Break down covers

 European Breakdown Cover - experiences, recommendations, who to avoid?
I've been looking at European Breakdown Cover this morning and it's all very confusing, what I want is an annual policy that covers me in the UK and Europe, but it seems the AA want to sell me two separate policies and the RAC can't even be bothered to have a call centre open on a Sunday to speak to potential customers.

So I thought I'd turn to the most reliable source of knowledge when it comes to all things involving sliding, namely, you guys!

Any suggestions, recommendations, hints tips or things to avoid would be great...... (European Breakdown Cover related, lets not start the Helmet, Bristich Ski Industry or Go Pro v Contour conversations in yet another thread.....   )
 
   
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Standee, depends what you want..... the top AA cover (used to be called 5 Star, don't know if it still is) is expensive but if your car breaks down catastrophically, e.g. on the way home from the Alps, it will sort out everything. Happened to a friend. Fought her way north of Dijon in a blizzard, car broke down. Towed back to Dijon, picked up hire car (it was half term, teachers having to get back to work) and drove to Calais. Cross channel (with luggage!), into English hired car, home to London. Car taken to garage. Her expenses to go back to pick up the car two weeks later were also paid.

I have breakdown cover with my car insurance policy (I suggest you check first whether you can add it to your policy, might be the cheapest way). Had clutch pack in in Italy. Car taken to garage (a ropey one as it turned out, but I wasn't to know that.....). We could choose either a hire car for 7 days OR accommodation locally when the car was sorted out. We chose the former, but then by the time it was all sorted out, had to pay for accommodation anyway and continued our journey. All expenses to go back and pick up the car - including cost of Mont Blanc tunnel - were down to us.

That was "Saga" but the actual people doing the stuff were the AA. Had a battle with them over the cost of further repairs in France when it turned out the Italians had omitted to put oil in the gear box (long story, not nice driving through the MB tunnel with a car sounding like death). They paid up eventually but only after I went to the Insurance Ombudsman and we had a LOT of out of pocket expenses as well as extreme inconvenience.

Obviously you pay for the repairs, either way.

So far (touch wood) it's our only breakdown and the clutch had done 90K miles. Driving back to the Alps on Tuesday. Fingers crossed, touch wood, etc etc. Breakdown insurance through my car insurer - London Victoria.
 
   
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Standee, we used Quoteline Direct for a while, called them when we had a damaged windscreen, and they sorted it with FRench Autoglass and our insurers very quickly. Really helpful. Their policy was Europe wide so covered us in the UK as well, which meant we were double-insured, but it was cheaper than extending our RAC cover at the time. Have european cover through our bank account now.
 
   
You need to Login to know who's really who.
Thanks pam_w, shows how observant I am, just called my insurer and I already have European Breakdown cover as part of my policy, that's €140 in the beer kitty!

may be worth keeping open for fellow 's, happy if admin lock if they feel appropriate.

Bon Ski!
 
   
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
imho the key to these policies is what happens when the car can't be repaired immediately? Depends what you need, some only pay for a hotel bill which if you break down Friday means you probably won't get the car repaired until Tuesday/ Wednesday etc.
Some manufacturers include Euro cover in their warranty, Mercedes and Jaguar do BMW do not. Worth checking and again check what the cover is.
 
   
You'll need to Register first of course.
We've had a few different ones over the years (generally just buy on price having checked the conditions). The usual suspects will steer you in the right direction (Confused.com etc).

Our experience has been variable and seems unrelated to the price paid. In most cases you are picked up by a local garage (assuming they can't fix it on the spot) who may or may not have car hire facilities. Then you might get into a long argument about what they will or won't do. We caught fire near St Quentin on the way home and as it was Autoroute the first contact just took us to a point of safety off the Autoroute. We then phoned our breakdown insurer and explained the status. They said we'll send someone to try to repair it. We said you can't it's been on fire. Man arrives and says I can't repair that it's been on fire! He adds "It's a write off" so the breakdown insurer says in that case we won't bring it back. More phone calls questioning whether the local mechanic is an insurance assessor qualified to make that call (he clearly wasn't) led to a recovery to Calais, push onto ferry, tow off ferry and relay home.

The main thing to watch for is whether you are buying a breakdown service or an insurance that will repay allowable costs that you pay in the first. We've had two incidents in 15 years of regular European travel and now just go for the cheapest annual cover we can find - under £100 this year. If your vehicle is over 10 years old it gets a bit more restricted.
 
   
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Thought things like ADAC were available beyond German border? Prices seemed far better than I recall for AA, with the fully loaded up Pan-Europe "insurance". For those that drive to slopes, and to do other "dangerous" sports, the benefits potentially beat some of the benefits of the wintersports insurance. eg if I get injured on a bash, and can't drive home or the car gets written off on the Autostrada, ADAC pay to repatriate the car, and for occupants to fly or take train (afaict).

I will say that Touring Club Switzerland were very helpful and sorted everything direct with ADAC on my recent defect car coming back from the PSB. OK I had to pay for a new coil pack, fair enough, but the guy sorted everything out so I didn;t get stung for the call out etc. PS handy having the car reg document (we have 2 parts in Germany - whole parts stays at home, small part with you in the car), since it has all the car code details for him to punch in his computer. Got a free readout of all the car ECU codes too, and he reset them. Costs money at the local dealer for that, unless he includes it in the standard service fee.
 
   
After all it is free
Last time I needed them was 2000 but was glad I had full RAC European cover, went round a hairpin bend only to find black ice over the whole bend, a 720 degree turn later narrowly avoiding a 30+ ft drop off the side of the road and not avoiding a no overtaking sign, the car was toast, RAC would have arranged a hire car for a week but I was off on a two week holiday and it would have spent all its time in a garage at the bottom of the mountain so instead they sorted a taxi to take me from the middle of nowhere to a nearby hotel which they also sorted, then they sorted me another taxi to take me to the next mainline train station (my request), they also arranged for the car to be recovered taken to the nearest main dealer for inspection and so on, was very very happy with their aid, the insurance company took over from there and wrote the car off which, perhaps surprisingly, I was happy for them to do as I got a brand new one in its place and the spec for that model had increased in the 10 months since I'd bought it.
 
   
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D G Orf, sounds like you struck lucky, more ways than one. Certainly good service, like my friend (on the way home from my apartment, actually) had from the AA. It was an old car, and 4 impoverished youngsters. The car's owner had insisted that they all pay up for the AA 5 star cover. They all grumbled, as it seemed such a lot, but it turned out for the best - and wasn't a lot between 4. It's amazing how some people will try to economise on important parts of holiday cost, and then splash out on beers.

My dad used to work for the AA, so we always used to have AA 5* insurance - if he'd still been working for them I'd probably not have had to go to the Ombudsman to get any sense out of them. Mind you, my Dad always said the organisation went downhill fast when it became so commercial and when (just as he was retiring) it got taken over by what he insisted on calling "the Gas Board", that was the end. He hankered for the days when patrols in khaki gaiters with motor cycles and sidecars would salute passing members.
 
   
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I struggle with European Cover as all my cars are >20 yrs and < 30 years old, so are invariably not eligible for cover with the big boys

Currently with Adrian Flux who are completely useless - needed them in August in Dusseldorf - first off all the telephone numbers bar the last one didn't work, when I got through and gave all my details it turned out I had got through to UK breakdown so was given a number for Europe. Gave all the details and got a reference number. 3 hours later the car started so I called them up to say " don't need you now", only to find out they had no record of me at all and the reference number was completely wrong.

Needless to say they have been given an almighty bollocking.