Car breakdown insurance

christina789

I've just cancelled my AA membership as they tried auto-renewing to the tune of £290. I will find an alternative but my question is: what constitutes a 'new member'? All the usual suspects offer lower prices to new members - is it possible to change ever year to take advantage of this? Does anyone know?

Hasbeen

New member is someone who has usually not had a policy in the last year?

Grumpy_chap

Always in the past when I was with AA / RAC, the rules were not had cover in the past 12 months so I used to flip.
Now, I realise the AA / RAC are still far too expensive. 
For a number of years I went with Start Rescue, but this year RescuemyCar came out a bit more competitive.

christina789

Grumpy_chap said:

Always in the past when I was with AA / RAC, the rules were not had cover in the past 12 months so I used to flip.
Now, I realise the AA / RAC are still far too expensive. 
For a number of years I went with Start Rescue, but this year RescuemyCar came out a bit more competitive.

That's really helpful, Grumpy_chap. I've been a bit worried about going for the cheaper alternatives in case the service is poor, but the cost is such that it's a risk worth taking I think.

knightstyle

You can/could use Tesco clubcard points to get personal AA cover.

dld2s

Would paying a bank account be useful IE: Nationwide flex account plus? also has worldwide travel insurance and mobile phone insurance included. 
I've only had to use the breakdown cover once, it was a local garage that came out in less than 20 mins, I pay £13 a month for it

Biggus_Dickus

christina789 said:

Grumpy_chap said:

Always in the past when I was with AA / RAC, the rules were not had cover in the past 12 months so I used to flip.
Now, I realise the AA / RAC are still far too expensive. 
For a number of years I went with Start Rescue, but this year RescuemyCar came out a bit more competitive.

That's really helpful, Grumpy_chap. I've been a bit worried about going for the cheaper alternatives in case the service is poor, but the cost is such that it's a risk worth taking I think.

   @christina789

For newer cars up to about 2017 reg StartRescue appears to be a little cheaper than RescueMyCar for their comparable (level-3 cover/3-star cover) ‘vehicle’ cover.

However, on older cars RescueMyCar appears to be quite a bit cheaper than StartRescue though.

In addition, if you accept a £40 excess ‘call-out’  fee RescueMyCar will reduce the cost even further;...the £40 excess is not for me,...but it may suit some people. StartRescue don’t offer ‘excess’ reductions.

Myself and family members have used StartRescue at numerous times since they formed (2014?) and never had a cause to complain,...not yet anyway!  

In light of your eyewatering renewal quote from the AA you may be surprised at what’s on offer from their lesser known competitors!

https://www.startrescue.co.uk/breakdown-cover/quick-quote

https://www.rescuemycar.com/

 

 

 

 

Bigphil1474

I have a Barclays account with a Travel pack - provides full RAC breakdown cover and annual travel insurance for UK and abroad. Costs £13 a month. 

Grumpy_chap

When I was with StartRescue, they were very good for customer service, sorted out cover for an overseas trip easily and did a stirling job on the one occasion I needed to call them out.

This year, with RescueMyCar, I just took the premium online, but no other interface to comment against in terms of performance.

Car_54

Bigphil1474 said:

I have a Barclays account with a Travel pack - provides full RAC breakdown cover and annual travel insurance for UK and abroad. Costs £13 a month. 

So £156 p.a. for breakdown cover, and travel insurance that's been of no use for the last year. Money saving?

AdrianC

dld2s said:

Would paying a bank account be useful IE: Nationwide flex account plus? also has worldwide travel insurance and mobile phone insurance included. 
I've only had to use the breakdown cover once, it was a local garage that came out in less than 20 mins, I pay £13 a month for it

This is the route we've gone down, too.

It's a superb value package - it's Britannia Rescue behind it, and it's full Euro personal cover (for both joint account holders), in any vehicle up to 3.5t/7m long or 7.5t/8m motorhomes, with no age limit. We have a 19yo 3.3t 5.5m camper, and various other older vehicles, that in normal years we will do continental trips in.

You cannot buy that kind of breakdown cover for that money - even before considering the global travel insurance.
Before taking this on, I'd paid near £70 for RoW-exc-US, plus damn near a hundred quid for UK-only claim-and-refund breakdown that didn't even cover the camper in this country - and the one time I'd used it, the refund fell short of what I'd actually paid...