How do you choose the right breakdown policy? We’ve scrutinised the small print of the three best-known breakdown services to isolate the important bits. They offer various options in many combinations, so here’s a rundown of the main ones:
Roadside assistance
You'll get roadside assistance if you break down a quarter of a mile or more from your home, which includes labour costs, but not parts.
Green Flag defines a breakdown as anything that stops the car functioning, excluding road accidents, but including fire, vandalism and damage from attempted theft (although it may split the costs with your insurer, if appropriate).
The RAC defines breakdown more tightly: it must be a “real” breakdown, most likely a mechanical failure, which means the car won’t go.
The AA's definition describes a breakdown as an event which means the driver is unable to start a journey, or a malfunction, which involuntarily brings the vehicle to a halt mid-journey.
The AA’s roadside assistance cover does, however, exclude road accidents, like the other two providers.
If your vehicle can't be repaired it'll be towed to a nearby garage. Alternatively, RAC and Green Flag will tow you and your passengers to your chosen destination (if it’s within 10 miles) and AA to any destination that is no further than the repairer.
RAC pays taxi fares from the repairer for up to 20 miles if the problem can't be fixed. If there is no repairer in the vicinity, Green Flag may add a mileage charge.
Roadside assistance is available in:
AA: Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Green Flag: Great Britain, Northern Ireland and Isle of Man (plus the Channel Islands for residents).
RAC: Great Britain, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey.
And it costs:
AA and RAC: £28
Green Flag: £18. (Green Flag's price varies based on age, car and address, so this is based on a 35-year-old with a four-year-old car, living in Farnborough, Hampshire.)
Cover at home
An option you can add is cover at home, for problems that occur when your vehicle is within a quarter of a mile of your registered address. This covers breakdown repair and towing to a repairer (but not taxi return from the repairer).
Add cover at home to roadside recovery and it costs:
AA: £74
Green Flag: £53
RAC: £80
When you add the recovery option as well, these companies will take you, your car and your passengers to your preferred destination in the UK, usually for free. This is only after attending a breakdown that can't be repaired promptly and locally.
RAC will also take you to Jersey, Guernsey or the Isle of Man, and residents of Northern Ireland are entitled to recovery in the Republic of Ireland. RAC won't provide the recovery service if the breakdown occurred within a ¼ mile of your home, whereas AA and Green Flag will.
RAC and Green Flag will provide transport if you're taken ill and no passenger can drive your vehicle, but you might need a medical certificate as evidence. AA may provide the same at its discretion.
Roadside assistance, cover at home and recovery combined cost:
AA: £99
Green Flag: £53. (Note: same price as without recovery.)
RAC: £110
Onward travel
You can add onward travel cover. Following a callout to a breakdown incident (including within a quarter-mile of your home with Green Flag and RAC) where a garage needs time to make repairs, you can get either a hire car or overnight accommodation or your public-transport costs paid.
The AA and RAC will give you and your passengers a hire car of up to 1600cc (when available) from a chosen supplier, paid for up to three days with insurance included, but petrol and other costs excluded. Green Flag will offer the cover for two days to a maximum cost of £100.
RAC doesn't cover delivery and collection costs (although there may be no charge anyway). AA will have the hire car delivered to the breakdown site where possible. If you don't take the hire car at that time, you'll need to pay the travel costs to collect it or the supplier's petrol costs if it delivers.
If you opt for overnight accommodation, the services offer largely similar terms:
AA: B&B for up to eight people in a hotel of its choice.
Green Flag: £150 per person or £500 per group, whichever is less, provided the incident occurs more than 25 miles from your home or intended destination.
RAC: B&B for £150pp (maximum eight) or £500 for a group, whichever is less.
All the services exclude related transport costs. If you or a passenger are taken ill and go to hospital, RAC might pay accommodation costs for the rest of your group overnight.
If you choose the public transport option, RAC will pay for rail, air or any other public transport to a chosen destination, using the same people and monetary limits as for accommodation. AA will reimburse reasonable public transport costs for up to eight to a single destination. Green Flag will pay for your trip up to a limit of £100.
Whichever option you choose, Green Flag might also pay train fare for one person to collect the car from the garage after repairs.
Combining all the options above, the breakdown services charge:
AA and RAC: £141
Green Flag: £62
Extra protection
AA also offers optional parts and garage cover. It'll cover some of the costs of new parts or for work a garage has to do for you. It'll pay £500 per claim minus a £25 excess. All the above five combined options cost £215.
Green Flag and RAC will add cover in Europe to all the other options. AA has a separate policy for European breakdown, which operates rather like travel insurance for cars; the advantage is you can pay less with a single trip.
The complete package of roadside assistance, recovery, cover at home, onward travel and cover in Europe costs:
AA: £312. (That's £141 for the above options plus £172 for the separate annual European policy. A single three-day European trip is £45.)
Green Flag: £120
RAC: £207
Those are the main options and their costs, but there are some interesting general differences. RAC won't attend a vehicle already at a repairer. AA might cover vehicles at repairers or on other private property if you can show you've got the owner's permission. Green Flag doesn't specifically exclude this, but it too would still need permission to work on private property.
Both AA and RAC usually allow at least five callouts per year (with AA tending on the more generous side), although it depends on the level of cover and can rise for loyal members. RAC claims to have the most patrols of any breakdown service and it has some useful contract terms for Blue Badge holders.
Green Flag appears to have no callout limit and will pay £10 compensation if its mechanic takes more than one hour to arrive, but its cover doesn't apply if a breakdown is caused by floods, snow or mud.
