Insurance for our vans

[mike202]

I have just been looking into renewing my insurance for the year. I hadn't realised that more than half of the premium is made up by 'breakdown cover' :shock:

To give you an idea it was £79 insurance premium and £87 breakdown cover. As I am in the AA and have breakdown, recovery and homestart already, I don't really see the point in paying for this extra breakdown cover. It does include European breakdown as well, but as I have no plans to go abroad that is no an issue. I am sure the AA would be happy to take my money in an extra payment, should I decide to have a holiday abroad in any case.

I need the AA cover as it covers me and the wife in any vehicle, and we both have cars as well as the campervan.

I contacted a couple of companies and they would not quote without including the breakdown cover. However Adrian Flux are happy to take off the breakdown payment leaving me with a premium of just £79.

I wonder what other earlybayer's thoughts are on this?

 

[KevH]

Hi Mike

Just a thought, but some of the big breakdown companies don't cover vehicles over a certain age unless on a specific type of policy, e.g. a classic car policy. Does the AA cover actually cover the van specifically or does the small print bar it? Worth a check, though I am sure you will have looked already.

Kev

 

[StuF]

Hi Mike - hope you are well!
I have just done a representative quote from the AA for European cover for our bus and it came out as £259.59!
Just for recovery!

I pay nearly £120 less for annual insurance cover, european recovery, agreed valuation and unlimited mileage through RH!

Personally I don't mind if the policy is weighted towards needing recovery - still significantly cheaper than AA on its own!

 

[mike202]

thanks for the replies guys, I am checking with the AA and will let you know what happens.

I have called the AA once for the van when I had problems starting the engine whilst on the A1, and they got it started. I will check about recovery though.

Stu- Interesting about the european breakdown quote from the AA. That does sound a lot.

 

[Marriedblonde]

I normally ask for breakdown cover to be removed but I have just renewed for my bus with agreed value and kept the recovery option as it is a lot cheaper than I am currently paying for RAC cover and it also covers Europe as well.

The other cars in the house don't need to have separate breakdown cover as they are new and covered by mere/bmw assist.

 

[Rhodes4130]

Good to know I'm just doing my insurance and as I'm with AA I will see if I can get my insurance cheaper
Regarding AA van cover when I did mine if car is over a certain age you had to add an optional extra to the basic package such as home start or relay
And I've had them out a couple of times always seems good service

 

[mike202]

I've had a reply back from the AA. It is as I had thought.

As long as the vehicle I am in that has broken down is less than 3.5 tonnes, and less than 2.3 metres wide ( 7' 6'' in old money) then I am covered for breakdown and recovery.

The width of my van is 1.77 metres and the gross vehicle weight is 4773 lbs (from the owners manual). The gross weight is the maximum total weight of the van including passengers and all luggage.

If I round that up to 5000lbs it is still less than 2.3 tonnes, nowhere near their 3.5 tonne limit.

So for my circumstances, driving in the UK, and not driving on the continent regularly, I don't need that extra breakdown cover provided by an insurance company.



So, how much would it cost me to insure the campervan for breakdown cover on the continent, should I decide I can't stand the British summers any longer?

I completed an AA online quote for a single two week trip to Europe, in area 1 which is France and Germany plus the Channel Islands etc, and it came to £132.
*edited- for my mistake*

I wouldn't dispute that the classic vehicle insurance with breakdown cover is not good value for money, just that I don't need it, and removing it will save me £87.

Any comments or views welcome.