Breakdown Insurance - how much is enough?

[peterjl]

I started looking at this after 2 occasions when friends have had motor accidents abroad (not motorhomers) also winter is coming so i have to change to narrower tyres on the front to accomodate snow chains (the downside of frontwheel drive transits!)

 

I changed to Safeguard this year as they covered Morocco (and a great trip it was too) however their European cover for "Roadside assistance, towage, and garage repairs" is limited to £250 - now that doesn't seem very much (especially as CC Red pennant gives "total Cost" for recovery to local garage)for towage but i have no idea if that is a realistic figure or not.

 

I have searched under "breakdown insurance" and feel as if i have read hundreds of threads but if anything i am even more confused/undecided!

 

To confuse matters even more both Safeguard and Red Pennant have a clause saying "do not cover costs that can be recovered from another insurance policy" - soooo my thoughts are:-

 

Take out Red Pennant to cover my breakdown insurance and change insurers when my vehicle policy runs off in early March (i have 2 trips abroad booked before that - xmas markets and skiing)

 

interestingly Safeguard excludes recovery from being stuck in snow or mud but no such exclusion that i can see in Red Pennant.(you can probably tell i have been reading small print until i'm bug eyed!)

 

Questions:-

1) Is £250 a reasonable sum for towage or coming out to change a tyre

2) Has anybody used Safeguard European assistance and if so what was your experience?

 

Regards

 

Peter (confused of Buckinghamshire)

 

 

 

 

[enodreven]

Hi,

 

If you are involved in a Road Trafic Accident and your vehicle needs to be recovered, that is not covered by your breakdown insurance it will be covered by your actual car insurance as part of the repair cost. Your breakdown provider may well do the actual recovery but they will reclaim the cost back from your vehicle insurance,

 

as for the £250 that I would have thought would depend upon the distance's involved to to actually get to you and recover you back to, as if you were in the wilds of nowhere it would obviously cost a lot more than if you were in say a city, But on the whole i would have thought £250 would cover most repairable situations and wheel changes.

 

I beleive if the vehicle needs major repairs safeguard will recover it back to your home from most of Europe which would in most cases far exceed £250.

 

Do you know the comparable costs between Safeguard and Red Penant ? as that would be interesting

 

 

peterjl - 2007-11-08 8:58 PM

 

I started looking at this after 2 occasions when friends have had motor accidents abroad (not motorhomers) also winter is coming so i have to change to narrower tyres on the front to accomodate snow chains (the downside of frontwheel drive transits!)

 

I changed to Safeguard this year as they covered Morocco (and a great trip it was too) however their European cover for "Roadside assistance, towage, and garage repairs" is limited to £250 - now that doesn't seem very much (especially as CC Red pennant gives "total Cost" for recovery to local garage)for towage but i have no idea if that is a realistic figure or not.

 

I have searched under "breakdown insurance" and feel as if i have read hundreds of threads but if anything i am even more confused/undecided!

 

To confuse matters even more both Safeguard and Red Pennant have a clause saying "do not cover costs that can be recovered from another insurance policy" - soooo my thoughts are:-

 

Take out Red Pennant to cover my breakdown insurance and change insurers when my vehicle policy runs off in early March (i have 2 trips abroad booked before that - xmas markets and skiing)

 

interestingly Safeguard excludes recovery from being stuck in snow or mud but no such exclusion that i can see in Red Pennant.(you can probably tell i have been reading small print until i'm bug eyed!)

 

Questions:-

1) Is £250 a reasonable sum for towage or coming out to change a tyre

2) Has anybody used Safeguard European assistance and if so what was your experience?

 

Regards

 

Peter (confused of Buckinghamshire)

 

 

 

[George]

We had a clutch cable repaired in France through Safeguard, the breakdown service is via the AA. We were pleased with the service

as the breakdown was not straightforward as a cable for a right hand drive vehicle was not easily available, and so the mechanic carried out an excellent repair job which took him about an hour.

We have also had to use the policy after a minor accident and had no problems.

[alan k]

How much is enough really depends on what your worst case scenario would be for a breakdown.

 

Our for instance, one easter monday we tried to turn right to leave a campsite near Antwerp on our way to Amsterdam. The camper wouldn't it would only turn left!! And the guy in the tent on the corner got abit worried as we stopped a couple of feet off the track near his tent

 

:$

 

Anyway our insurance is with Comfort and we take our RAC cover thro them. A couple of hours later we had a brakdown truck with us, and I mean a truck! He diagnosed a major problem and said it was a holiday altho he arranged to meet us at 0730 the next morning to take us to the Merc Dealer. So on suspended tow, off we went on Tues am. First Dealer couldn't look at it for a couple of days so instead we went to the big city Merc truck place. (it was huge). Took them about 4 hours to tell us major problem, steering rack gone, it would take 4 days to get a rhd rack from Germany. We were going back home on day 3, so back to Comfort and RAC.

The camper left at dealers whilst we were put up in a hotel in central Antwerp. We were going to use our original ferry booking. So on the appointed day, our camper was loaded on a flat bed, we were colleccted and off we went to calais and unloaded by the ramp so we could drive straight ahead onto boat and off in Dover where we were met by another flat bed which took us back to morley in west Yorks to our local garage.

 

Merc UK paid half the cost of the repair, van was 30 months old. Surprisingly a check around the local motor factors and parts people found they nearly all had a steering rack for a Merc Sprinter. I finished up taking up Mercs offer and had a genuine part fitted for about the same price as the non Merc parts after the discount.

 

Since then, touch wood only a flat battery, since changed

 

Anyway, 2 call outs and a 30 mile suspended tow to a garage, hotel for 2 for 2 nights, then about 400 miles on 2 flatbeds.

 

So what's your worst breakdown?

 

alan

 

 

[ike]

We're with RAC and have used their services abroad many times unfortunately! Worst breakdown was a few years ago - first tyre blowout near Stafford; had new tyre fitted and had the rest checked, all ok. Onward to Spain no problems until return journey. Tyre blowout on Motorway outside Valencia, fitted spare& returned to Alicante where Spanish speaking Aunt lives, turned into her urbanisation van stuck in 2nd gear. Now Saturday evening and no breakdown service available until Monday. Truck arrives Monday, truck and van too high to pass thru urbanisation archway. Truck leads us into el Campello at 15 mph, chucking it down with rain, thunder and lightning. Local garage fixes us for 20 euro. Get new tyre sorted out and set off. Motorway outside Valencia windscreen comes crashing in! Run out of money on mobile phoning breakdown. Find campsite to spend night, phone RAC who don't arrive next day Find own repair shop, ordering windscreen from Italy will take several days, meaning we'll miss ferry. they can do a "stick on " windscreen which RAC insists we accept otherwise we're on our own. That's fitted next day and after several hours to ensure the glue is dry we set off. On Motorway near French border it starts to wobble. Drive into carpark at Le Boulou and the windscreen slides off. i still haven't broken into floods of tears - yet. Get to campsite, office closed, public phone not working. Next day contact RAC courtesy of campsite owners mobile. Taken to Ceret where horrible little garage owner "jokingly" suggests we torch it!Now come the tears! RAC agree to car hire for us and the van to be repatriated - in the meantime to be left in the safe hands of Torchy. Hubby is taken to Perpignon airport to pick up hire car. Garage is closing so I have to empty what I can from the camper and am left sitting surrounded by bin bags containing clothing, big bag of dog food and two Rotties. Get strange looks from passing motorists, feel like a bag lady. Two hours later hubby arrives, car hire was closed. The good news is that we found a great wee hotel in Ceret where hubby enjoyed a lovely meal ( i was too wound up to eat but have since gone back to eat there). Van arrived home 5 weeks later. There were more problems in France on that trip but I've probably bored you all enough. And folk wonder why I'm nervous about going abroad in our van!

Ike

[ike]

PS we're still with the RAC!

[peterjl]

Hi

 

Thanks for the responses - food for thought.

 

The first two responses made me think - "i'm OK with Safeguard" - the second two made me think "maybe not".

 

Somebody asked about comparative cost - well Safeguard is just part of the insurance plan with no extra cost - the UK cover seems fine but as most of our UK journeys are 100 miles to chunnel or ferry thats not really very helpful.

(90% of my annual mileage, say 8000 miles a year will be on continent)

 

Red Pennant would cost me £132 but that would cover unlimited number of journeys (each of max 31 days) in a year - over next 12 months i have 5 trips to continent planned so thats £27 per trip! (unfortuneatly i am still working but have understanding employers that let me take unpaid leave for 2/3 weeks a year) - price per trip is not too bad if it gives peace of mind - no decision yet but i am thinking about it!

 

peter