Breakdown cover

moneysavinghero

Scot22 said:

If not expecting lot of use RAC offer 3 callouts, at home, RAC currently £45.

Well not broken down for the last 16 years at least so that hopefully that should do. But where do you find that price? Looking at the RAC website, the cheapest i can see is £9 a month which is £108 for 15 months (3 months free).

Car_54

moneysavinghero said:

GunJack said:

AA/RAC also use local independants, not just their own fleet..there's one recovery firm local to us that usually come out no matter who your policy is with

I'm sure that they do when their own crews are busy (or you are in a remote part of the country). They probably pay the independents a bit more than Greenflag etc do, so get priority over them. Also i suspect that with the Greenflag type operations, its great if you breakdown during the day when all the local garages are open, but if you breakdown in the evening when most have gone home then you are going to be waiting a lot longer.

The days when the local garage owner would stop what he was doing and respond to a call from the RAC/AA are long gone, except perhaps in remote rural areas. Most of the "garages" they use are specialist recovery operators, working 24/7.

forgotmyname

moneysavinghero said:

I presume that £11 is with one of the Green Flag type operations where they will quite happily take your money at a low price knowing that they will have no one to actually come out and fix your vehicle when it breaks down.

Nope its with the RAC. I had just left the RAC and moved to GreenFlag for being overpriced. But her policy was an addon to her

car insurance and after saying no to all the optional addons it was just £11.  Its basic but good enough for the distance she covers.

I expect its a cheap incentive price but really push all the addons.  She just kept saying works only 7 miles away and she has me

for backup so no need for any addon.

dipsomaniac

RAC covering the person as opposed to the vehicle is a big plus for me.  i pay £7 per month

poppasmurf_bewdley

moneysavinghero said:

I presume that £11 is with one of the Green Flag type operations where they will quite happily take your money at a low price knowing that they will have no one to actually come out and fix your vehicle when it breaks down.

I've been with Green Flag for several years, and they are certainly not what you describe above.  I have called them out four times in about 12 years.  On two occasions, they responded with their own liveried vehicle, and the other two they used local companies who arrived within half an hour.

I renewed two days ago at a cost of £62 for full breakdown cover on my 12 year old Mondeo. I have literally just done a check with the AA now and their price for the same cover, with their advertised 33% discount, is £113.

Anyone paying the AA price would be very foolish indeed.  Remember, this is a money saving website.  The clue is in the name. 

moneysavinghero

poppasmurf_bewdley said:

moneysavinghero said:

I presume that £11 is with one of the Green Flag type operations where they will quite happily take your money at a low price knowing that they will have no one to actually come out and fix your vehicle when it breaks down.

I've been with Green Flag for several years, and they are certainly not what you describe above.  I have called them out four times in about 12 years.  On two occasions, they responded with their own liveried vehicle, and the other two they used local companies who arrived within half an hour.

I renewed two days ago at a cost of £62 for full breakdown cover on my 12 year old Mondeo. I have literally just done a check with the AA now and their price for the same cover, with their advertised 33% discount, is £113.

Anyone paying the AA price would be very foolish indeed.  Remember, this is a money saving website.  The clue is in the name. 

Can only go by own experience which is they didn't even bother coming out (well not within 5 hours anyway). Once bitten twice shy. Not everything that is cheap is always the money saving option.

pinkteapot

moneysavinghero said:

I presume that £11 is with one of the Green Flag type operations where they will quite happily take your money at a low price knowing that they will have no one to actually come out and fix your vehicle when it breaks down.

Eh? I've been with Green Flag 15 years and had four callouts. Three of those they had someone there in under an hour (including a late-night callout).

The other I was on the Orkney Islands and their van had gone to a different island to the one I was on to attend someone else. It couldn't get back that day as the last ferry had left. Green Flag paid for me to get a taxi from my broken down car to my holiday accommodation, then back again the next morning to meet the mechanic. I thought the service was great under the circumstances.

If you have a fairly new car (less than ten years), Green Flag will almost certainly be cheaper than the AA/RAC. Price increases with age as they do insurance pricing (rather than flat rates), so new cars are very cheap to cover as they're unlikely to break down. Price increases steadily and in my experience is the same as the AA/RAC at about ten years old, but varies by car make/model. For old cars, you'll be better off with a flat-rate charging company.

I tend to replace cars at 8-10 years old, so I've always stuck with Green Flag. 

Don't assume AA/RAC are better because they have their own crews. This is just one anecdote, but the RAC recently left a friend of mine (woman on her own) broken down on a motorway hard shoulder for four hours, at which point she gave up and called an independent herself. RAC kept saying the van was on its way. And my view on Green Flag is: customers will soon complain to Green Flag if the independent who turns up is late or does a bad job, and with enough complaints Green Flag would simply stop using that garage. So the garage has an incentive to do a good job. 

kingsandeep

i have seen some breakdown covers ob groupon, premium packages for around £24 are these any good ?

thanks 

AdrianC

kingsandeep said:

i have seen some breakdown covers ob groupon, premium packages for around £24 are these any good ?

Give us a rough hint as to who they're from, and what they include...?