Breakdown Cover Articles

The Cost of Not Having Breakdown Cover

There are many people who shy clear of any form of insurance that is neither compulsory nor totally suicidal not to have. Breakdown cover may well be one of these forms of insurance that people are inclined to do without, stating that it is a an unnecessary expense and the chances of ever having to take advantage of the services on offer are so low that it is not justified.

Having car breakdown cover is not compulsory, yet most car insurers offer it at a highly subsidized cost as part of a comprehensive insurance policy. There are very few people who refuse the offer, simply because they want the peace of mind of knowing that if something does go wrong with their car that a reputable company will come to their assistance. The major and national roadside assistance companies have link ups with the leading UK car insurance giants, and the prices obtainable from them are part of an insurance package are very fair. Much fairer than if your car breaks down, you are not covered, and you fall into the hands of some of the more unscrupulous locally based breakdown services that like awake at night dreaming of the opportunity of earning a fat profit from someone who is in distress and consequentially vulnerable.

Not that the national breakdown services will not come to your aid if you are in distress, or that someone with care insurance cover will get priority over, either in terms of response time, quality of service or how the service operator will relate to you. However, you will swiftly realize the cost of not being insured, especially if the mechanic sent is not capable of carrying out a roadside repair, and you car has to transport to a garage. You will discover that you will have been so much better of paying the cover, probably five or even ten times more so, depending on the distances involved in transporting your car.

There are a lot of people that are under the mistaken impression that breakdown cover also includes the cost of repairing the car. The role of the roadside repair man is to diagnose the problem, do a running repair if at all possible, and if not either tow the car or arrange for it to be transported to the nearest garage for repair. The car owner can also insist that their car be transported to a garage of their choice, especially if they are far away from home. The breakdown company is obliged to do so, and will. However if they are locally based they will arrange to transport it on their own truck, If you have no insurance breakdown cover, this will be very expensive and difficult to justify. However if you deal with a national company such as the AA or the RAC, they will transport your car large distances at low cost, usually transferring it three of four times from transporter to transporter along the way.

All in all, there is an argument whether breakdown cover is a justifiable expense. Just ask anyone who has ever broken down in the middle of a rain storm, in the small hours of the morning, 200 miles away from home, and they will tell you exactly how worthwhile it is!

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