Breakdown cover?

Green Flag were around £40 cheaper for me compared to the equivalent RAC cover, the AA were more expensive by around £5. If you have 20 minutes to spare, read through the info here, and it may be a lot less than £80:

Alan.

Taking advantage of your thread I'd also be interested in people's experience of using them. It's £34/year but works on a refund basis I believe.

Andy

I have a slight niggle in my cynical mind. The AA and the RAC have no reason not to get you going if at all possible when you break down. My niggle is with the companies who contract their breakdown services to local garages. I can't help feeling that these breakdown people have an incentive to not get you going but to suggest that garage work is required, work which the AA or RAC could and would do at the roadside.

I must confess, however, to having no experience to back up this slight paranoia, as I have always used the AA, but like the OP I am looking to change to someone cheaper than the AA who want £91 renewal, so would be interested in the experiences of others. I am looking for personal membership rather than vehicle specific as I ride motorbikes and drive a car, but not at the same time!!

Bill

Doesa the wife shop at Tesco and collect club card points? If so, when she gets her vouchers, you can use them to pay for RAC and you get 4x face value so for £81 fee, you only need to use £20.25 of vouchers.

Stephen Barnes ( snipped-for-privacy@nosapmstephenbarnes.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Steve Barnes. The same Steve Barnes I used to know?

My eMail works if you are.

I heard 'Britannia' breakdown cover is apparently superb, and you can get hefty discounts if you join the 'civil service discount scheme', which I can't remember off the top of my head, but I'm sure someone here is aware of it. Basically it doesn't matter what job you've done, just say you've done one of the listed jobs, and you'll get to join.

If I recall, the 'club' begins with a 'C', and you can register online. It's maybe an acronym; anyway cover ranges from 45quid to 100 quid as far as I remember, and Britannia is said to be one of the best at the moment.

It is indeed. The realities of life such as houses and marriage are biting hard and costs must be cut!

Steve

Do you think the reason prices have gone up excluding inflation is due to cars breaking down more? 10 or 15 years ago a breakdown was usually not too common in the area I live, now it seems there's always some heap of French crap lying at the side of the road. A favourite recently seems to be boys with fiat puntos, dunno what that's all about...

I do believe you mean the CSMA - and their car insurance is also WELL worth a look. Over £200 cheaper this year than anywhere else I could find for me. :-)

There is reason behind that paranoia. The AA and RAC try to minimise costs as much as they can, so that's why the patrols carry parts to fix known issues, and recovery is the last resort. Where as it's in private companies best interest just to recover the vehicle (they get more money that way). From what we see at work, if a contractor is sent to a vehicle, they'll just lift it and shift it, whereas the AA will attempt to repair it if possible, and if needed, escort it back to the workshop. If the vehicle comes in being towed by an AA van or on a AA recovery vehicle, then we know it's not going to be a five minute fix.

I find with car insurance, as it's just companies searching brokers these days and taking a cut, it's often hard to beat a lowest quote after you phone ten or so places. I found confused.com okay, and CSMA's quote was ridiculously high, which surprised me.

I've not joined the breakdown recovery service as of yet, as I've now got a life in which I don't get too bothered if a breakdown occurs, although I've never had one in many years of driving. I think 90 quid or more/less is quite a lot for a service I'll likely never use. This 'home-start' thing also seems a bit like a con, it would be much better for the general public if the driving test some sort of incorporated mechanical understanding of the vehicle, providing learners with some deeper knowledge.

Who knows, maybe teenagers would then stop trying to show off in cars after shoving stickers all over their vehicle...

Just be aware that once you`ve broken down, most companies either won`t be interested in you joining up, or will charge a LOT extra for a limited service - i.e. they`d take you up to 10 miles from the point of breakdown. You can easily be looking at a bill for a few hundred quid for a fairly short recovery. Or if you are unlucky you can end up paying over £100 for a quarter of a mile on the back of a recovery truck (yes this can happens, and yes I`ve seen it happen).

As far as my experience goes, they work exactly the same as the AA or RAC without having to pay for their grandiose marketing and political activities. See my post from the last time it came up (assuming you haven't already seen it !) -

As far as paying goes, you don't even need cash as most breakdown trucks have a credit/debit card terminal. If they don't I'm quite sure that Autoaid will sub you.

Daytona

I wonder what other motorcyclists experiences with the AA/RAC are? I ride a scooter and occasionally a motorbike. I am a member of the RAC but with my bike insurance I get free breakdown cover (Carole Nash). I think if I were to break down I'd more likely phone the Carole Nash breakdown people than the AA - just because i don't know how well equipped the AA etc are for dealing with bikes.

I had an experience once (a few years ago) when my old Suzuki CS125 scooter broke down. The RAC guy came out didn't have a clue, so he sent for a trailer. Unfortunately the scooters wheels were too small and fell through the gap meant for a motorcycle wheels!! Then I had to wait even longer and eventually a massive flat-bed truck came out to take the little scooter away!!

Cheers and thanks for the link. I'll be changing when my policy comes up in May.

Andy