EU Recovery

[Mr.Mint]

Planning a trip to France later in the year and I want to get Breakdown Cover just in case something should go wrong.

Any help or advice would be appreciated.

 

[FM155]

Be careful with timeframes for repatriation to your home address. A mate had an electrical issue with his car while on holiday in France, left it with a local dealer there as they were waiting on a new body computer for it. That was 15th Sept last year, he got the car back on 20th Jan this year. It had been fully working and driving since around a week after he left it there but since he'd entered into a recovery agreement with the recovery outfit, it meant he couldn't go and get it himself. Basically similar to when you have an accident and they tell you the car is now their property until returned. There was a clause also that allowed them to send the car to scrap / auction if the cost of recovery exceeded the value of the car, without his consent.
I had offered to go over and get it but they wouldn't tell him where it was. Complete cluster tbh.

Read ALL the small print.

 

[Mr.Mint]

Be careful with timeframes for repatriation to your home address. A mate had an electrical issue with his car while on holiday in France, left it with a local dealer there as they were waiting on a new body computer for it. That was 15th Sept last year, he got the car back on 20th Jan this year. It had been fully working and driving since around a week after he left it there but since he'd entered into a recovery agreement with the recovery outfit, it meant he couldn't go and get it himself. Basically similar to when you have an accident and they tell you the car is now their property until returned. There was a clause also that allowed them to send the car to scrap / auction if the cost of recovery exceeded the value of the car, without his consent.
I had offered to go over and get it but they wouldn't tell him where it was. Complete cluster tbh.

Read ALL the small print.

Thanks a lot for that. I will be sure to read all carefully.

 

[FM155]

No problem, just realised I'd not said about repatriation timeframes that it was buried deep in the small print that repatriation was 'at their logistical convenience' with no guarantees. It just seemed that they were teeing up a lot of cars to be locally disposed of to save them spending the money collecting it. Communication was non existent too, it had been in Essex since November and had been starting / driving throughout. His was only 4 months old at the time it broke down and spent 4 months being brought back. In the beginning, they told him there were over 3.5 thousand cars to be repatriated and his was low priority because it had to 'go to Ireland'.

 

[Paddy_R]

@Arfur might be able to add a bit more but he used AA European breakdown for when we were in Germany. Car had a few issues and they sorted everything, hire car for use, repairs to the car, hotels flights home etc then even flew him back (with his dad) to pick the car up when it was fixed and sorted all the ferries too. Theres maybe more to it that I don't know but it seemed pretty painless for him.

 

[FM155]

The likes of the AA might well be dead on but there's a lot of penny pinching on service levels in the last few years with all these sorts of things.

 

[swansty]

Check out a nationwide current account - they do one for £15 per month which includes travel insurance for your family, European breakdown cover and mobile phone insurance. When I priced travel insurance the annual cost of the account was the same cost so it was a no brainer

 

[Arfur]

Yes indeed as @Paddy_R mentioned, I used AA European breakdown cover. The car had an issue on day 2 of a trip to the Ring. Gave them a call and described what was going on…. Very soon after the car was picked up and taken to a garage of my choice, a hire car was delivered the next morning. I was given the option of waiting an extra day to pick the car up after it was repaired or to fly out and collect it at a later date. Circumstances meant we needed to be home on time so they took control of everything, made all the arrangements for me to fly out (with my dad) a couple of weeks later and paid for the lot. Recovery, repair, hire car, hotel stay near the airport, flights home & back out, taxi from the airport to the garage (this was €140.00 alone) and fee to rearrange ferry bookings.
I couldn’t praise the AA highly enough, it was the best money I ever spent…
I even got the last RHD Suzuki swift from rent4ring the next day so didn’t even miss out on track time although getting that paid for would have been a step to far

 

[Mr.Mint]

Yes indeed as @Paddy_R mentioned, I used AA European breakdown cover. The car had an issue on day 2 of a trip to the Ring. Gave them a call and described what was going on…. Very soon after the car was picked up and taken to a garage of my choice, a hire car was delivered the next morning. I was given the option of waiting an extra day to pick the car up after it was repaired or to fly out and collect it at a later date. Circumstances meant we needed to be home on time so they took control of everything, made all the arrangements for me to fly out (with my dad) a couple of weeks later and paid for the lot. Recovery, repair, hire car, hotel stay near the airport, flights home & back out, taxi from the airport to the garage (this was €140.00 alone) and fee to rearrange ferry bookings.
I couldn’t praise the AA highly enough, it was the best money I ever spent…
I even got the last RHD Suzuki swift from rent4ring the next day so didn’t even miss out on track time although getting that paid for would have been a step to far

That is good to know. Thanks

 

[Mont]

Yes indeed as @Paddy_R mentioned, I used AA European breakdown cover. The car had an issue on day 2 of a trip to the Ring. Gave them a call and described what was going on…. Very soon after the car was picked up and taken to a garage of my choice, a hire car was delivered the next morning. I was given the option of waiting an extra day to pick the car up after it was repaired or to fly out and collect it at a later date. Circumstances meant we needed to be home on time so they took control of everything, made all the arrangements for me to fly out (with my dad) a couple of weeks later and paid for the lot. Recovery, repair, hire car, hotel stay near the airport, flights home & back out, taxi from the airport to the garage (this was €140.00 alone) and fee to rearrange ferry bookings.
I couldn’t praise the AA highly enough, it was the best money I ever spent…
I even got the last RHD Suzuki swift from rent4ring the next day so didn’t even miss out on track time although getting that paid for would have been a step to far

That's good to know.

Was that an annual AA policy or one of the short single trip ones?

I usually get the single trip ones when I go to the Ring and wondered if it was any good if something was to happen on the way there, or back.

 

[Arfur]

That's good to know.

Was that an annual AA policy or one of the short single trip ones?

I usually get the single trip ones when I go to the Ring and wondered if it was any good if something was to happen on the way there, or back.

It was a short single trip policy. Deffo worth the money!

 

[111gsi]

I'm heading to France next month in a 10-year-old Exeo, looking for breakdown cover. Very likely to change to the Nationwide FlexPlus to get the packaged AA European cover, but reading the small print, it says
"Your vehicle is eligible for UK & European Breakdown Assistance and has been regularly serviced and maintained according to the manufacturer’s instructions..." and
"In the event of a claim you may be required to provide proof of your vehicle’s service history."
Now like most 10 year old cars, this hasn't seen the inside of a main dealer since the previous owner took it in for its EA189 "update" several years ago.
I have plenty of receipts for parts, and will be servicing it again before we go as its service indicator will pop up while we're away.

Wondering what the risk is of having a claim refused or reduced because it's not got FSH? Did @Mont have to provide any service history when you made your claim to AA?

 

[Mont]

Hi. It wasn’t me who made the claim. It was @Arfur who bacon hopefully help.

Im afraid I’ve no clue about that. I’m not one for small print although just took out my cover with AA a few days ago for my trip at the end of the month, so would be interested to know myself.

 

[Arfur]

Morning folks, no is the short answer.. my car was and is well maintained but at no point was I asked to provide anything other than my name, home address and registration… after giving that they took the ball and ran with it. Everything was sorted in 20 mins. They called me straight back and emailed me with all the details I needed.

 

[111gsi]

Brilliant, thanks @Mont and @Arfur . Will take the plunge on the AA package.

Read a bit more of the small print, it says they won't cover you for a broken timing belt if there's no evidence it's been changed at the right time. Hopefully it's just to cover themselves from recovering something chronically neglected with ""service due -50,000 miles" on the dash

 

[Mont]

Hi. It wasn’t me who made the claim. It was @Arfur who bacon hopefully help.

Im afraid I’ve no clue about that. I’m not one for small print although just took out my cover with AA a few days ago for my trip at the end of the month, so would be interested to know myself.

Blummin autocorrect. Didn't even notice it had changed my text to 'bacon'

Fingers crossed you don't need it!

 

[Darren91]

When I went to the Nurburgring I bought RAC Comprehensive Plus for 5 days, worked out to be £180 but it varies depending on the year of the car (2005 S60).

Main thing for me was full recovery back to any UK address should the unfortunate happen.

If anyone wants a link for a bit of discount I can send you one via BlueLightCard - only get about £10-15 off but every little helps.