Compare Breakdown Cover Car Breakdown Discussion

stuart_b

Review of buying and amendment processes and some of their terms only - not had to call.

Bought a policy for West Europe couple of days ago.  I then needed to delay the trip by a day.  The terms say that a full refund of premium is available and no cancellation fee, but the arrangement fee is not refunded. 

So I asked about amending.  Not possible.  My only options were to buy a separate policy (but adding one day comes out as a nutty price) or buy a new policy with the same insurer and they would waive the "cancellation fee" (which is £0 anyway). 

I checked again with them and they actually meant that they'd give a full refund (i.e. including arrangement fee) as a goodwill thing.  So better than what  they had actually said (just a bit confusing when terminology is used incorrectly).

Replies for these queries were quick and helpful otherwise.  I got confirmation that they had processed a refund within 15 minutes of providing the new policy details - this sort of thing is helpful when you've a million things to sort for a trip. 

Negatives?

Watch out for big jumps in price for small changes to dates.  Going from 9 days to 10 days gave me a 50% increase in the price.  Odd.

The policy terms (National Breakdown - others will differ presumably) are mostly OK although there's an awful lot of slightly dubious restrictions.  e.g. if you have broken glass or windscreen, you're not covered.  It's not clear if this applies even if you've called for a different breakdown issue.

"Slightly" concerning that claims are excluded for the following: "Any damage or loss to your vehicle or its contents and any injury to you or any third party caused by us or the recovery operator."   

There are a lot of other dos and don'ts, but a) it's insurance and b) I guess they have to cater for all the idiots out there.

But worth checking what you are and are not covered for of course rather than finding out by the side of a cold, wet D road in the middle of rural France-shire :-)

BrexitHorrorman

OK, so generally good for those who've simply bought cheap cover and BAD for those who've unfortunately required their services.

My headline would be: AVOID AT ALL COSTS! I've paid 'em for years and never needed them. Last night I had to call them having ruined a tyre at the edge of a road on a foggy night. They wouldn't help me - said it was classified as an 'accident' and I'd need to go through my insurer. Pleading didn't work.

Put me through to their 'insurance department' - choice of recovery or I could find a local mobile tyre fitter and claim back up to £70 of the callout fee (minus the £30 excess, i.e. £40 max back). Asked this dept. for their own email and phone number - she spent over a minute trying to track down her own number. Totally unprofessional. Felt like calling some backstreet taxi firm who didn't know what they were doing.

No support, No help - I'd rather pay more (I WILL in future!) and pay for a SERVICE, not some payout avoidance scheme.

BrexitHorrorman

WARNING PEEPS! Had a reply from CBC/Eversure about their definition of "an accident". The policy wording is as follows:"an Accident is where the vehicle is involved in an incident that is unintentional and unexpected". OK, so hitting a pothole puncturing my tyre or damaging my wheel - clearly an accident = no help. How about the cambelt snapping, rendering the car undriveable; clearly "unintentional and unexpected" = no help. So, what sort of incidents WOULD count as a breakdown where help would be offered. Clearly, incidents that ARE intentional and expected: I smash my own windscreen on purpose. I'll get help. I jam a nail into my car tyre. Yup, they'll help with that. Surely, this is one of those cases where the wording means that the policy truly isn't worth the paper it's written on.

em52

I am currently dealing with a nightmare caused by CBC.  We took out their European breakdown cover.  We broke down in France and they provided no help whatsoever.  We paid to get ourselves off the autoroute which I understand is normal practice, but then after saying they would send someone, they simply did not.  We had to organise to get the car to a garage and hire a car despite it being Saturday afternoon and everything being closed. We were lucky to be helped by the guys who rescued us from the autoroute but had to pay over the odds for that help. Our car is still in France because CBC assured us they would repatriate it and we should just fly home.  They promised several times to cover our travel expenses.  Several weeks later and they have now decided to refuse to repatriate the car, have paid us no travel expenses and we are faced with either scrapping the car or paying to repatriate it ourselves. They have literally done nothing at all to help us and broken their contract since they provided no breakdown service at all and have not compensated us for the money we spent. The whole thing has cost us thousands and is still ongoing since trying to either repatriate the car or scrap it is complicated and a massive headache.  If anyone has any advice for me I'd appreciate it as though we have launched a complaint they are saying it can take 8 weeks to resolve and we can't afford storage fees in the French garage for that long. If anyone is thinking of taking out European cover with these people please don't, they have absolutely no idea what they are doing.

captaintee

WARNING I have just found out the car breakdown cover bought with insurance is sometimes useless. My son recently broke down and called the RAC out as per his policy. However, after 8 hours they sent a local mechanic who couldn't repair it so they the called the RAC to tell them they need a recovery vehicle the RAC said it is not covered. It transpires the cover was only for upto 10 miles from his home and this was 120 miles. It was now 2.00am my son had no choice but to leave his car and get a mini cab back (£280) we then drove all the way to his car repaired the broken part all of 20 minutes and then all the way back. CHECK with your cover so you don't find yourself in the same situation. The policy has three options A,B and C the insurance company DOES NOT say this, it's only in the extra document when the policy is already bought.

piperdanny123

  Hya Tried the Breakdown Cover but nothing about any Discount was Offered,  

nath340

Recently used the site as I had been quoted an outrageous renewal price, which saw my premium quote almost double for no good reason (worth noting that I have personal, not car cover).

Compared prices which I had found via the MSE site and used them as the basis for the renewal discussion with the AA, who were the cheapest on the sites. They agreed to (almost) match the new customer prices on offer and I saved a total of £115 on my renewal for the exact same package. 

Thanks MSE!  

RL11

I mainly use my car for short local journeys with an occasional long trip away. I still like to have breakdown cover and have been with AutoAid for a while. This year they added a £10 spouse premium and a £9 service charge so came in at £73.64. Still pretty good value compared to AA and RAC but I thought I'd try CBC. Only £39.98 for Gold cover via National Breakdown. The number I have to ring, looks to be a CBC number rather than a National Breakdown number, so that's a little worrying. Obviously I won't experience any service unless I do breakdown, so will have to wait and see.

DavePumpkin

22Dec24: MSE asked me to report if I tried "CBC Compare Breakdown Cover"..  I did: the prices it came up with for my criteria with no Excess were £39 upwards, which was more than my current RescueMyCar have just quoted me to renew (at £34-44 - a big hike from last year's £19.67 but I assume I have to suck it up)...  I have no experience of having to deal with RescueMyCar so I don't know how good/bad they might be...

Lyrawill

Used tool to compare breakdown. These were most expensive quotes. Found best price on Emergency Assist