Breakdown Cover Articles

Compare Car Breakdown Cover

The last thing that you will want is for your car to breakdown especially when you are trying to get to that all important meeting, a holiday destination or visiting family or friends. It is therefore important to know your car rescue and recovery options at all times, so that in the unfortunate event that your car does breakdown, you can get back on the road quickly, safely and with no hassle.

I have been recently looking into annual subscriptions for car rescue and recovery services and doing some research into the best options and offers available. I thought that since I had spent time researching the different options available that it was only right to share my findings to help reduce others research time in finding their best car recovery option.

When I started my research it was apparent that there are many different car rescue and recovery options on the market from the mainstream companies that you would expect, to many supermarkets offering cover, to independent companies offering the service that aren’t recognisable household names.

I looked at five companies with which to make my decision of who to use picking three mainstream companies, one supermarket and one independent company and found the following -

Green Flag offers customers five types of different cover levels which all come with different optional extras. The standard service includes roadside assistance, local vehicle recovery, no callout charges and a message service (to let your family and friends know your situation). The optional extras which then can be added to the service plan include cover at home, long distance recovery and European cover.

The AA website states that breakdown cover starts from £28 and requests that you fill out the online quote service to find out a price for you and what that £28 entitles you to. The website also states that it has three standard rescue and recovery packages that can be purchased and give the separate prices of these £69, £99 and £141. The £69 service gives you roadside and national rescue, the £99 service provides roadside and national rescue and cover at home where the £141 service gives you roadside and national rescue, cover at home and parts and garage bills.

The RAC matches the price of the AA by stating that their breakdown cover starts from £28 and clearly highlights to you that this is just roadside assistance as long as you are more than quarter of a mile from home and that they will only tow you up to 10 miles. It then states what cover options and extras are available to you, including nationwide recovery, at home cover and onward travel. The website provides you with an easy way to get a quote without having to put in your contact details. This quote system is quick and easy as it just asks basic option questions such as how many people the cover is for, how many vehicles and the cover options you require. I thought that the website was the clearest website in providing both you with detailed information about the services and with understanding the pricing structure.

Tesco offers a breakdown service but it is interesting to note that the cover is provided by the RAC, so the prices are exactly the same as those you would have seen on the RAC website. I found this strange at first since they advertise against the RAC for the service. So, when I saw this I would personally use the RAC instead and cut out this middleman.

Motorbreakdownrecovery.com is an independent company offering a low cost rescue and recovery solution. Again, they offer different packages and offer roadside assistance, local recovery and home-start for just £19 undercutting the large company’s price of £28. The prices are cheaper and competitive but the website is very basic and for me didn’t portray any confidence and words that would make me feel they could meet my breakdown needs.

From my research it was apparent that the companies want to push you to fill out their online quote form. This is mainly so they can get your details and sell to you on the phone as they find that this is the best way to sell to you. But, you can find out a lot online before you have to fill out the options.

I felt that the RAC website gave you the most detail on what their services did and did not offer you. I felt that the ‘from’ prices that the companies portrayed on their websites were misleading. I know that these companies are just stating their lowest price to draw you in, but when you look into the service you receive for that price, you will see that this is for a bare-minimum service that unless you are just a local driver it will not meet your requirements. So, it is important to read what the service will get you and as the saying goes (and I found to be correct in my research) ‘you get what you pay for’.

In all honesty, I don’t think there is a lot to choose from if you opt to go with a mainstream and well-known company in the market. Personally, I wouldn’t go with a company that I hadn’t heard of as I would feel that I would be putting my trust in something unknown. From my experience the best way to get the cover that you want for the best price would be to speak to a few of the mainstream companies and try to play them off against each other. I would see what one company would offer and then say that you are going to get a quote from a rival. I found this helped give you the advantage, as they want your custom and by taking this approach you could save yourself a few pennies and get some additional options added onto the package for less.

Article by Sarah Wain, 12th August 2012. Content correct at the date of publication

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