Breakdown cover

Yes. A repair mechanic will try to fix your car at the roadside, which should be enough for basic fixes. If your car can’t be fixed roadside, it’ll be towed to a garage where they can properly repair it.

Yes – you’ll need to get in touch with your breakdown provider but check whether there’ll be a cancellation fee first.

You could phone a local garage, who will usually charge a callout fee. Alternatively, you can sign up for breakdown cover when you break down, but you’ll likely be charged extra and not all providers will allow you to do this.

If you can’t find a local garage and don’t want to get breakdown cover, you’ll need to get in touch with the highways agency who will recover your vehicle – this will likely be the most expensive option though and is mainly a last resort.

If your breakdown policy covers your vehicle, then it’ll be covered no matter who’s driving it when it breaks down.

If you have personal breakdown cover, some policies will include household members as standard, so check your documents.

Alternatively, you can get family breakdown cover from some providers, or they could get their own breakdown policy.

You can get breakdown cover for classic cars, although some providers might have a maximum age limit so it’s worth checking the policy details to make sure your vehicle isn’t too old for that particular provider.

As long as your provider includes towing – and most do – then you’ll be covered for it.

Some policies will cover breakdowns due to mechanical problems with your caravan or trailer as standard, or you could get a caravan breakdown policy.

Some breakdown providers completely exclude recovery of cars involved in an accident. Those who will tow a customer's vehicle from an accident scene will usually only do so after authorisation by the police or another emergency service.

You might have breakdown cover alongside your car insurance, if you’ve bought a new car or if it’s a perk of your bank account, so check before you take out a new breakdown policy.

If you own a fleet of vehicles for business use, some breakdown providers will cover the whole fleet. But if you only use one vehicle for business, you can get standard breakdown cover for that. Vehicles that are provided by your company might already be covered under your employers breakdown policy.

Some breakdown providers will offer a courtesy car if you have onward travel cover, but this is usually an optional extra that you’ll need to add on.

If you break down while transporting pets or livestock, onward travel for your pet is up to the discretion of your breakdown cover provider.

Assistance for livestock is very unlikely under a standard policy, but you can get specialist livestock or horse trailer breakdown cover.

Breakdown cover doesn’t work the same way as car insurance when it comes to named drivers, instead it just depends what type of breakdown policy you have.

A personal policy will cover you, no matter what you drive, and you can add up to three other people who live with you.

But a vehicle breakdown policy will cover a specified car, motorbike or van no matter who is the driver. You can cover up to four vehicles kept at your address.