Nationwide FlexPlus/AA Breakdown Cover vs RAC

RickyB2007

Hi,

I've been looking through the terms and conditions of the Nationwide FlexPlus breakdown service from the AA here: https://www.nationwide.co.uk/-/assets/nationwidecouk/documents/current-accounts/insurances/flexplus/p4000-flexplus-breakdown-insurance-policy.pdf?rev=a4111e71cbad43199fb9b71d04bc310a

I know it is not the same as full AA membership but I can't quite work out the difference. Is the Nationwide/AA Policy any good?

To give more details, we have two cars which currently have RAC breakdown cover. One automatically renewed for another year just over two weeks ago which is annoying (although we may get a partial refund) and the other is due to renew in about 3 weeks. This second car needs European Breakdown Cover in addition to UK cover.

The first car renewal was about £75 and the second one is £189.54 with the European cover.

The Flexplus would be £216 for a year so it would work out cheaper, even ignoring the £200 from Nationwide for switching (we are already members, but our main account is NatWest). The travel insurance would also be useful for us.

So I'd be tempted to swith to FlexPlus even if we don't get a full refund on the RAC membership. I just want to ensure the cover is good enough.

Please advise. Thanks in advance!

QrizB

With two cars, would personal cover be cheaper? Do you need "any driver" cover for the vehicles or would "any vehicle" cover for your household be just as useful?

RickyB2007

Thanks. I’ll ring the RAC and ask them if we could change the cover that has just renewed to cover both cars. 

Famau

Honestly, the nationwide flexplus route seems to be the way to go - I have it and the car cover is comprehensive. Add to that the worldwide (inc cruise) travel insurance, free cash machine withdrawals overseas and one or two other things and it is very attractive.  So if you do travel a lot, then covering one car via flexplus and another via, say, britannia rescue (LV) may be a sound option.  Certainly works for us....

35har1old

Famau said:

Honestly, the nationwide flexplus route seems to be the way to go - I have it and the car cover is comprehensive. Add to that the worldwide (inc cruise) travel insurance, free cash machine withdrawals overseas and one or two other things and it is very attractive.  So if you do travel a lot, then covering one car via flexplus and another via, say, britannia rescue (LV) may be a sound option.  Certainly works for us....

With the AA it all depends where you breakdown you are not a priority if you breakdown is in a countryside location? 
As to the travel insurance since they changed the provider if you have health conditions to declare you may have to pay extra in my case it was £30 x 2 whereas with the old provider no charge
Cruise cover is basic no miss ports covered
So downgraded account
Now with Co-op 
Breakdown provided by the RAC

During the application process with the Co-op they made it quite clear they didn't want you have duplicated cover. I think this is to prevent any possibility of being accused of miselling the packaged account 

On the other hand Nationwide takes a different approach where they add a note stating you'll need to pay the £18 even if you can't use the insurance 

35har1old

Famau said:

Honestly, the nationwide flexplus route seems to be the way to go - I have it and the car cover is comprehensive. Add to that the worldwide (inc cruise) travel insurance, free cash machine withdrawals overseas and one or two other things and it is very attractive.  So if you do travel a lot, then covering one car via flexplus and another via, say, britannia rescue (LV) may be a sound option.  Certainly works for us....

Why would you cover another car with another provider ?
All vehicles you own are covered even if you're not travelling in them and if you are travelling in  someone’s else's vehicle as a driver or passenger you are covered 

Mildly_Miffed

35har1old said:

With the AA it all depends where you breakdown you are not a priority if you breakdown is in a countryside location?

Both AA and RAC have their own patrol/recovery fleets, but if there's none handy, they use the same network of independent contractors as all the other breakdown providers.

Do AA prioritise NW calls differently to "direct" ones? No idea. I doubt there's any way to tell unless you're on the inside.

What I do know is that, for me, NW F+ is an absolute no-brainer, even at the new price. We have an older campervan and a classic car, both of which we want Euro cover for. Nobody else can come close to providing the breakdown cover alone for the price, especially for the van, let alone all the other bits.

QrizB

35har1old said:

As to the travel insurance since they changed the provider if you have health conditions to declare you may have to pay extra ...

For me and Mrs QrizB, the additional travel insurance charge for preexisting conditions was going to be more than the cost of buying a standalone travel insurance package elsewhere. And our mobile phones aren't valuable enough (the excess is closed to the value of the phone) so there's no benefit there either.

So we'd be looking at paying £216 a year for breakdown cover, which we can get for less (UK cover plus Euro add-on of/when we need it).

FIREDreamer

QrizB said:

35har1old said:

As to the travel insurance since they changed the provider if you have health conditions to declare you may have to pay extra ...

For me and Mrs QrizB, the additional travel insurance charge for preexisting conditions was going to be more than the cost of buying a standalone travel insurance package elsewhere. And our mobile phones aren't valuable enough (the excess is closed to the value of the phone) so there's no benefit there either.

So we'd be looking at paying £216 a year for breakdown cover, which we can get for less (UK cover plus Euro add-on of/when we need it).

Reduced to £116 if you allow for the £100 fair share cashback (not guaranteed).

QrizB

Mrs and I already get the Fair Share, so that's not really a reduction!