European Breakdown cover recommendations

[Pete and Liz]

Hi All
I am looking for some recommendations for Annual European Breakdown cover for next year as we are planning some long trips. I have had a read through the forum and the web and there appears not to be many options for us but thought I would ask the collective anyway.
The Van is over 7M and 4.5T so is excluded from quite a few of the on line companies.
Breakdown cover was not offered with our insurance policy.
The Breakdown cover we have for the UK (via CAMC) does not have a Europe bolt on option but they sell the Red Pennant cover separately at £628 for the premium cover for says of up to 45 days, which to me seems excessive.
I am hoping there will be other options that one of you has that maybe what I am looking for?

TIA

Pete

 

[Northernraider]

Hence why I said at the start of the thread. Better to look at breakdown included with insurance and might be best/cheaper to reinsure. Suppose you could open account until your insurance was due again and relook then

I guess it depends on the age of the van. I always had breakdown cover included with my insurance but this van is now 25 years old and most of the insurers I tried won't cover it ( that said when I broke down in Italy a few weeks back and phoned aa European cover they told me I was still covered with safeguard but nationwide also use aa so I'm apparently covered twice ) including my current insurer safeguard who said the limit was 20 years old. So I opened the flex account to get the breakdown cover.

Also a few of the insurers do have trip time limits . The reason I stuck with safeguard so long as they're one of the few who offer continous 365 day cover throughout Europe and the same with breakdown cover. Many others I tried have limits 90 or 180 day trips . I often do longer than that. I guess it just depends on folks individual circumstances but from what the op posted originally I'd have said opening a flex account was his best option.

 

[Pete and Liz]

Update
Thanks for all the advice and just to clear few posts up.
Cancelling my current Van insurance to get one with the breakdown cover is not an option as I have only had this since September and the refund is not pro rata so not with worth it.
The Nationwide option is not worth on the basis as I already have very good(better than they offer) travel insurance and our phones are covered under our house insurance (even on holiday). And I don't want another current account as we have three already and thats hard enough to keep track of.

So I took some advice from my local friendly insurance broker. Get lots of quotes (don't look at the prices) print off the PID's (Product information Documents showing the inclusions and most importantly the exclusions) so you can compare like with like and lastly check the reviews on trust pilot and forums etc.
I came up with this short list as most won't insure more than 3.5t and over 7M.

The RAC come out on top as the exclusions we nearly none and appeared to cover absolutely revoting I wanted including 90 day stays. Ok is only available in this format and price if you are a member of the CCC .It does include UK cover which I don't need but I am going to go with it anyway.

 

[Loftyjeff]

Hi All
I am looking for some recommendations for Annual European Breakdown cover for next year as we are planning some long trips. I have had a read through the forum and the web and there appears not to be many options for us but thought I would ask the collective anyway.
The Van is over 7M and 4.5T so is excluded from quite a few of the on line companies.
Breakdown cover was not offered with our insurance policy.
The Breakdown cover we have for the UK (via CAMC) does not have a Europe bolt on option but they sell the Red Pennant cover separately at £628 for the premium cover for says of up to 45 days, which to me seems excessive.
I am hoping there will be other options that one of you has that maybe what I am looking for?

TIA

Pete

LV

 

[Northernraider]

Update
Thanks for all the advice and just to clear few posts up.
Cancelling my current Van insurance to get one with the breakdown cover is not an option as I have only had this since September and the refund is not pro rata so not with worth it.
The Nationwide option is not worth on the basis as I already have very good(better than they offer) travel insurance and our phones are covered under our house insurance (even on holiday). And I don't want another current account as we have three already and thats hard enough to keep track of.

So I took some advice from my local friendly insurance broker. Get lots of quotes (don't look at the prices) print off the PID's (Product information Documents showing the inclusions and most importantly the exclusions) so you can compare like with like and lastly check the reviews on trust pilot and forums etc.
I came up with this short list as most won't insure more than 3.5t and over 7M.

View attachment 844050

The RAC come out on top as the exclusions we nearly none and appeared to cover absolutely revoting I wanted including 90 day stays. Ok is only available in this format and price if you are a member of the CCC .It does include UK cover which I don't need but I am going to go with it anyway.

That's still £100 a year dearer than the nationwide option though.

Seems mad to me as there's nothing really to manage . I opened the account ,stuck £150 in it to cover the £13 per month fees and forgot all about it till next year. I won't use the travel insurance, probably won't use the phone insurance but the breakdown with no time limits or restrictions is well worth the £146 the account costs.

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[ericonabike]

And, as a ahem loyal customer, my wife and I each got £125 bonus this year, which made it free! No DDs, account totally static, have used breakdown cover twice abroad, no real hassle.

 

[Lazyboy]

Just a quick note. We have Nationwide account. £13 per month is less than we were offered for breakdown insurance with LV (Brittania).We paid the additional cost for the time extension on the travel insurance and now we will have to pay an additional cost for over 70's (£65 per account). These two items still work out less than getting seperate companies to quote even with the "extras". I did get a quote from the AA for peace of mind and it was in excess of £300 for just the breakdown cover. The one thing I would say is that the travel isurance is second to none. My wife was "forced" off her cycle in Holland earlier this year which resulted in a fracture to the small finger of her right hand. The hospital in Haarlem reccomended a small operation to prevent any deformation once repaired. Nationwide travel insurance were exceptional in the way they handled the claim. There was never any doubt about the outcome of the claim. Communication was first class. This meant that at a particularly stressful time we only had to "worry" about getting to the hospital for the the pre-op assessment and then the operation a few days later.
There was never any question that we should pay and reclaim or indeed how much the cost of the claim would ultimately be. Indeed they kept asking if we had claimed a sufficient amount to cover our costs. This level of service I believe is exceptional in the curent climate and considering the cost "add-ons" represents very good value for money. For us, I do not believe we could have bought better for less. (Although we could have paid a lot more) and we still have phone insurance on top of this.

 

[Rodders1234]

Just took out CNC Red Penant cover this week. Multi trip EU annual cover. Cover includes travel insurance and is for trips up to 66 days at a time. Red Pennant Plus cover which includes cover extra EU travel trips by air etc as well as motorhome driving. Cost £629. There standard option was about £150 cheaper from what I can remembered.
I think you need to check what’s included in the quote again if you are interested.

 

[Northernraider]

Just took out CNC Red Penant cover this week. Multi trip EU annual cover. Cover includes travel insurance and is for trips up to 66 days at a time. Red Pennant Plus cover which includes cover extra EU travel trips by air etc as well as motorhome driving. Cost £629. There standard option was about £150 cheaper from what I can remembered.
I think you need to check what’s included in the quote again if you are interested.

How much!!

 

[Trots55]

The Breakdown cover is only for the flex plus account for new customers with a £13 a month fee plus moving DD's to the new account and putting in a certain amount each month. The recovery looks quite good but `i don't want another current account at the moment thanks.

Hi, is there a maximum trip limit? I've gone through all the small print and there's no mention of it. Looks like a good deal for us... Thanks

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[tomdrumbrae]

Breakdown
I am with LV Brittania. See T's & C's attached.
3.9t MH 7m long
£147 Jan 2024.

 

[InvictaMoto]

With Red Pennant as they did the insurance for me with existing medical problems (inc prostate cancer!) and Mrs Moto and the van for £340 for the year multi trips etc. I was quoted £750 just for me by one of the ones that advertises on the TV all the time! Staysure! UK breakdown with Personal Cover is £145 with Mayday.