £230 including parts and labour to replace the circuit board and service the boiler (which was due within the next month anyway), but he also told me that British Gas would be able to do it for £186. It seemed a bit above and beyond for him to be telling me his competitors' rates, but I gave British Gas a ring anyway to see what they could offer. They said they could do a service for £79.30 and the repair would depend how long it would take - £79 for up to half an hour, £199 for 31-120 minutes, £409 for over 2 hours. If it takes less than half an hour then it's a good bit cheaper than the local plumber, but they were unable to give me any idea in advance of how long the job might take and I have no idea how long it might take to replace a circuit board (if that's even what's wrong with it) so I'm wary of booking British Gas when I won't know until they get here how much they'll charge me.
The other option is to take out some kind of boiler cover, seeing as my boiler is getting older and might start having more issues. British Gas told me they can offer me a deal where it's £99 up front for this repair and then £22 a month (£363 for a year), which includes an annual service and all parts and labour on any repairs that are needed. I've also looked on Uswitch at boiler cover and the quote from British Gas sounds like a lot in comparison, but I don't know if that's because the boiler is broken at the moment. Is that likely to be the case?

Please help me figure out what best to do with all this - we have no heating or hot water at the moment so I want to get it sorted quickly, but I don't want to end up paying more than I need to! I'm wondering if it might be sensible to take out boiler cover now my boiler is getting older, but again, I don't want to end up paying more than necessary or being scammed. Thanks for any advice you can give me!

HappyMJ

I'd get your plumber friend to fix it at the fixed price of £230.

southcoastrgi

Yes it could be the PCB or it might not be, E168 is displayed because the boiler has detected a problem & prob displayed another fault code but the boiler can't remember what it was so you get E168, a new PCB will prob sort it but just bear in mind that there might be another problem inc a spike in the electrics or incoming voltage over 230v