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Breakdown cover helps cover the cost of roadside repairs or recovery if your car breaks down.
For example, if your car battery died or a tyre was punctured it’ll mean you’re not stranded on the side of the road for long.
There are five levels of breakdown cover, ranging from roadside recovery to full onward journey protection.
Personal breakdown cover applies to you, no matter what vehicle you’re in – whether you’re the driver or passenger. You can cover up to four members of your household on one policy. This can be more expensive than vehicle breakdown cover
This breakdown cover is only for a specific vehicle, no matter who is driving it. It’s useful if more than one person drives your car. You can cover up to four of your household’s vehicles
It’s not a legal requirement, but it can offer you peace of mind to know that there’s help available to get your car moving or you back home if you break down.
If you break down without cover, 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.
While all cover types will attempt to fix your car at the roadside first, there are a few location options, and you can choose which suits you best.
If you break down during a local journey, your breakdown provider will send their patrol to your location for roadside assistance. If your vehicle can’t be fixed at the roadside, they’ll tow you to a local garage.
If you break down far from home, national recovery will send out roadside assistance wherever you are in the UK. They’ll also tow you to a garage if they can’t repair your car at the side of the road. It's included along with roadside recovery on most breakdown policies.
Home start cover covers you if break down at home or within one mile of your home address. A specialist with either repair your vehicle at your doorstep or transport you to the nearest garage for repairs.
If you’re driving in Europe, European breakdown cover will cover you for the duration of your trip. It’s usually offered as an add-on to other vehicle insurance policies, rather than as standalone breakdown cover so it’s worth checking whether you’re already covered.
If your car can’t be repaired the same day, onward travel cover can offer you alternative transport or overnight accommodation.
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Your provider will help you get replacement keys if yours are broken, lost or stolen which can be more convenient than going to the dealership.
Your battery will be replaced or recharged if it runs out of power or breaks and causes your car to break down.
Your breakdown cover should temporarily fix a puncture or put on a spare for you but not a proper substitute. Tyre replacement will replace your tyre for a proper one.
Put the wrong fuel in your car? Breakdown providers usually cover misfuelling so they’ll clear the wrong fuel out and top up your car with enough petrol or diesel to get you moving again.
Most breakdown providers will come to the rescue if you run out of fuel – usually by giving you enough fuel to get to the nearest fuel station.
You can. According to Defaqto, 14% of comprehensive car insurance policies have breakdown cover as standard, but you can add it as an optional extra on a further 64% of policies.[2]
European breakdown cover is also fairly common – it’s standard on 19 out of 322 policies, and an optional extra on 197 policies.[2]
Check your policy to understand the whether your breakdown cover applies to you or your vehicle.Ryan Fulthorpe - GoCompare motoring expert
Vehicle cover policies cover a single car, motorbike or van - no matter who's driving. Personal cover insures the individual for all vehicles they're insured to drive. It's generally more expensive though.
Breakdown cover for your van works similarly to car breakdown cover. You can have a personal or vehicle policy, depending on your circumstances – for example, if you drive multiple vans, it might be a good idea to consider cover that applies to you (personal), rather than a specific vehicle.
You can also get breakdown cover for your motorbike – whether you need a personal or a vehicle policy. If you like to go on motorcycle touring holidays, you can even add European cover to your breakdown policy.
Worried about your roaming home breaking down? Standard breakdown cover might have exclusions around “any vehicle with living accommodation”. Specialist motorhome breakdown cover takes into account the technicalities of repairing a vehicle which doubles up as accommodation.
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 employer's breakdown policy.
Some policies will cover breakdowns due to mechanical problems with your caravan or trailer as standard, or you could get a caravan breakdown policy.
It’s not a legal requirement, but it can offer you peace of mind to know that there’s help available to get your car moving or you back home if you break down.
This depends on your policy – some will offer a certain number of free callouts, but others will let you make an unlimited amount. You might be charged an excess for each callout you make, so check your policy.
Actually it might be cheaper to get breakdown cover separately to your car insurance.
Compare packaged breakdown cover with the price of a standalone policy to find out what works best for you.
If you can, pull over so you’re out of the way of traffic and put your hazard warning lights on. If it’s safe to do so, everyone – except for pets – must leave the car and move to a safe place away from the road. If it’s not safe for you to leave the car, stay where you are and keep your seatbelts on.
Call your breakdown provider and let them know where you are. If you’re on a motorway, you can use a motorway emergency phone to speak to an operator who’ll get you help.
If you’re not sure where you are, an app like what3words can help your breakdown provider figure out your exact location.
You’ll usually have the option to include replacement of keys, tyres and batteries, and misfuelling cover – although the latter might already be covered under your car insurance so check your policy first.
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.
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