Breakdown Cover – Choose Your Provider Wisely

If you drive a significant number of miles every year (or even if you’re just frequently on trips out of town), you should consider purchasing breakdown cover for your vehicle. Why? Well, simply put, if you’re left stranded because your car has given up the ghost, you could be looking at a cost of over £100 for recovery alone – that’s before labour, parts and, potentially, getting you to somewhere you can stay overnight prior to your vehicle being examined.

Simply put, breakdown cover is a great way to not only give you peace of mind, but ensure that you’re not going to be out of pocket should the worst happen and you find yourself in the middle of nowhere. This becomes an even more important factor if you drive in the evening or night.

What does breakdown cover include?

There are a growing number of breakdown cover providers in the UK, each of whom provide a slightly different service and include different things in their ‘basic’ policy. However, most of them will give you:

• Roadside assistance in the UK
• 24 hour help lines should you break down
• Help in the event of a traffic collision

These are the basics that form a ‘breakdown cover policy’. Let’s examine what this basic policy will give you.

Roadside assistance will give you a telephone number to call, should your car break down or fail to start, normally provided it is a certain distance from your home. On making the call, you’ll need to provide your policy number and likely some personal details (such as your car registration, address etc) and your current location. At this point, a trained specialist will be despatched to your location within a specified period of time. Note, at busy time periods, this may be longer.

When the person arrives in their vehicle (normally a van of some kind), they will assess your vehicle to get an idea what the problem may be, i.e. the cause and whether it can be fixed. Your policy should cover this basic assessment (though you may have to pay depending on whether some work takes place on the car) and parts will not be covered.

The person examining your car will then give you an idea of what the problem is, as well as (quite often) a sheet demonstrating the problems with a diagram showing you where the car is being affected. This makes it simple for you to understand – if you aren’t mechanically minded – what needs to be done to have your car going again.

If your car cannot be fixed by the roadside or needs to be towed, this will also be arranged by the person who is on scene to examine your car. Once again, depending on what sort of level of assistance has been arranged, this will dictate how you are then helped and what you have to pay for (for instance, some policies will have you then driven to a hotel or location of your choice if your car cannot be fixed by the roadside).

In the case of an accident, your breakdown cover provider can despatch someone to assist you, have the vehicle towed, or, if possible, make the vehicle into a driveable state to reach a garage. Note, they will not assist you to drive a vehicle away if it is in such a state as to be considered illegal/unsafe to drive.

What other types of cover can I get?

Most breakdown cover providers will also offer additional protection – though not of course without additional cost. Here are some of the additional services you can buy as part of your breakdown cover policy:

• Home call out – if your car fails to start when at home you can have assistance come directly to you. This should always be considered as normally a policy will not cover you if you’re less than a mile from home
• Parts and labour cover – depending on what is needed, some providers will cover you with this additional service for up to a certain amount of parts and labour cost
• Hotel/overnight stay – the service provider will arrange accommodation and ensure your vehicle is repaired at a nearby garage so you can get on your way quickly
• European cover – some policies will actually cover you if you cross the Channel and beyond
• Cover on you, rather than your car – this means that even if you’re a passenger in another car that is not your own, or the vehicle named on your policy, you can call out a patrol from your breakdown provider to help you get the vehicle you are in back on the move
• Coverage for other vehicles – some policies will cover you for other vehicles you may use, such as a motorbike or van
• Special offers – many providers have a variety of special offers such as discounts on other services including insurance

Having breakdown cover is not an excuse for not maintaining your vehicle properly, but I can certainly tell you from my own experience that it is invaluable if you do drive any sort of distance in or on a vehicle. It may just get you back motoring again after an unexpected stop – and if it does you can guarantee you’ll have saved money by having it!