Just got my annual renewal letter from the AA but at £115.28 just for Roadside and Relay it seems a bit steep. Ordinarily I'd just pay but as money is very tight at the mo I'm going to look around this year. Just got an online quote from Greenflag for £75.26 which includes everything bar European cover. Does anyone use covermybreakdown.co.uk as they seem very reasonable?
Any other recommendations out there?
Cheers,
Gary
P.S. I'm pretty sure this has been asked before but unfortunately the search function is up the swanny.
I get free Green Flag cover with my Bank Account (Natwest Gold, for which you pay £12 a month, but you get travel insurance and other stuff for that too).
I've only had to deal with them once and they were helpful enough. It's worth checking if any of your bank accounts have similar deals (probably for less than £12 too)
Same as notenoughwrists but I'm with HSBC...for my monthly bank fee of 12.95, you get beneficial lending rates on mortgages and loans, Travel insurance and Roadside breakdown cover.
Not sure why I've never cancelled RAC cover. :roll:
Decide who you want to go with, and then book it via one of the cashback sites (ie quidco, top cashback etc).
They all appear to be on these sites offering between £20 to £60 cashback, the only downside being is that it takes about 4 months before you actually receive the cash back.
Edit
To any expats thinking they've got travel/breakdown insurance etc bundled in with their bank account - make sure you check the small print. We thought we had the "extras" via our Lloyds bank a/c's, but when we tried to claim on our travel insurance (missed a flight due to snow), it was swiftly pointed out to us that you can only claim any of these "extras" if you are a permanent UK resident. So you might be paying a monthly charge for it, but they certainly wont pay out when the brown stuff hits the whirly thing.
Edit 2 - My AA renewal came through the door 10 minutes ago
I phoned them up and told them that I did not want to renew as I could get it cheaper elsewhere......... the price was dropped from £112 to £97........ but I'll still be going elsewhere.
Just echong the above, I've always had free cover with my bank account.
It cover's any car that me or my wife are driving.
We use this company
http://www.autoaidbreakdown.co.uk/
Yep I just binned the AA and went to Autoaid.. no brainer for £38 - (assuming you do not mind payingup front for any breakdowns)
A few years ago didn't both AA and RAC be around £44/year - when did the big hike happen??Originally Posted by MattH
I spent quite a long time researching this last week. Went looking on some of the money and motoring forums and decided on these as they get a very good right up.
The only slight downside is you have to pay the recover people there and then, and then send it the invoice to recieve a cheque back a few days later. But seeing as my AA renewal was £160 I thought that was a minor inconvenience.
Can't say I've ever had to use any of the various services that I've been with over the years AA, RAC, Green Flag, Swiftcover,.... So hopefully that trend will continue :wink:
My RAC renewal cover just came through.. the quote is way higher than if I joined as a new customer - why they do this I don't know. :evil:
Yep this really annoys me too Stewart. Years ago I seem to recall I was given free Home Start as a thank you for my loyalty to the AA but that only lasted a year. Now it's actually cheaper to stop the cover and start again as a new customer, doesn't make any sense to me at all. Car and house insurers seem to have the same stupid policy too, whatever happened to rewarding and encouraging brand loyalty?
Thanks for the suggestions guys, Autoaid looks very promising. I wonder how much a typical breakdown actually costs, especially if you're paying up front. I also found this company who'll give you 3 years full cover you £99!
http://motorbreakdownrecovery.com/#
Cheers,
Gary
I get my breakdown cover along with my car insurance from NFU. I think it costs me less than £3 a month per car.
The two times my friend used Autoaid, he didn't have to pay - the recovery company billed the insurance company direct.
I'd second Autoaid.
I had a recent breakdown in Jersey when the wife's Porker's waterpump failed. I rang the call centre on a Saturday morning to arrange for recovery for when the Fast Cat docked back at Weymouth on Monday evening. The recovery was there waiting as promised for when we disembarked and we were promptly taken back to Bristol.
Only pain is having to pay the driver the circa £220 (£1.10 per mile I think), but was given an invoice there and then which we sent off with the claim form a few days later, and within a week we had a check back for the full amount.
A quick tip, AA euro cover will not drag you off a peage... you have to pay toll operator and claim it back. I used my HBOS cover a few months ago (hose split on the M25) luckily I was close enough to home for recovery, dependant where you are your bank will get you out of trouble, but not necessarily near where you might want to be. Thats what your paying for, onward travel or return home.
Read the small print with cover included by the banks. Mine covers me for recovery to the nearest garage and not alot else, it may cover more if I upgraded my bank account but I havent checked as I pay them too much for it as it is.
I tend to swap between the RAC and AA using cashback sites to keep the cost down.
I used to switch each year between AA and RAC to get new member price, now I use telco vouchers for RAC.
If you go on the AA's website and get a quote as if you're a new member it's always substantially cheaper. If you then ring the AA renewal line and tell them what their own price is for a new member they will renew at that price. I saved £9 a month by doing that this year.
I use Autonational Rescue, £66 for the top cover (15 months for the price of 12) plus do it through Quidco for 17.5% cashback. Never had to call them out though so can't comment on the service.
Not sure if you're asking who offers the best service or who is the cheapest?
I've been fortunate and not needed to use any cover but I have found Tesco offer very competitive packages. Last time, since discovering Quidco, I renewed with the RAC. The package I got was for my wife's car and my motorbike. RAC website price was £136, minus £30 online booking discount. Plus £60 (!) cashback from quidco made the policy £46. Ding. Dang. Do.
Green Flag for me, covers all of our cars for maybe 40% of the RAC quote!
We use Germany's ADAC. It relatively cheap, £60 ish. Use it primarily as get me home cover when in Europe.
If you have a Toyota, Club Toyota is good VFM @ £64 which gives home start, relay, European cover and other benefits. I know it's not much use if you don't have a Toyota, but it's worth mentioning for those who do have one.
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