A policy that covers you as a named driver rather than a specific car or vehicles is known as personal breakdown cover.
This means that regardless of what car you are driving, you will be able to contact for assistance under your personal breakdown insurance policy if you break down.
Even if you are only a passenger in a car that breaks down, most personal breakdown insurance policies will allow you to call for help.
A named vehicle can sometimes be added to a personal breakdown policy so that it is protected even if you are not driving it, however this option differs between carriers. Also, keep in mind that some vehicles may not be covered by a personal coverage. Any restricted vehicles will be listed by your provider, so be sure you are aware of them before purchasing coverage.
Personal breakdown insurance is especially valuable if you drive a variety of vehicles on a regular basis, whether you own two or more cars or rent them, and if you frequently travel as a passenger in other vehicles.
What is personal cover with green flag?
Personal Cover is a feature that may be added to any of our vehicle cover products to cover you in any vehicle, not just your own. As your own vehicle will be covered under your policy, we’ll ask for information about it when you obtain your quote.
What is personal breakdown?
Car Breakdown and Recovery policies are divided into two categories: vehicle-based and personal-based. AutoAid provides personal breakdown coverage, which means the driver is covered under the policy for any car they are legally driving at the time they require Roadside Assistance.
Personal Based Cover, by insuring an individual, allows those with access to more than one vehicle to benefit from, and maybe save money, by having a single policy that covers all of their qualifying vehicles. This means that members who own a historic automobile or a motorcycle, or who drive multiple cars in the same family, may rest assured that their Autoaid membership covers them in all of these vehicles.
Do I need personal cover?
Personal accident insurance isn’t required, and it might be costly – but you can’t put a premium on peace of mind. If you are involved in a catastrophic accident, you may require costly rehabilitation or perhaps lose your job; however, personal injury insurance can help you reclaim those costs.
Is car breakdown cover worth it?
Drivers do not require breakdown coverage because, unlike auto insurance, it is not a legal necessity. Many people, however, will choose to purchase breakdown protection, even if it is only the most basic level of assistance, because it can make breaking down less stressful and expensive.
You have an older car
Cars that are older and have accumulated more mileage are more likely to break down. Because they are more prone to break down at home, many older car owners may choose for more comprehensive breakdown coverage to account for this increased risk.
Some breakdown services may only cover vehicles up to a specific age. As a result, if you have an older vehicle, you should check the conditions of your breakdown policy to see if it is covered.
You regularly travel long distances
If you travel long distances frequently, having breakdown coverage ensures that you will not be stranded far from home. The more extensive National Recovery or Onward Travel options cover you and your vehicle to bring you home or to your destination.
If you don’t have breakdown cover, arranging a tow and transport back home will be very expensive.
You drive in remote areas
It may take some time to locate the nearest garage and contact for assistance if you break down in the middle of nowhere without cover. If this happens, you’ll want assistance as soon as possible, especially if it’s dark or cold! If you have breakdown coverage, you can rest easy knowing that all you have to do to obtain help is phone your breakdown provider.
You’re worried about paying high call-out fees
Paying for breakdown coverage may seem counterintuitive, but it can save you money in the long run. You wouldn’t have to pay for a mechanic to try to fix your car or a tow to a garage if you had breakdown cover, but getting this emergency assistance without it may be very costly.
You’re driving in Europe
Driving in a foreign country is stressful enough without having to worry about breaking down. When you have European breakdown cover, you can rest easy knowing that if something goes wrong, you can call for assistance to get your car back on the road or, if necessary, make sure you get home safely.
Which is best AA or RAC breakdown cover?
The RAC Standard plan should meet your needs if you want a no-frills package and are willing to sign a lengthier commitment. The AA Premium cover, on the other hand, is the best value for money if you want complete peace of mind no matter what occurs.
Does personal breakdown cover car and motorcycle?
Personal breakdown insurance protects you as a registered driver, regardless of the car you drive. As a result, if your car or motorcycle breaks down, you will be able to contact your insurance company for assistance.
If you are only a passenger in a car or on a motorcycle, some personal breakdown insurance policies allow you to request recovery help. In a nutshell, it’s an insurance policy that protects you.
What Does A Personal Breakdown Cover Include?
When your motorcycle, car, or van breaks down, you’ll receive rapid assistance from a trained mechanic.
If you live in a family where everyone owns a car, you can opt for a joint or group personal policy. It would assist you in obtaining coverage for your complete family, regardless of the automobile or motorcycle they want to ride.
You may customize your own breakdown protection by choosing from choices like National Recovery, At Home, Onward Travel, and Parts and Garage Cover.
- You can contact your insurance company at any time to have your vehicle repaired by a qualified mechanic. If the mechanic is unable to repair your vehicle, he will transport it to a garage and have it repaired for you.
- You can contact your insurance provider at any moment if the problem with your automobile or motorcycle is not repeating. Your breakdown cover provider will dispatch a professional to remedy the problem at any time of day or night.
- If you are only 1/4 mile from your home, you can access 24-hour roadside assistance.
If you want personal breakdown insurance, you’ll have to pay a little more than if you want car breakdown insurance. A personal cover, on the other hand, provides unrivaled flexibility.
How Is Personal Breakdown Cover Different From Vehicle Breakdown Cover?
As previously stated, personal breakdown insurance protects a single driver, whereas vehicle breakdown insurance protects one or more cars.
- When you have personal breakdown insurance, you can seek roadside assistance from your insurance provider if your vehicle breaks down. When you have vehicle breakdown insurance, you may only ask for help from your provider if you are driving the vehicle that is covered by your policy.
- A multi-person personal breakdown policy can cover more than one individual. A vehicle breakdown insurance policy would be more appropriate for persons who frequently share a car or motorcycle.
- Appropriate for people who drive rented cars, family/friends’ cars, work cars, or any other type of vehicle. Vehicle breakdown coverage, on the other hand, is appropriate for persons who only drive one automobile.
When To Choose The Personal Breakdown Cover?
Before purchasing breakdown insurance, you should ask yourself the following questions:
The basic conclusion is that if you own more than one automobile, personal breakdown insurance is the best option. It’s much better if your children travel with other passengers, such as van or cab drivers. Your children will be covered if you purchase a group policy.
If you share your car or motorcycle with people who aren’t relatives, though, a vehicle breakdown policy will be more appropriate. Before you buy one of these breakdown covers, make sure you compare the two.
What’s The Right Personal Breakdown Cover?
If you decide to purchase personal breakdown insurance, you will be offered the option of selecting the level of coverage. The level begins with a basic package of roadside assistance coverage. You can customize the package to meet your specific needs. After a breakdown, you’ll be able to call a roadside expert to fix the problems with your car or motorcycle. Your car or bike will be led to a garage for further repairs. You can make the following changes to your personal breakdown insurance:
- You can include Home-Start as part of your personal breakdown insurance. If your automobile or motorcycle won’t start at home, you’ll be able to phone an engineer.
- If you travel to Europe frequently, adding a European single cover to your breakdown insurance is a good idea.
- If you drive a van and want your passengers insured, you can also add National Recovery to your breakdown policy.
Will other people be covered if they drive my car?
No, it’s not true. Personal insurance is designed to protect only you. As a result, if someone else drives your automobile, he or she will not be covered by the policy.
You can, however, include your partner, family, or friends in your personal cover. It will be used as a joint or family cover. They will also be insured if they have a breakdown in your vehicle after that.
2. What is the maximum number of persons I can include on my personal cover?
Most insurance providers will allow you to add up to three people to a joint personal or family policy. This, however, may vary depending on the company.
3. What vehicles am I covered for under my personal insurance policy?
Most classic automobiles, vans, motorcycles, and other vehicles are covered by a standard personal breakdown policy.
4. Am I insured if I drive another person’s car?
Yes. You will be insured if you are a driver or a passenger in any car if you have personal breakdown insurance.
5. What is the procedure for paying for my cover?
Is Green Flag better than AA?
When looking for low-cost breakdown insurance, it’s crucial to compare suppliers to find who offers the best deal.
So we decided to see how much the major insurance – AA, RAC, and Green Flag – charge and what they have to offer.
These are the pricing for the budget option, which includes roadside assistance. It’s worth noting that while labor is free, any extra parts you might require are not.
If your vehicle cannot be repaired on the spot, it will be towed to a garage, where you will be responsible for the repair costs.
Coverage in the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland, and the Isle of Man (and for residents of the Channel Islands)
Tow your vehicle within 10 miles to a local garage or destination of your choice.
*The cost of Green Flag’s breakdown cover is determined by you and your car, as well as the chance of you filing a claim or filing a large claim. Only 10% of its consumers will be able to acquire the cheapest price of £25. However, rather than having a one-size-fits-all policy, coverage is tailored to your unique needs.
The RAC, for example, permits you to claim for any taxi ride you may need for up to 20 miles, whilst the others do not. Meanwhile, AA is the only company that includes the cost of any small parts that are required (less than £5).
Reviews of breakdown cover
The RAC Breakdown Cover has a 4.3 out of 5 rating on Trustpilot, whereas the AA has a 4.4/5 rating and Green Flag has a 4.4.
Based on reader feedback, car magazine Auto Express created a ranking of breakdown cover providers, which you can read here.
Green Flag was ranked second, RAC was fourth, and AA was fifth. Britannia Rescue and GEM Motoring Assist, two smaller providers, took the first and third places, respectively.
What about repeat breakdowns?
If a member was previously advised to fix an issue (during a previous breakdown) and did not, the RAC says it may refuse roadside assistance for the same issue.
If the AA has dealt with ‘the same or comparable cause of breakdown’ in the previous 28 days, it has the right to refuse to deal with it again. As a result, it is up to you to follow any advise given to you in order to resolve any concerns.
If you haven’t corrected an issue that has resulted in a second call-out within the last 28 days, or if you cancelled one and then called for help with the same problem, Green Flag says it may charge you more.
The RAC claims that it can fix four out of five faults at the roadside in under 30 minutes on average, excluding accidents and severe failures.
The AA claims to be able to fix eight out of ten automobiles on the spot and to arrive in under an hour on average.
With approximately 3,000 specialist mobile mechanics, the AA claims to have more than other carriers.
A word of caution: breakdown services need you to present your membership card and evidence of identification in order to use their services, so keep them with you at all times.
Service versus price
Most of us have heard people talk about their positive and negative experiences with each of these companies.
Individual anecdotes can’t be read too deeply unless they’re extraordinarily one-sided, which isn’t the case here. They’re all still going strong, which indicates that their service is generally satisfactory.
You should anticipate to pay extra during renewal with the AA and RAC. It’s a good idea to look around for the best deal each year, but if you’ve had outstanding service from one company, you might feel more secure continuing with them.
As with Green Flag, sticking with the same service at renewal may entitle you to more callouts each year or discounts for not making a callout.
You may try transferring from one to the other for a 24-month period to compare their services, and you might even save some money in the process.
Unfortunately, both the AA and the RAC have raised their budget prices since 2013, so it’s unlikely that you’ll notice much of a savings.
Green Flag offers a 50% discount on your AA or RAC renewal quote, but make sure you read the terms and conditions first.
Keep in mind that all three services may auto-renew, so make a note in your calendar to shop about in 11 months.
Beyond budget cover
Finally, when you acquire car insurance, some insurers include breakdown coverage for free or as an optional extra.
When shopping for car insurance, you should see if you can get a better overall deal before purchasing breakdown coverage separately.
*This article contains affiliate links, which means we may earn a profit if you buy something after clicking on one of our links. This article was written entirely on my own.
Who does cover my breakdown use?
To get a decent quality breakdown service, you don’t have to pay the hefty rates imposed by driving clubs.
Our breakdown insurance is offered by a subsidiary of AXA, one of the world’s largest insurance groups, with over 40 years of experience providing motorists with breakdown recovery help. Our nationwide network of breakdown and recovery agents is extensive and well-established – in fact, it’s the same network of skilled agents that other Irish organizations rely on when they can’t deploy their own patrols. They’re all members of an approved trade association and are available 24 hours a day.
Except for benefits shown under Section A of the cover, such as Irish Roadside Assistance more than one mile from your home and recovery of your vehicle to a local garage normally within 15 miles, we are unable to cover a breakdown that occurs within the first 24 hours after cover is purchased for the first time. Details can be found in the policy wording.
Annual breakdown cover is available for cars, motorcycles, and light vans that are under 16 years old at the time of cover (under 11 years for our 5 Star Cover, which includes annual European cover), registered in Ireland, and have a maximum vehicle weight of 3,500kg, a maximum length of 5.1m including any tow bar, a maximum width of 2.1m, and a maximum height of 2m. If your vehicle breaks down while towing a caravan or trailer, we will recover it along with the caravan or trailer as long as the dimensions of the caravan or trailer do not exceed the following: 8 meters in length, 3 meters in height, and 2.25 meters in width Our European breakdown cover has slightly different vehicle criteria.
Yes. Breakdowncover. ie can cover trailers or caravans made by a reputable manufacturer if the length, height, and breadth of the trailer or caravan do not exceed 8 meters, 3 meters, and 2.25 meters. Trailers and caravans are required to have a working spare tyre and wheel, and are only covered for occurrences when they are linked to the insured vehicle.
Continental Europe is included in the 5 star cover’s coverage. During the insurance period, you are covered for journeys inside Ireland between your home and your point of departure.
Andorra, Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United Kingdom are among the countries covered.
Breakdowncover.
We don’t have the fixed costs and overheads of our competitors, and being a web-based company gives us even more cost advantages, which we can pass on to our consumers, resulting in lower prices.
Breakdowncover.ie’s products are designed to give you a variety of options, so whatever your needs are, we feel we’ve got you covered. On our home page, look over our cover alternatives for purchasing guidance.
Providing they are driving with your permission, whomever is driving your automobile is covered.
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We will confirm your purchase after your transaction has been completed. Then, within a few days, we’ll send you an email with your details, allowing you to access and print your documents.