If your car breaks down on the road or won’t start on the drive, you want to know you have the right breakdown cover to deal with the problem.
Sometimes breakdown services make what they do too complicated, so you have to compare different providers to find the right cover at the right price.
If you need some advice about how to compare roadside recovery deals, here are some important points to consider:
Roadside assistance
If your car breaks down or is involved in an accident anywhere on the UK mainland, providing you are not at home, you need a breakdown service that will come and start the car, or if that fails, will take you home or to a nearby garage.
Most breakdown services call this ‘roadside assistance’ or ‘basic cover’.
If your car won’t start, a technician will try to solve the problem within 60 minutes.
You need to watch your roadside assistance comparison here - nearly every service has a different definition of how far from home the service starts. For some, it’s as close as 400 yards, while it’s a mile for others.
Don’t just go for a cheap roadside assistance policy, check the details so you don’t get caught out.
Roadside recovery
Roadside assistance and recovery come as a package - if the technician cannot start your car or you have had an accident that makes your car unroadworthy, roadside recovery will take you and the vehicle to your home or the nearest garage.
This is where roadside recovery comparison is important. Some roadside cover polcies have a towing radius limited to 10 miles from the call-out location, others allow a more generous 15 miles.
If you live in a rural area, that extra five miles can make all the difference so check the roadside cover limit before you buy.
Breaking down at home
If your car breaks down close to home, roadside assistance is no help, instead you would need cover that offers ‘homestart’ or ‘home rescue’.
This service offers the same features as roadside assistance and recovery, but a technician will come to your assistance even if you break down outside your front door. This does come at an extra cost so you need to consider whether it’s an additional benefit you’d find valuable.
Checking out your car’s condition
All roadside breakdown cover services will want to make sure your car is in a reasonable condition before putting your policy on risk.
Again, most roadside cover providers have their own view on ‘reasonable’ that covers age, mileage and type of vehicle and some will probably ask for a service history as well. Read the policy schedule to make sure your car fits the bill before you take up one of the roadside recovery offers available.
