Member Since: 12 Aug 2018
Location: Henley in arden
Posts: 516
European breakdown cover.
Hi, does anybody know the best cover for driving abroad? I’ve used the AA before but thankfully haven’t broke down, this year we’re taking the pride and joy. Any experience would be helpful. Thanks
nearly an hour and nobody has made any Brexit jokes on here ?
I used an add-on to my car insurance but suspect that as you have a D3 you need to pay more attention to the maximum repatriation costs covered.
where's DSL when we need him ???
29th Apr 2019 6:31 pm
Mogwyth
Member Since: 03 Oct 2014
Location: Pwllheli
Posts: 3976
We have a Nationwide flex plus account, which gives you UK and EU breakdown cover, no age limit on the vehicle and covers you personally in any vehicle, same for any joint account holder, if you nominate a vehicle it is then covered for any driver, covers caravans and motor homes. Like most policies EU recovery is restricted to the vehicle market value. You also get family mobile gadget insurance, family holiday insurance, 3% interest on balances up to £2000 and if I remember correctly fee free EU cash withdrawals. It cost £13 a month and you dont need to change your main account to them we use it as our holiday account. Now I cant speak from experience as we have never had to call them out but others whi have were very happy.==================================
05 D3 HSE V8 4.4
04 MG TF 135
03 MG TF 115 Cool Blue Edition
02 MG TF 160
00 Hymer B564 Lionheart
1971 Series III 109
29th Apr 2019 6:32 pm
Lee Trinder
Member Since: 12 Aug 2018
Location: Henley in arden
Posts: 516
Thanks for that both, I have done the add on with the AA, but not entirely sure what I’m getting, the last car we owned only cost £700 and took us there and back twice, so if it did breakdown we could have just bought another to get us back. Looking on a more positive side it only needs to do 1200 miles to do the job
29th Apr 2019 7:19 pm
galwaygreen
Member Since: 30 Oct 2011
Location: plymouth
Posts: 6525
DSL will fill you in..may take a while hes on the dark side of the planet at the mo
29th Apr 2019 9:30 pm
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 73121
Most deffo not dark any more. Gonna be scorchiooooooo!
Click image to enlarge
Recovery is one of these things that you don’t pay much attention to until you need it big time, then you start really paying attention. When you’re on the phone for ages, then waiting for ages for a phone call back, you then find out what you’ve bought and what’s available to you. My breakdowns, second terminal, were in NE Finland and NW Norway but not too remote, thank goodness.
Pay attention to number of call outs you’re allowed, my AA cover was 3 for the year. Sounds plenty but when you’ve had 2 on one trip, the third could be something stupid like a puncture on a steep hill so can’t use the jack then that’s the cover done. Here you want to see the word “unlimited”.
Recovery back to the UK is the killer, ie it’s usually up to “market value” and you need to show that the repair will be economical. Plus the recovery & breakdown is all done through local “clubs” so super expensive. A simple recovery about 35 miles was £400! To get my D3 2,200 miles back to UK would have cost £9k, of which I’d have had to pay £3.2k. They thought my car was worth £5.8k, reality was closer to £3k so she was scrapped up there and the AA flew me back, I then went back out with the D4 to get my stuff and strip the D3 down. In reality they wouldn’t have shipped the car back as it would have failed the economical repair test, even though I would have been paying the £3.2.
Have a look at limits, number of call outs, what you get re repatriation of peeps and car, etc, etc. Never assume they will do X if it’s not in the T&Cs, what someone on the phone says they’ll do counts for squat. Just keep in mind that if you are totally relying on the company then for older, ie lower value, cars it’s a total crap shoot given the costs involved in initial recovery and returning the car to the UK. If I do another Scandinavian RT it’ll be in my old Jazz so essentially disposable if worst case plays out.
30th Apr 2019 12:57 am
Irish Rover
Member Since: 02 Jul 2009
Location: Solihull
Posts: 178
Lee,
Look at the Caravan and Motorhome foreign travel insurance. Haven’t used it for a few years now but when I did it was super fantastic. Travelling with caravan and family into the Alps I had cause to use them and I couldn’t fault them. When I go again I will definitely use them. You get what you pay for and peace of mind is priceless!
Gerry
30th Apr 2019 10:13 am
Lee Trinder
Member Since: 12 Aug 2018
Location: Henley in arden
Posts: 516
Thanks for the replies guys, interesting reading.
30th Apr 2019 6:53 pm
nigel207
Member Since: 26 Mar 2009
Location: Nottinghamshire
Posts: 1359
Another vote for the C&MC Red Pennant insurance.
30th Apr 2019 8:06 pm
SouthernWombat
Member Since: 30 Aug 2014
Location: Devon
Posts: 224
Mogwyth wrote:
We have a Nationwide flex plus account, which gives you UK and EU breakdown cover, no age limit on the vehicle and covers you personally in any vehicle, same for any joint account holder, if you nominate a vehicle it is then covered for any driver, covers caravans and motor homes. Like most policies EU recovery is restricted to the vehicle market value. You also get family mobile gadget insurance, family holiday insurance, 3% interest on balances up to £2000 and if I remember correctly fee free EU cash withdrawals. It cost £13 a month and you dont need to change your main account to them we use it as our holiday account. Now I cant speak from experience as we have never had to call them out but others whi have were very happy.
Same for us, we had the front suspension collapse in France on my 20 year xk8. After some time getting the EU side to work out where we were, pretty remote, the service was excellent. Car collected from side of road and taken to local garage who agreed to quote for the repair, taxi to our next gite and hire car provided for the 4 days it took to repair. Only cost was parts (these seemed to have a hefty markup). UK support from Nationwide was great.
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Gonna be scorchiooooooo!
