Breakdown
insurance, is it worth the money?
Many drivers worry about their
car breaking down in the middle of a motorway, isolated area
or even a town, but is it worth spending money on separate
insurance for those “just in case” moments?
Drivers spent annually £1.5Bn on breakdown coverage
for their cars last year. Many UK residents don’t realize
that these insurance policies do not usually provide breakdown
coverage when driving abroad, for example into Europe.
Being broken down is aggravating enough, but being stuck
in another country where there may be language barriers and
different motoring laws can bring even more difficulty to
travelers trying to have a peaceful holiday.
Shopping around
When shopping around for car insurance, there are some questions
to ask providers about breakdown coverage which can help in
determining if it’s worth the extra money. Some examples
of questions are:
- If my car breaks down, will the roadside assistance company
try and fix it or just take me to a garage where I’ll
have to pay for the repair?
- How long on average does it take for roadside assistance
to come to help?
- How many cars are covered under my breakdown insurance?
- If I breakdown in a different country, what coverage
is there since I like to travel to different countries?
- Who can I cover besides myself? (e.g. Family, passengers,
friends)
- Is there a maximum number of allowable service calls per
year?
According to price comparison websites, these types of questions
should be asked before deciding on spending money on breakdown
insurance coverage.
How it works
The two companies that dominate the business of roadside
recovery are well-known - the RAC and the AA. Similar to AAA
in the US, the driver calls into these companies, reports
their problem to them, and the dispatcher sends the message
about the problem out to their recovery operatives. Sometimes
you will get an actual employee from one of these roadside
assistance groups coming to your rescue, BUT lately this has
begun changing. AAA or Triple A in the USA has been doing
this for years; when the driver calls into the dispatch center
and reports their problem, the dispatch center then calls
a local gas station or recovery company to help with your
problem. Sometimes the local company is chosen by you and
other times it is not. This is now creeping in as a practise
in the UK.
In some instances drivers break down only to find that the
breakdown insurance that they paid for covered the driver
for the towing of their car BUT not the repair. The driver
is still responsible to pay for the repair and then send in
the bill to get a reimbursement from the roadside assistance
company when a local company comes to help you in your time
of crisis. The driver is left with no choice but to agree
to the mechanic fixing their car because no other company
was called, nor the driver could do a price comparison when
stuck on the road.
Be aware when shopping for breakdown insurance and decide
whether it truly is offering value for money.
5/7/05 |
