Vehicle Breakdown Recovery

Another frequent event is people trying to join in a breakdown situation a lot of people don’t have breakdown cover and it’s only those who have been in a breakdown before who understand how valuable it can be. If you do join in a breakdown situation you will be charged a lot more money and receive no discounts. Cover typically takes 24hrs to come into effect to avoid people joining and instantly using the service.

Most companies have a fair play policy for the interest of their members if you use the service to often then you will be charged extra before they will grant you service. 6 times in one year is fairly typical for a limit which you can use the breakdown cover before having to pay more. Its emergency cover and if your setting off in a car that’s broken down 10 times in the last 3 months then you would have a good idea that it’s going to happen again and maybe you should look into getting a different car.

Once you have taken your membership out there and it’s got past the 28 day cool down period you can’t get a refund it’s a contract for a year. However you can suspend your membership so if you were going on holiday for 6 months you can phone and suspend it for 6 months until you arrive again or you can transfer it into someone else’s name

Finally if you’re a member of a breakdown organisation you will typically get further discount on their insurance for home, contents or vehicle and that’s always worth enquiring about.

I’ve worked in a call centre for a major breakdown provider for a number of years and felt from my training and experience I may be able to pass on some knowledge that may be useful.

Firstly I find that a lot of people don’t know exactly what their breakdown policy actually covers them for. A lot of people when taking out a policy to save themselves money request the most basic level of cover which would give them roadside assistance. This gives them no cover at their home and if they did breakdown away from home they would only get a local tow. Anyone travelling regular long distances would take out a recovery/relay service once they had it explained that if they were 200 miles away from home and they broke down they would be towed to a local garage and still be 200 miles away from home. With the recovery/relay cover you could be taken home or any destination of your choice. There are other options but this seems to be a frequent error just going for the most basic level of cover and not knowing what you get.

Besides not knowing exactly what your level of cover entitles you to the next biggest miss understanding is what or who is covered. Most breakdown cover providers give you the choice of vehicle or personal based membership with the AA and the RAC giving the extra options of joint and family cover. I’ve spoken to people who have single memberships for each individual in their house and that’s wasting a lot of money. If you’re joining the RAC for roadside, home and recovery and you have 2 single memberships in the same house it’s going to cost £211.50 a joint membership which would cover the same to people would cost £139.75. For some of you this will seem obvious but I’ve seen it happen so many times that there must be some people who don’t know about saving from joint or family membership. If your in a house with other people with breakdown cover look into joint/family or Vehicle Membership.

Personal cover covers you the person in any vehicle where as vehicle based cover, covers one nominated vehicle for any driver. If you drive multiple cars or are frequently a passenger in others cars then personal membership is probably better for you. If your in a family of 4 and share one car then you would obviously make a big saving if you had the one car covered with a vehicle based membership.

Speaking to the employees of the company helps when a sale is made there is generally a script they have to read to tell you what your covered for but most people just want to get there cover and get off the phone, listen to what your covered for if unsure and ask questions. Remember if it’s a call centre or someone in a shopping centre who works for the company they will likely be getting paid commission for their sale, often the commissions will be tiered and they will get money of a commission the bigger the package they sell therefore in their financial interest to up sell. Talking to people who know your options is great and if you and it obviously gives it the personal touch and no one ever asks but ask if they is a discount for doing your job such as civil services, student discount or armed forces. Of course the largest discount usually comes from purchasing the breakdown cover online.

Another frequent event is people trying to join in a breakdown situation a lot of people don’t have breakdown cover and it’s only those who have been in a breakdown before who understand how valuable it can be. If you do join in a breakdown situation you will be charged a lot more money and receive no discounts. Cover typically takes 24hrs to come into effect to avoid people joining and instantly using the service.

Most companies have a fair play policy for the interest of their members if you use the service to often then you will be charged extra before they will grant you service. 6 times in one year is fairly typical for a limit which you can use the breakdown cover before having to pay more. Its emergency cover and if your setting off in a car that’s broken down 10 times in the last 3 months then you would have a good idea that it’s going to happen again and maybe you should look into getting a different car.

Once you have taken your membership out there and it’s got past the 28 day cool down period you can’t get a refund it’s a contract for a year. However you can suspend your membership so if you were going on holiday for 6 months you can phone and suspend it for 6 months until you arrive again or you can transfer it into someone else’s name

Finally if you’re a member of a breakdown organisation you will typically get further discount on their insurance for home, contents or vehicle and that’s always worth enquiring about.