# Foreign Breakdown Cover



## JustRadio (May 21, 2005)

Kind of assuming there is none and to make sure I've sufficient wad to cover, but 

1. Is there such a thing?
2. Is there a MH friendly telephone number for directing good help?
3. Anything else of interest!

John

Motorhome Radio - Just find the radio player on the home page, click the drop down menu and choose us!


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## Penquin (Oct 15, 2007)

There is Red Pennant through the Caravan Club (which we have used in the past)

http://www.caravanclub.co.uk/insurance-and-finance/insurance/overseas-holiday-insurance

the RAC also has European cover;

http://www.rac.co.uk/euro-breakdown/

I am sure there are others too - but that's just for starters!

Dave


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## ceep (Sep 28, 2009)

This is probably not much help right now but could be in future: our MH insurance with Comfort gives us European breakdown cover for, I think, £57 extra. This seems to be a lot cheaper than you can buy it elsewhere and the insurance was a good price too.


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## madontour (May 19, 2008)

hi

Europ Assist will cover breakdowns abroad.

If you're crossing the channel via Eurotunnel they'll arrange cover too (through the AA, I think).

mike


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## Wizzo (Dec 3, 2007)

Saga (if you are the right age) do a stand alone European Breakdown cover. I was quoted £86 for my 13 year old van for the year.

JohnW


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## Chudders (Jul 5, 2008)

Safeguard include it in their policy. its with the AA, no size/weight restrictions, I have had cause to use it unfortunately.
I say include it, I bet the price is included in the premium although I thought the premium was fairly competitive


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## PeterandLinda (Feb 21, 2009)

Hi

We can confirm what Chudders says, the Safeguard quote was the keenest we came up with and it does cover 365 days European travel and 365 days breakdown cover and they have confirmed that it covers our 5 ton, 7.7m Hymer.

P&L


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## erneboy (Feb 8, 2007)

Your choice may be limited by restrictions on the size and weight of your van, it's age, and length of any overseas trips you propose to take. I know Saga have no such limits, Alan.


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## JustRadio (May 21, 2005)

Chudders said:


> Safeguard include it in their policy. its with the AA, no size/weight restrictions, I have had cause to use it unfortunately.
> I say include it, I bet the price is included in the premium although I thought the premium was fairly competitive


I didn't know, but Safeguard were over £100 more expensive than Sureterm so I guess I've got the premium spare to negotiate something. Not sure if only being in the EU for 30 days actually affects my desire to do it! TIme must be an issue but it's a less easy to comprehend risk.

I suppose, not for the first time, that I'm coming to this from the wrong side. Green Flag have just sent me a renewal and I thought that this would be a choice between them and the AA, RAC, etc. Roadside assistance EU wide is really what I'd like to go for. It hadn't occured to me it might be an insurance issue.


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## Rosbotham (May 4, 2008)

One thing to be careful of is whether the cover is solely breakdown to a suitable local dealer, or repatriation. Haven't had the situation with our motorhome, but we did have a breakdown with our toad last year. Had to fight pretty hard to get them to repatriate, given the cost to resolve was £1000+ in Switzerland, versus £220 local place / £400 main dealer back home for stated work (as it happens the M-B dealer out there truly tried to rip us off...these figures are like for like, in the end what they said was wrong wasn't the case & it was a fifty quid job when we finally did get the car home).

Paul


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## JustRadio (May 21, 2005)

Rosbotham said:


> One thing to be careful of is whether the cover is solely breakdown to a suitable local dealer, or repatriation. Haven't had the situation with our motorhome, but we did have a breakdown with our toad last year. Had to fight pretty hard to get them to repatriate, given the cost to resolve was £1000+ in Switzerland, versus £220 local place / £400 main dealer back home for stated work (as it happens the M-B dealer out there truly tried to rip us off...these figures are like for like, in the end what they said was wrong wasn't the case & it was a fifty quid job when we finally did get the car home).
> 
> Paul


Yes Paul, I think that's what I meant by a number to call to be directed to known good suppliers. In fact it might be a nice idea for MHF members to note good mechanical services on the Continong given that, (probably), there are half a dozen favourite routes used by 90% of all Motorhomers.

John
Motorhome Radio - Just find the radio player on the home page, and choose us from the drop down menu!


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## Mrplodd (Mar 4, 2008)

Whatever you do make sure that the cover covers your vehicle size.

I had to use my recovery insurance over the last bank Holiday, as my MH is 4 tonnes and has a 2m rear overhang the RAC had to use a specialised HGV recovery firm. The cost (if I had to pay it) was £90 per hour ( 8 hour recovery job!!) 

Not ALL breakdown cover has size restrictions but some do so make sure you see it IN WRITING dont just take someones word for it over the phone as you will never be able to prove what was said when you need to ( whilst in the depths of Spain on you mobile phone whilst talking to a foreign breakdown operator) 

(Mine is through Comfort but they will only sell Breakdown together with normal insurance, they are still very competitive for me)


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## motorhomer2 (May 9, 2005)

We have just done quote for Safeguard. Very competitive prices and the European breakdown told verbally on phone was any lengyh width height and did include repatriation of vehicle and persons if needed.


Have asked for it all in writing.


Motorhomer2


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## enjohn (May 2, 2008)

Make sure you read the small print if your motorhome is over 3.5 tons as there are restrictions on benefits such as Hotel Accomodation - there isn't any! There are a few other benefits unavailable to you as well so read it very carefully. My personal experience in terms of breakdown has not been very favourable to the AA Europe; their communication was very poor and arrangements made needed a bit to be desired. I have broken down twice now in France and on both occasions they have not rung me back when promising to do so. This year it cost me almost £50 in phone calls because of this. They sent a taxi for me to go and collect a hire car, but on arrival they had forgotten to arrange it! I arrived at a hotel they had booked for me to find out they hadn't!

I have been recommended to Comfort as they offer the same cover at a very competitive price and they use the RAC for breakdown - mind you I can only hope that the RAC service is better. In fact I just hope I don't have to call out anyone again!

For those of you hoping Fiat might offer any 'goodwill gesture' payments for failed parts when just outside of warranty, then you may find the link to my post on breaking down abroad informative.

Motorhomefacts.com


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## Rosbotham (May 4, 2008)

JustRadio said:


> Yes Paul, I think that's what I meant by a number to call to be directed to known good suppliers. In fact it might be a nice idea for MHF members to note good mechanical services on the Continong given that, (probably), there are half a dozen favourite routes used by 90% of all Motorhomers.


The problem with "known good suppliers" provided by the breakdown insurers is that they can only report in good faith. The garage that tried to fleece me was the M-B franchisee for the Interlaken area, so would have been the place my insurer sent me to (I'd already driven my Smart in there to get it checked before calling on my breakdown service). In the event, the only thing that saved me was persistence in persuading Britannia (my provider) that the dealer couldn't get the parts before we were due to leave the area so it was best to repatriate...thank god for LHD/RHD parts differences.

The idea of us as a community sharing experience is good, though.

Paul


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## erneboy (Feb 8, 2007)

I have written assurances from Saga on a number of issues, no weight, height or length restrictions, no restriction on length of stay away from the UK, their ability to sell breakdown cover on it's own and maybe a few more. I have posted these before but if these would be helpful to any one please let me know and I will post them again, Alan.


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## JustRadio (May 21, 2005)

Wizzo said:


> Saga (if you are the right age) do a stand alone European Breakdown cover. I was quoted £86 for my 13 year old van for the year.
> 
> JohnW


I've just got the same annual for £87, couldn't believe it. I'm saying to him things like, "Are you sure that's enough? Do you want to know the size of the vehicle? It's 7.4 metres long, gross vehicle weight 4500 Kgs", "No Sir we're not asked to ask you any of those questions, yes we know motorhomes can be big, it's all OK Sir, Really"

As it happens I'm sure it is enough, say it costs £1000 per breakdown, which I'm sure it doesn't, then they're quids in after 10 trouble free trips.

...as compared with Red Pennant £330 for 31 days.... Nice to feel the Caravan Club is on one's side isn't it.

John 
Motorhome Radio - Find the radio player on the home page, click the drop down and choose us


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## Rosbotham (May 4, 2008)

Not to say that the Saga policy isn't very good value, but I don't feel you're being fair to the Caravan Club policy there - I doubt you're comparing like with like. For £330 for annual policy/up to 31 days away, you're looking at a policy which is covering both the vehicle, holiday and personal health insurance. So it's got medical cover in there, up to £3650 to cover continuation of your holiday etc. If the Saga policy covers that, then fine, but I kinda thought it was a breakdown policy.

Paul


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## JustRadio (May 21, 2005)

Rosbotham said:


> Not to say that the Saga policy isn't very good value, but I don't feel you're being fair to the Caravan Club policy there - I doubt you're comparing like with like. For £330 for annual policy/up to 31 days away, you're looking at a policy which is covering both the vehicle, holiday and personal health insurance. So it's got medical cover in there, up to £3650 to cover continuation of your holiday etc. If the Saga policy covers that, then fine, but I kinda thought it was a breakdown policy.
> 
> Paul


I think it was single trip, and although there was the option for medical I already have it via a multitrip BUPA so I declined. So far as I am aware the quote was for one trip of maximum 31 days sans extras.

They had to go away and have a conflab during the process as apparently one of my dimensions, height, width or weight was beyond their normal.


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## Rosbotham (May 4, 2008)

The size might have been it then...your quote was so out of kilter with what I'm paying next month that I tried an online quote...most expensive I could find was £331 for that annual "all in" policy - NB at no time during the quote process did they ask vehicle size, and in the policy doc it didn't state there was any limit so on that basis I think they'd struggle to subsequently refuse to cover.


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## Oliviana (May 18, 2010)

Hi, we have a VW and we have insured with www.european-breakdown-cover.com.

Took a single trip policy last year but have an annual policy now as we are going away a couple of times. Costs us 65 quid and assistance is with Green Flag.

If you went to Green Flag Direct it was about 40 quid more and I almost had a heart attack when I saw the annual rates from the AA. Dont they know that its only a titchy thing I have !! The VW I mean


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