Breakdown cover - excess vs specialist equipment cover

DD265

I put a thread on some time last year after calling out my breakdown company, having the car winched onto the tow truck (because why wouldn't you?) then said company trying to charge me for the use of specialist equipment after the fact. Would've minded less if the car hadn't been neatly parked at the roadside and easily accessible. Subsequently realised that the majority of breakdown companies do not cover specialist equipment and that winching, amongst other things, is in that list.

I'm now in the process of getting quotes for renewal, and have a toss up:
Green Flag - £51.17, with a £40 excess and max 5 call outs per year but includes specialist equipment and misfuelling
Eversure - £35.72, with no excess, unlimited call outs but does not include specialist equipment nor misfuelling
Both are for personal cover, national, including homestart and onward journey.
I do have Evans Halshaw cover but I'm not particularly confident about putting it to the test, having found their after sales service lacking elsewhere.

I'm not anticipating breaking down, but I'm not sure anybody really expects to! Car is 5 years old and I always keep up with maintenance, previous breakdown was with old car and a stone wedged in wheel that wasn't visible until car was in the air. I'm not particularly worried about misfuelling, and now that I know about the costs of winching, I'd probably always err on the side of 'drive the car up the ramp if physically possible' anyway, so I could be throwing away £40 if I had to call GF out and they fixed the car at the roadside. On the otherhand, knowing that I wouldn't potentially be hit with £180 for winching... WWYD?

AdrianC

For context, previous threads...

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6009911/risk-driving
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6010317/breakdown-cover-winching/

The concensus back then was that there was some Michael-Extraction going on, assuming all was as described. Using the winch on a flatbed to move a non-running vehicle from the road onto the recovery truck is not "specialist equipment".

facade

AdrianC said:

The concensus back then was that there was some Michael-Extraction going on, assuming all was as described. Using the winch on a flatbed to move a non-running vehicle from the road onto the recovery truck is not "specialist equipment".

Exactly, most flatbed recoveries are "one man band" and they always winch the car on.

Specialist recovery would be winching out of a muddy field, from off a green lane or back onto a road from halfway down a mountain. 

I wouldn't expect getting a car out of a ditch to be specialist either, but these are breakdown companies, you are not broken down if you have gone off the road or driven into a mudhole, you have had an "accident" and there is normally an extra charge.