To think road side assistance organisations should NOT do this!

[MargoLovebutter]

Levy an extra and significant sum of money if you join their organisation when you are already broken down?!

Someone please explain to me why I am unreasonable for thinking that this is just shafting the vulnerable.

Good points being raised, thank you. Like me, she is a single mum and broke down with her 3 DC in the car yesterday. No garages open, no OH to help her.

I thought if you paid for cover, then you paid for cover and it shouldn't matter whether you were broken down or not. You were paying for a recover service for a year and the amount she told me seemed far from cheap, with almost the same again being levied as an extra charge for being broken down.

However, judging from the feedback here, it sounds as though I am being unreasonable to think that.

Is this a joke? Do you know how insurance works? No-one would get holiday, car, house etc insurance if they could go for years without it, save thousands and only have to fork out when they needed help!

"Hello, is that Direct Line? I'd like to take out Home Insurance please? Yes, it's a semi-detached - currently on Fire, but they're trying to put it out as we speak. Hello? Hello???................"

She is being VVU. As all the previous posters have explained why.

It's insurance. You pay and hope you don't need it. It offers peace of mind. They take a small amount of money from a lot of people, so they can provide an expensive service to the few who need it each year.

The alternative is to take the risk yourself and pay through the nose if you do break down. Obviously!

Do you think you can take out house insurance at a standard annual rate after your house has burned down or been burgled, then claim retrospectively? Pet insurance after your pet has been diagnosed with a major illness? Gas-care cover after your boiler has broken, likewise?

Really? Reaaally???

But the point is that, if all the members had one breakdown a year, they would lose money and probably wouldn't have enough recovery trucks to cope.

Breakdown cover costs £30-£100 pa, depending on what level of service. A tow off the motorway and attempt to get the car going (labour for minor repairs is included) costs about £150. Even if they come to your house and start a flat battery, it's likely to cost them more than £30.

If she's been driving for years, and only just now paid for breakdown cover, she's probably still 'in front' moneywise even if she's paid double for this year, she's had plenty of years paying nothing.

She's covered for the next year. When the renewal comes, she needs to shop around and/or haggle, she'll get it for a lot less than the renewal price. Be aware that the most basic level of cover excludes home start. I'd probably make sure I got that, as a lot of break downs are 'won't starts' in winter. But the autoaid I linked to above for £48 pa includes that.

Get a flex plus bank account at nationwide you get Brittania rescue free

Sorry are you saying your friend did already have cover but when she broke down and tried to use it they tried to charge her a fortune to pick her up?

You can sometimes pay for breakdown monthly, which is a good option if you don't have £50 odd quid.

I didn't know you could even call them if you don't have cover! I think that's actually quite good. I always thought if you breakdown without cover you call a garage (at a very high price) or get someone you know out etc.

@Ginkypig

I think she signed up for a years cover after she broke down.

Look at it this way - if you don’t pre-emptively have roadside assistance you’re essentially gambling on never needing help. Sometimes that gamble won’t pay off, and you’ll have to pay a larger joining fee. It’s up to you to decide how willing you are to take that risk.

It’s insurance, really.

I'd never really thought of it as insurance before. I've had it included in my bank account for so long and I get some kind of cover through my car lease as well, so I'm out of touch with how it all works.

She used one of the big very well known companies and from the sounds of things did not get the kind of deals being mentioned on here. It seemed a shockingly large sum of money to her and me too when she told me.

Anyway I clearly need to re-join the real world on this one!

"Hello, is that Direct Line? I'd like to take out Home Insurance please? Yes, it's a semi-detached - currently on Fire, but they're trying to put it out as we speak. Hello? Hello???................"

Super funny!

AA, RAC etc is a form of Insurance. I have it & hope I don't break down but if I do, then I know I'll get home.....

Don't assume you'll get home in a reasonable timeframe though. They (the RAC in particular) have a nasty little relay process in place and may well leave you at a service station for the night. 15 hours in my case. Bastards.

I'm no longer a member; I'd have been better off not having any cover at all and organising recovery myself.

We've had that too tatty. Motorway crash (no injuries but car totalled) halfway through a 200 mile journey.

The truck that took us off the motorway could/would only take us to the next service station so we needed another tow truck to take us the rest of the way. Didn't quite take 15 hours but we got to our destination about 2 am instead of 8 pm.

I suppose the higher levels of cover, or some car insurance policies if its an accident, rather than breakdown would pay for a hotel if you were stranded overnight, but that doesn't help if you need to be somewhere by a certain time.

Yeah it's insurance. For me, having kids, it's a necessity.

In defence of the RAC my car suddenly wouldn't start at home (driving a day later to holiday destination). We have home start, phoned them, they arrived 40 mins later, needed new battery which was sorted out then and there. Great service!

Breakdown cover is all part of owning a car, for me it’s essential like car ins, tax etc.

No breakdown company would allow you to join and then have a call out immediately as with any insurance it’s to cover you for the unexpected.

If they let everyone join and then call them out for the same membership cost they would go out of business.

They like customers like me that renew each year, but rarely use the service.

There are lots of levels of membership - even the expensive ones like the AA do low prices for simple roadside assistance.

@Popfan it’s always a new battery. The RAC push them like mad. I’ve just renewed but they wanted £170+ which was magically “discounted” back to last year’s premium of £130+ when I rang to cancel. Next year I’ll be changing.

Most people in any given year - or decade - will not need to use roadside assistance. A person who calls them by the side of the road is a quantifiable risk: they need to pay for that recovery or else the assistance business would be better off refusing to allow same day joining, full stop.

I'd never really thought of it as insurance before

To be fair, neither did the AA or the RAC until they suddenly found themselves having to comply with EU insurance regulatory law in the early 2000s. So it's not as obvious as you think, given they promote themselves as membership organisations rather than insurers.

It is good that they will come out and help non-members, albeit for a much higher fee.

@MargoLovebutter of course it is cheap! We get ours with our bank account at pay £12 a month for our account that gives birth DH and I full AA cover including homestart, relay etc (have had to use it three times this year, in a variety of circumstances they've been great), that£12 also insures both of our mobile phones with only £50 excess, worldwide travel insurance including sports cover and emergency home appliance insurance for boiler etc. £12 a month for all of that cover for both people, I don't see on what planet that's expensive.

Which bank is that Fash. We currently pay for those things separately, and my plan was to look into converting to one of these bank accounts before our breakdown cover was due for renewal in a couple of months time.