I know a few of you are driving abroad this summer. Has anyone got any advice regarding breakdown cover whilst abroad?
I thought I'd found a good deal but then it started talking about ensuring your car had the correct service history according to the manufacturer and I havn't a clue whether mine has
Any advice welcome!
Comments
I can assure you the AA is brilliant... especially when you need them...
I know people who had an accident on Christmas morning on the A 26 Motorway just outside St Quentin, France, at about 3 am... in really foul weather.
Once the Police and the Fire brigade had swept them up the AA
- arranged for the car to be towed to a garage,
- arranged and paid for a hotel room,
- arranged a hire car to get them on their way by 10 am on Christmas day
- paid for a taxi to get them to their hire car
- contacted the insurance company,
- arranged for the car to be repaired (in France)
- paid half of the repair bill (insurance companies covered the rest)
- covered a hire car back to the uk (car was not full repaired by the end of the holiday)
- paid for flight to go back, from UK and collect the car once repaired
- paid for a hire car to get from airport to garage to collect car
- paid for single trip on tunnel to get car back
All paid by the AA the insured did not have to pay and claim back..All done with no fuss, or hastle, just happened.
A number of car manufacturers have their own Europe wide breakdown service... depending on how old your car is etc check it out. You may not have to spend any more.
Thanks for all the advice. I've checked my Insurance and I'm allowed 90 days in Europe but i will still phone them to make absolutely sure!
i've taken the plunge and bought a single trip AA package as I couldn't see any tie-ups with my insurance Company and Breakdown services.
If I was travelling on my own i might have risked it but with my family on board that was never an option.
Getting my car towed back from Embrun might just cost a packet!
I always make sure that my minibago has both annual European insurance cover and annual European breakdown cover as that's the vehicle I'm likely to take - and having it at renewal means I don't have to worry about extra faff when heading off into Europe. it might cost a bit more but less faff is worth paying for imho
Thanks,
Ffjamesm
For breakdowns in the UK, an AA van would turn up - BUT on my experience you would be bottom of the priority list. I used them twice - first time had to wait 2 hours, 2nd time was something like 3.5 hours, and then there was debate about how much cover I had.
Both times I got a satisfactory cover, but the wait was too long, and so I decided to cancel it. There were also rumours of issues about recovery from abroad back to the UK - something about the worth of the vehicle vs cost of recovery.
I can't recommend them, but thought I'd share my 2 pence worth. I'd do much further research on them because its been a couple of years since I've been with them, and things may have changed. To research further I'd scour some of the VW enthusiast forums - thats where I original found out about the deal.