Breaking Down the Cost of Breakdown Cover: My Experience

This month, I want to talk about breakdown cover and share an experience that saved me a LOT of money.

For many years, I've been a member of one of the big three breakdown services. I'm not going to name names, but I've stuck with them for a long time, covering the whole family. However, I've noticed the price keeps rising, and this year, my renewal for three cars was £350. Yes, you read that right. Ouch.

To make matters worse, my last experience using their service was appalling. My 20-year-old daughter had a flat tyre after hitting a pothole on the A12 at 5 PM. She managed to pull over into a small garage, and we started the process. It was clear that recovery was needed as the tyre was beyond repair.

An hour and a half later, a van arrived—not a recovery vehicle, but a regular van. The mechanic confirmed what we already knew: "You need a new tyre." He offered two choices: buy an emergency tyre at five times the price or get recovered. We chose recovery, which we had already requested.

Long story short, they never arrived. The breakdown app kept pushing the ETA back by an hour every hour. My daughter was left by the roadside for six hours. In desperation, I took a wheel off my wife's car, drove an hour to my daughter, and swapped wheels. I then drove her car home with mismatched wheels. It was a nightmare. We cancelled the recovery at 12am, some 7hrs after the initial call. They were still pushing back the ETA, so who knows when they would have actually arrived.

So, when I received my renewal quote, I lost it. £350 for a service that doesn't work? According to the tyre shop we visited, my experience was not unique—they hear it all the time.

I remembered that we'd added breakdown comparison to KnowYourCar. Honestly, I personally had never used that bit before, always assuming it wouldn't make much difference. I thought there were only three options, and as a long-standing member of one, switching wouldn't save much.

How wrong I was. There are LOADS of different breakdown cover options out there, and they are so much cheaper. I ended up going with RescueMyCar and got the same cover for £128, covering three cars. That's a huge saving. The big three often sub-contract their recovery services, so why not go direct?

Full disclosure: I haven't needed to use the new service yet, so I can't comment on their service levels. But based on reviews, it seems good. And let's be honest, it can't be any worse than before.

I highly recommend you check out our breakdown price comparison tool. It could save you a LOT of money. You can find it in the main section of the app, as shown below: