European Breakdown Assistance

A snowHead

I'm taking my car out to Austria for the season and have just started turning my attention to breakdown cover. I have just come off the phone to Europ Assistance who can not provide me with the cover I need.

What I asked for was:

1. Take my car out in December
2. Bring it back in May
3. In between times drive it to the airport and fly back to UH for a few days.

They saif that 1 and 2 could be accomodated but their cover would not extend to 3 as I would be leaving the car unattended in Europe. Even if it was parked in my apartment's car park it would be unattended.

It seems my options are:

a. Continue ringing round (next stop Green Flag)
b. Try and find a specialist european breakdown insurer (though I thought Europ Assistance were)
c. Lie about returning to UK (and hope that the car always starts at the airport!)

Anyone got any other suggestions or names of specialists

Thanks in advance

A snowHead

B00thy, Possibly not for you but Eurotunnel european breakdown is very good value!

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

B00thy, if you are going for option 3, then invest in a pair of jump leads!!

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B00thy, If you go for C. then if it does break down airport it could have been that you were merely picking people up from the airport... honest...

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Hmmm, yes ... "where are you? in the long term car park, sir?" springeth to mind

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pistemeister, I would guess that the difference is the long term car park is probably safer!! Insurance companies...go figure!

Our European cover is with RAC which is very comprehensive and also excellent value (as recommended by sH's last year!)....got to be worth a call?

After all it is free

Thanks homphomp, will give them a try today. Can I do a season and allow myself the luxury or popping back for a few days now and again?

What gets me is that I will pay for 180 days and use the car on about .... 30 driving days

They're turning money away!

B00thy, RAC and AA do an annual policy.

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

Thanks Helen Beaumont. I've been looking at them both in the last half hour. They are both much more expensive than Europ Assistance but the AA has no exclusion for me returning home temporarily from the trip and I have yet to read the fine detail of the RAC version (which is slightly cheaper).

For me, it's about peace of mind. I think I would rather pay £250 and know there would be no quibbles rather than £90 and find I'm not covered because I'm asked to produce evidence that I can't

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

Just re-read your comment Helen Beaumont. The annual policies are (strangely) no good because each trip is limited to 90 days whereas I need 5 months ....

snow reports

With your plans, you are actually quite a low risk for a breakdown insurer, I would have thought, which might mean you could sensibly carry the risk yourself. For people who are on a very tight schedule, back in work in the UK Monday, breakdown on the autoroute 500 miles from Calais on Sunday, they need a "get you home" service, with fares paid if they have to go back and pick up a car after repair, etc etc. But that wouldn't really apply to you, except on your journey home. You will be local, you will know and understand local services. The breakdown service would only do for you locally what the AA etc would do for you here, after all. They won't pay for any work which needs doing on the car. If you are based in Austria it would only "get you home" to your Austrian base. Would it be possible for you to join the local equivalent for the 5 months, just so you are not stranded on the side of the road if you breakdown? Though if your car is well maintained and reliable you don't run a very high risk of needing to call out a local tow service - and you'll be very well placed to get to know the best local people to call on, and you'll speak the language? All these insurance services only exist to make money, after all. A more fundamental question, of course, is whether your UK motor insurer is happy with your plans - that is not a risk it makes sense to carry yourself! The longest trip length I could find, after shopping around, was 60 days (ie the car cannot be out of the UK for more than 60 days at a time) and my insurer needed guarantees that I was spending "the majority" of the time in the UK. I don't think any of the firms I contacted would have covered 5 solid months out of the UK. If yours does, I'd be interested to know which it is.

Can you not get an Austrian breakdown policy?

You know it makes sense.

First of all pam w and Helen Beaumont, thanks very much. I have just had a "Doh!" moment or as some folk say "A blinding flash of the bleeding obvious"

I wil investigate local roadside assistance. As a general rule it will need to operate in Austria, Switzerland and Germany but this may well be possible. And you're right that in the event of breakdown I would rather have my car hauled to St Anon than Tunbridge Wells!

As for the insurer my broker has arranged a policy with a company who provides european cover for 90 days as standard and extends it for a further 90 days upon request (with a maximum 180 days).

My only issue now is that I leave on Thursday and probably will not be able to arrange local cover. So I'll probably purchase short term Europ Assistance cover and then get local cover when I'm out there.

And as for the language, my german is stricly limited to hellos, food and drink (at the moment - but I'm working at it). When in Switzerland I fall back to quite fluent french.

PS: Helen Beaumont, do you have a french breakdown policy?

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

B00thy, no we have an annual RAC one, as we're not there all season., and bring the car home.

A snowHead

OK. As I understand it I have to go for the single trip option, which lasts 5 months. The annual option means each trip must start in the UK.

A snowHead

1) Get an annual policy.
or
2) Create multiple holidays to cover the periods required.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

B00thy, just looking to renew our policy, and as the Uk breakdown cover need renewed too, I have been shopping around, Best I came up with was 'more than; I can't see any limit on the length of the trip, but maybe I haven;t looked properly.

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We've got our European Assistance with Brittania. It was used to great effect in Chamonix last year when the car was buried in snow (because we forgot we had left in on the street instead of in the carpark!) and the night before driving down to Chamonix from London when the local mobile phone mast decided to interfere with the imobilser. Highly reccomend them. They are really helpful and send you an English speaking local mechanic to get you moving again. We've just renewed our policy for another year as we're thinking of spending three months in Paris.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

http://www.quotelinedirect.co.uk/breakdown we've used it for the last 5 years on both cars without need to claim but for £59 you can't argue with 90 days total european cover including repatriation etc.... won't cover you Boothy but may help someone else driving abroad this season

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skinutter, the more than policy is UK breakdown, recovery and home assistance, plus European cover, for £68.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

After all it is free

skinutter, OK, will check it out.
snowHead

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European Breakdown Assistance

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