7 of the best breakdown cover services

Even the best-maintained cars can suffer from an unexpected breakdown. Whether it’s a random component which unexpectedly gives way, an electrical gremlin, flat battery or maybe just a puncture, you could find yourself stranded miles from home.

Besides being inconvenient, having your car fixed by the side of the road or towed away can be seriously expensive – and then you will still have to find a way to your destination.

The best peace of mind is to take out breakdown cover on your car. A road assistance policy from the likes of the AA or RAC should ensure you can get safely back on the road with the minimum of fuss.

But there are other alternatives to the two best known providers which promise lower costs, and sometimes better service too. You might also find you are paying for cover you don’t need.
Here’s our guide to the best breakdown cover options.

Remember, you can buy a brand new or used car right here on Carwow. And you can sell your car, too. We’re here to help you through every step of your car-changing journey.

How we rated them

Almost all the companies required us to enter the age and postcode of the driver, so we asked for quotes for a middle-aged male with an eight-year-old Mazda MX-5 living at an address in Hertfordshire. In addition to the price, we looked at the cover offered and any other extras.

The AA

• Price from: £81.72
• Car or driver: Both
• Car age limit: None

Prices on the AA’s website are constantly changing, with promises of special offers and sales which make it difficult to get a representative cost. On the day we checked, the cheapest annual cover for a car was £81, but that goes up to £111.12 for cover for yourself, rather than a specific car (that price is for paying monthly, oddly an annual payment was more expensive). There are no age restrictions on the vehicle, unlike its main rival which restricts you to newer cars.

Adding ‘At Home’ or National Recovery puts an extra £45 on the bill. Onward travel, with car hire, overnight accommodation or public transport for you and your passengers, is £27.76.

AA members are given use of an app which helps them report a breakdown and then track when help is coming. It also gives access to a series of discounts at restaurants, attractions and on MoT tests at some garages.

There’s also now a specific electric car plan, which actually costs more or less the same as a conventional personal or car plan, and most AA vans are now equipped with small-capacity ‘get you home’ charging devices if you run out of charge on a long journey.

Emergency Assist

• Price from: £23.83
• Car or driver: Both
• Car age limit: 15 years

Emergency Assist likes to do things a bit differently and can bring big savings – but there are some compromises.

The first is that the quotes can be baffling. There are discounts on offer if you accept an excess, where you need to pay £30 every time you call for assistance. You are also given the option of 12, 24 or 36 months’ cover, with the longer two periods giving you a considerable annual discount.

Even without these savings the prices are cheap enough to be interesting. The Saver package to cover the car includes roadside assistance and local recovery, with a premium of £25.76. Bizarrely, the Premium option, which adds home start, national recovery and onward travel was even cheaper, with a price of £23.83. These include unlimited callouts.

Personal policies cover you for any vehicle but Emergency Assist still wanted us to enter the details of a car you want on the policy. This confused us, so we asked the company for clarification. It confirmed the cover does extend to any vehicle up to 15 years of age, and said: “We ask for the main vehicle used to be on file in case you wish to add any of enhancements.”

Unlike the car-based policy there is only one option for cover level, which mirrors the Premium option and costs £40.28 for one year.

GEM Motoring Assist

• Price from: £91
• Car or driver: Driver only
• Car age limit: None

There is an interesting option with GEM to make cover cheaper. Its Recovery RECLAIM is a ‘pay and claim’ policy, which means you stump up the cost of recovery and onward travel yourself after a breakdown and then apply to get it back from GEM afterwards.

It costs £91 per year and is only available to cover the person rather than the car. There’s no age limit on the vehicle either, so GEM is a good choice if you have a classic as well as an everyday car.

There’s only one level of cover too, and it includes home and roadside assistance, nationwide recovery and onward travel – that’s substantially cheaper than the equivalent from the AA or RAC.

If you think claiming back costs sounds like hassle, then GEM also offers Recovery EXTRA for £106 per year which works like all the other providers where you don’t have to pay up front.

Unusually, both policies offer mis-fuelling cover, paying up to drain and flush to your vehicle’s tank and provide five litres of the correct fuel.

Green Flag

• Price from: £29.36
• Car or driver: Both
• Car age limit: Under 25 years old

Green Flag works a bit differently to the AA and RAC. It has its own fleet of vans and mechanics. And it can also draw upon an extensive network of approved independent garages.

The basic includes local recovery and unlimited callouts, but you are limited to cars under 25 years old. The cost is, theoretically, just £29.36 per year, but there’s a £22 ‘admin and arrangement fee’ on top of that, so you’re actually paying £51.36.

Adding cover at home takes the cost to £73.08, or national recovery brings it up to £71.22 if you choose them individually. Adding both in a package takes the cost to a temptingly cheap £77.71.

Personal cover is substantially more expensive, at £75.basic, or £119.86 with both home cover and national recovery.

Brittania Rescue

• Price from: £33
• Car or driver: Both
• Car age limit: None

Britannia Rescue gets top marks for the clarity and simplicity of its site. It starts by helpfully suggesting you check you don’t have existing cover from a car maker’s warranty or bank account, and then asks you to choose the options you’d want from a policy. It then instantly gives you a price with no need to enter any more details.

The prices aren’t bad either. It offers five levels of cover, starting at £33 a year for basic roadside assistance and recovery if you break down more than a quarter of a mile away from home. Home assist doubles the price, or adding UK wide recovery takes the price to £73. Both together is a reasonable £102 while European cover adds another £50.

Those are specific vehicle cover prices but it only costs an extra £26 to upgrade that to personal cover in any vehicle, and your partner will be automatically covered too.

RAC Breakdown Cover

• Price from: £55.32
• Car or driver: Both
• Car age limit: None

Like the AA, the RAC’s deals jump up and down like an excited toddler, but on the day we checked the basic cover for our car was £55.32, but you’re limited to being towed to garages within a ten-mile radius, and there’s a maximum of five callouts per year. It’s £102.72 for Standard cover, which is expensive but does include national recovery as standard (although you’re still limited to five callouts). Upgrade to ‘Extra’ cover and that’s £124 per year, and includes home cover, unlimited callouts, and accident care. Finally, there’s ‘Complete’ which costs £181, and includes seven days’ car hire, legal cover, and a free MOT.

Onward travel cover is much pricier though, adding £18.60 per year to a basic cover package, while European cover adds £108.

Changing to personal cover doesn’t change the prices much, but if you want family cover — for 2-3 people — then it’s £179 per year for the most basic package.

Start Rescue

• Price from: £49.85
• Car or driver: Both
• Car age limit: None

Start gets off to a good start as its prices are pretty keen. The cheapest cover for our sample car was £49.85 and this included unlimited callouts, a ten-mile radius recovery, accident recovery, and onward travel cover for up to £250. There’s also emergency overnight accommodation, key assist, and mis-fuelling cover.

If you want to add nationwide recovery, that brings the price to £60.95, while spending £73.44 gets you home assist as well. There’s a nationwide and European recovery option for £123.45 per annum, or you can add home assist to that for £135.95 which also includes a driver illness cover which means your passengers and vehicles will be recovered if you’re struck down by an illness in the course of your journey.

Personal cover starts at £80.10 per year for local recovery, £120.55 for national recovery, and £139.21 for the same cover with home assist (although European cover costs extra again).

Like most of the companies except the big two, Start uses local contractors to fix and recover vehicles.

How to get the best breakdown cover for you

Don’t double cover

First, check if you need to buy breakdown cover at all. Most new cars will come with at least a year’s cover as part of the warranty, with many having roadside assistance for three or more years. Other car makers such as Nissan and Toyota will offer to extend it indefinitely if you have the car serviced at a franchised dealer.

If your car is no longer covered then check if you have a policy in place as part of a package from your bank or credit card – breakdown and travel insurance is sometimes added to the incentives to take out premium accounts. Some employers will also let you choose it as part of a benefits package.

Many drivers may also choose to add breakdown cover to their car insurance policy. This may work out cheaper than buying it separately, especially if you drive a classic car which is too old to be eligible for the mainstream recovery providers – but it’s still worth shopping around, and make sure you know exactly what’s covered.

Work out what you need

Ticking all of the boxes when taking out cover can get seriously expensive, so it’s worthwhile working out what you really need. As you’d expect there are different levels of benefits, ranging from basic roadside assistance to full recovery home for your car and onward travel for you.

For example, if you rarely stray more than a few miles from home you are unlikely to need nationwide recovery. Home start is another expensive option which covers you if the car stops working outside your house. You may think this is something you could survive without as you have other options to keep mobile and your tool box to hand when at home.

Then there is special cover if you lose your keys or lock them in the car, and protection if you misfuel by accident. This is something you are unlikely to need if you drive a petrol or hybrid and will never use if you are in an electric car.

The priciest option of all will be European cover. This is something we’d wholeheartedly recommend if you drive abroad, but most companies will allow you to add it on for a shorter period to top up your UK-wide policy.

Tom Banks, spokesman for comparison site Go.Compare keeps a close eye on all the providers. He said: “It’s important to take a close look at the specifics of your policy – compare the options side by side, so you can see which offers the best cover. Breakdown policies will typically include roadside assistance and local recovery, but there are additional options and add-ons to consider which usually come with an additional price tag, but could be useful safeguards for certain drivers.”

Cover the car or the driver?

There are different ways of offering breakdown cover, and it varies from company to company. Some providers will let you choose which you prefer.

The first option is that the car is covered, so it will be repaired or recovered whoever is driving. The alternative is that it’s the person with the policy, so they will be rescued in any vehicle they are in – as a driver or passenger.

Tom Banks says: “If you frequently drive different vehicles, you might benefit from a personal breakdown policy, but vehicle-based policies are typically cheaper. You could also think about a multi-car or family policy, as these can be particularly good value – and less hassle to set up than individual breakdown policies.”

Covering the car may only be cheaper if it is a newer model, as recovery companies think it is less likely to break down.

AA and RAC are the biggest – but are they the best for you?

As you see their vans and trucks on the road, it’s easy to assume there are only a couple of choices in the recovery market. Tom Banks says: “When it comes to choosing your breakdown provider, you might instantly think of the big names like the AA, RAC and Green Flag – but smaller, less-known companies can offer great cover at a very competitive price, as you’re not paying a premium for the name.

“We always recommend taking a look at customer reviews before you purchase, as this will help you evaluate the kind of service you’re likely to receive.

“Ultimately, make sure you take the time to consider all your options, as this will help you make an informed choice – and potentially save you some money, too.”

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