Recommended Recovery/Assistance Service

[John Laidlaw]

Did they reduce your premium to thank you ?

They actually do have a no claim following year discount....

 

[Wighty]

They actually do have a no claim following year discount....

Don't ruin the joke buddy

 

[Ken_R]

When I first going regularly to France, some 20+ years ago, I looked at Euro cover and, back then, it was about £75. In those days, cars were much simpler. They had a proper spare wheel. They had a Distributor and points. Steering wasn't normally 'power assisted' - or certainly not in the price range of cars that I was running. Things were just so much simpler then.

Hence, on the basis that, on only one occasion in the past, sometime in the early 70's, have I ever needed Roadside Assistance, and that was through a mate, I made the decision that even if the worst came to the worst, and a car needed to be recovered to the UK (for a mechanical fault), then with the rising subscription costs, I could take a 'hit' of in the region of £1k, should that ever need to happen, and still be in profit. It never did.

Things have moved on. Cars are more complicated. My missus, along with myself, would now be less inclined to trundle off on foot to a local Garage should the vehicle become immobile.

Hence, I now have cover with Green Flag. They provide an 'app' for Android phones which will pinpoint [presumably to their Call Centre] your precise location. I haven't really explored this to any great extent.

I think the cost of my most recent renewal, which was 'loaded' because my car is over 10 years old, and then 'discounted' because I hadn't used them in the year previous, was [from memory] circa £120.

One thing I do make a point of doing, 2 or 3 times a year, is to 'crack' the bolts holding the wheels, and then re-torque them. I have an 18" Breaker Bar and a six sided 17mm socket (purchased from ToolNet.co.uk - other suppliers are available) which I keep in the spare wheel area of my vehicle.

I just couldn't abide with the embarrassment, when suffering a tyre deflation, of having to call out Roadside Assistance just because I couldn't release a bolt.

I'd have to go and hide in a hedgerow nearby until he had finished.

 

[umblecumbuz]

One thing I do make a point of doing, 2 or 3 times a year, is to 'crack' the bolts holding the wheels, and then re-torque them. I have an 18" Breaker Bar and a six sided 17mm socket (purchased from ToolNet.co.uk - other suppliers are available) which I keep in the spare wheel area of my vehicle.

I just couldn't abide with the embarrassment, when suffering a tyre deflation, of having to call out Roadside Assistance just because I couldn't release a bolt..

Excellent suggestion.
I have obtained a double-ended socket, that works for both my car and boat trailer. 17mm and 19mm.

 

[SRE]

I just couldn't abide with the embarrassment, when suffering a tyre deflation, of having to call out Roadside Assistance just because I couldn't release a bolt.

I had the embarrassment of calling the AA out to a puncture on the MGC a few years ago. The spare was fine and I even had a rubber mallet to free the spinner on the wire wheel but as soon as I started to jack the car up with the bottle jack, the hydraulics on the jack gave way!

 

[ajlsl600]

You need one of the upgraded accounts - the higher the upgrade the bigger the benefits but the more it costs.
Mines a Platinum account and comes with travel insurance, mobile phone insurance, breakdown and recovery (via AA) and a few other bits. They debit the account fee monthly.

CAA

You need one of the upgraded accounts - the higher the upgrade the bigger the benefits but the more it costs.
Mines a Platinum account and comes with travel insurance, mobile phone insurance, breakdown and recovery (via AA) and a few other bits. They debit the account fee monthly.

cheers will be on to lloyds about that as put enough in there also have pay acc with lloyd int must check if that gives same cover.

 

[Frontstep]

Doesn't it depend so much on the individual and the time of day and place.

I have had three Mobilo events over the 15 years.

1, Never arrived waited an hour, fixed it myself, afternoon
2, Came out (40 minutes) replaced CPS sensor I paid up and away he went, evening.
3, Came out (40 minutes ) reattached CPS sensor plug away I went, evening.

Some years ago youth and I helped an older driver out of the snow, clearly the services would have struggled even to get there.

 

[d215yq]

If you are interested in Europe cover forget the AA/RAC, they'll charge more for a single trip to Europe than a whole year's cover. If you go to money supermarket you'll be able to get a year's policy on one vehicle for 70 quid or so. The other providers also don't distinguish between home start, relay etc - basically you are covered everywhere from your door to the whole of Europe.

The Europe model is very different to the UK model in that no company has a big fleet - they are all local recovery and so whoever you go with the service is the same. For this reason the advertising and competition is on price, and it is very cheap. I've needed it twice (once in the city for a flat tyre that was over tightened and once in the middle of the mountains at 2500m for a flat tyre when I still had the old flat tyre as the spare) and both times local garage recovery services were used.

Sadly in the UK the marketers and "buy cheap buy twice" menatlity pervades and therefore all the marketing is on who has the best fleet and there's lots of complicated options. I love how the AA/RAC boast "it's the person not the car that's covered". My dad happily pays 220 quid a year to them for three family members for all the bells and whistles except Europe saying "atleast we are all covered". What I don't get is he has two cars so he could easily pay 50 quid for each car and get full UK cover, or 70 quid on one if he wanted to go to Europe. He does get some complicated to claim 10 quid cashback voucher after 6 months though so it's all OK

 

[EmilysDad]

.....

One thing I do make a point of doing, 2 or 3 times a year, is to 'crack' the bolts holding the wheels, and then re-torque them. I have an 18" Breaker Bar and a six sided 17mm socket (purchased from ToolNet.co.uk - other suppliers are available) which I keep in the spare wheel area of my vehicle.

I just couldn't abide with the embarrassment, when suffering a tyre deflation, of having to call out Roadside Assistance just because I couldn't release a bolt.

......

Often, removing or undoing the wheel bolts/nuts isn't the problem. The problem is getting the rim to let go of the hub if they've been on the car a while & they're void of any kind of grease. On a 'new' car, I like to know that I can get the wheels off on the comfort of my drive rather than trying to knock 7 bells out of a wheel on the roadside miles from home.

 

[davemercedes]

Often, removing or undoing the wheel bolts/nuts isn't the problem. The problem is getting the rim to let go of the hub if they've been on the car a while & they're void of any kind of grease. On a 'new' car, I like to know that I can get the wheels off on the comfort of my drive rather than trying to knock 7 bells out of a wheel on the roadside miles from home.

 

[davemercedes]

+1 for Nationwide.

Did some sums to verify costs versus Dealer rates & Mobilo 3 years ago - Mobilo came second...

Used the breakdown service - twice: once for dead battery which I replaced and at Xmas I had transmission error light on and decided not to drive to indy (Mercland) so Nationwide service took me on low loader.

Excellent. As per above post our account is joint so Swmbo & I are covered on any car in UK & EU.

 

[kid-jensen]

I've been with cheap-n-cheerful "Start Rescue" for a few years..

Only broken down once (alternator) and they were pretty quick and very helpful.

 

[JBell]

I have an HSBC Advance account, gives me breakdown (which I have used), travel insurance, phone insurance, well worth £144 a year

 

[Frontstep]

It appears the answer is to find a solution that suits you and your circumstances.

 

[davemercedes]

You're quite right FS - but I like to see the "real" alternatives people have been getting (as opposed to the promise of adverts) before committing to it.

The only negative thing about the Nationwide package is that it used to include a free electrical products breakdown (fix or replace) insurance adding 1 x year to whatever the standard manufacturer's warranty provided. It was very generous - I called them for a washing machine problem and the engineer ordered parts which he subsequently said were wrong... the Nationwide office phoned me and offered a cash settlement - they simply asked what I had paid and said they would refund it (which I took after considering their offer for 1.5 seconds!) so 2 x years usage cost me £0!

- That may perhaps illustrate why they withdrew it!

 

[JBell]

The only negative thing about the Nationwide package is that it used to include a free electrical products breakdown (fix or replace) insurance adding 1 x year to whatever the standard manufacturer's warranty provided. It was very generous - I called them for a washing machine problem and the engineer ordered parts which he subsequently said were wrong... the Nationwide office phoned me and offered a cash settlement - they simply asked what I had paid and said they would refund it (which I took after considering their offer for 1.5 seconds!) so 2 x years usage cost me £0!

- That may perhaps illustrate why they withdrew it!

If I buy electrical goods on my HSBC Gold card I get a 5 year warranty

 

[davemercedes]

That's very good. We replaced our lounge tv last year and I was going to buy one at Costco because they give 5 x years on TVs and their service is really excellent. But I found the firm Richer Sounds very competitive and they give their own 5 year warranty. I read a lot of customer feedback and they do honour it if there's a problem.

 

[Wighty]

John Lewis can also be surprisingly good on electricals with a 5 year warranty , I only check them and richer sounds now .

 

[nicholas15]

I have a Lloyd's account and it includes breakdown and recovery for me (not the vehicle). Used it several times (I had Land Rovers) and it's been excellent.

Likewise a happy platinum account holder.Basically AA as far as road breakdown has always worked well.

 

[Frontstep]

That's odd I looked into card warranties a time ago and found quite a lot of exclusions and there all but gone now.

https://www.choose.co.uk/guide/credit-cards-banks-extended-warranty-offers.html