European Breakdown Cover

Hairy_Chicken

This is my first post, so please be gentle.

I am planning to go on to the continent (all within the EU) from the 4th Aug to the 24th Aug with my 04 registered car.
Question is....where can I find some good Euro Breakdown cover that does not cost an arm and a leg?

Hope someone out there can help.

HC

w1zz0

Have you checked your insurance cover? It's sometimes included. If not ask your insurer if they can do it and of course how much.

JACKIEHILL

Hairy_Chicken wrote:

This is my first post, so please be gentle.

I am planning to go on to the continent (all within the EU) from the 4th Aug to the 24th Aug with my 04 registered car.
Question is....where can I find some good Euro Breakdown cover that does not cost an arm and a leg?

Hope someone out there can help.

HC

We regularly travel to europe. We normally use Europ assistance because we have a caravan and find them good value for money. This year we travelled through the tunnel and got our insurance from them which saved me £30, but you have to have a reservation with them. Green Flag is another company that is reasonable, as is esure and insure and go. The problem with insure and go, (they gave the cheapest quote) was that the policy didn't seam to give the cover we required with the caravan.

gooismeid

I've posted this before somewhere else - but here it is again:

http://www.vehicle-rescue.com/compare.htm

Can't vouch for them personally as I haven't used them yet, but they're backed by Axa and I am going to use them for our French driving holiday this July. If I have to make a claim then I'll report back on their usefulness or otherwise!

Hairy_Chicken

I saw this 'Vehicle-Direct' when I did a search the other day and was quite impressed with the pricing.
I was put off though with the word 'Direct' in their name. After watching Watchdog on the BBC for many years I now have a distrust of firms that have 'Direct' in their name e.g Holidays Direct, Kitchens Direct.
I may give them a go as they do work out about half the price of the the AA and RAC type quotes.

Thanks for the advice so far

HC :beer:

gooismeid

I've just had another trawl around (thanks to Martin's recommendation of https://www.insureandgo.com for travel insurance) - and discovered that Insureandgo also do European breakdown cover. They act as agents for Europ Assistance, and it quoted me £25.80 for 18 days cover for an 8 year old MPV! This beats the previous quote of £34 from vehicle rescue direct, which I thought was rock bottom anyway !

Only fly in the ointment is that it stipulates you have to have a pre-trip inspection of the car where any parts which are due for replacement should be replaced. Which is fair enough, I suppose (who'd want to go driving abroad with worn tyres or a dodgy cambelt?), but they might get argumentative about when/where the pre-trip inspection got done and what recommendations were made if you had to claim.

gooismeid

OK, we went with vehicle rescue direct and wouldn't you know it - for the first time ever, I had to claim on breakdown insurance! Our lovely MPV developed a timing belt tensioner problem on the morning we were due to set off. We took it to the garage which had done the service (and fitted the new cambelt), and they said they could do the work but NOBODY within a 100 mile radius had a part. Technically, the car was drivable but they said the cambelt could go at any minute. So, we were stuffed. And I was ringing relatives to see who had a big car we could borrow for 2 weeks (unlikely, hey!). Until I remembered that the breakdown insurance cover said that if your car broke down on the day you were travelling, they would help you get a replacement car. So, I spent several hours confirming with the garage that the car was not immediately fixable, that the ferry would honour our booking with a different car, and that we could get a hire car via the insurance. They came up trumps (eventually, after being passed to 3 departments), and they even agreed to upgrade from a compact to a Renault Scenic when I told them the reason we drive a big car is that my husband is 6ft 6 tall and can't fit into many smaller cars. So, we had 2 weeks in France in a very posh 3 month old car for only £34, and the only paperwork I had to sign was the car rental agreement with Europcar! Well done Vehicle Rescue Direct :-)