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.

Most drivers will opt to have some form of car breakdown cover to give them peace of mind. 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.

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.

To gauge customer satisfaction, we looked at the scores from Auto Express’ Driver Power surveys.

The AA

• Price from: £72
• Car or driver: Both
• Car age limit: None
• Driver Power rating: 89%

Prices of 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 £72. 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 £36 on the bill. Onward travel, with car hire, overnight accommodation or public transport for you and your passengers, is £25.76.

Covering yourself rather than a car is pricier at £84.60, with the home and national recovery options costing more too. Paying monthly is £11.88 more expensive than an annual policy.

AA members are given use of an app which helps them report 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.

Emergency Assist

• Price from: £13.19
• Car or driver: Both
• Car age limit: 15 years
• Driver Power rating: N/A

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 knocking 15% and 20% off the price respectively.

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 £15.76. Bizarrely, the Premium option, which adds home start, national recovery and onward travel was even cheaper, with a price of £13.19. 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.”

As with the car-based policy there is only one option for cover level, which mirrors the Premium option and costs £40.60.

GEM Motoring Assist

• Price from: £91
• Car or driver: Driver only
• Car age limit: None
• Driver Power rating: 86%

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 10 litres of the correct fuel.

Green Flag

• Price from: £41
• Car or driver: Both
• Car age limit: Under 16 years old
• Driver Power rating: 84%

Green Flag works a bit differently to the AA and RAC, as it doesn’t operate its own fleet of vans and mechanics. Instead, it subs out the work to local operators, who are contracted.

The ‘Basic’ cover is noticeably cheaper than anything offered by the big two players, but you are limited to cars under 16 years old. This is called ‘Rescue’ and is just £41 per year, or £42.90 if you split the payment over the year. Unusually, the company insists on having its ‘admin and arrangement fee’ of £22 paid upfront if you want the monthly payment option and then direct debits of £1.90 for each of the remaining months.

This basic policy includes local recovery and unlimited callouts, unlike the RAC, which limits you to five per year.

Adding cover at home takes the cost to £69.56, or national recovery adds £27.18 if you choose them individually. Adding both in a package takes the cost to a temptingly cheap £76.78.

Personal cover is substantially more expensive, but still cheaper than the AA and RAC’s alternatives at £62.53 for a basic recovery package.

LV Britannia

• Price from: £33
• Car or driver: Both
• Car age limit: None
• Driver Power rating: N/A

LV 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.

Swapping to personal cover adds another £48 a year to the top policy or £26 for the basic Roadside assist, and unusually there is no extra cost to cover your partner.
LV is also the only provider we found which mentioned EVs, saying it will recharge your electric vehicle if you run out of battery mid-journey.

RAC Breakdown Cover

• Price from: £72.49
• Car or driver: Both
• Car age limit: None
• Driver Power rating: 90%

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 £72.49 – a fraction higher than the AA if you pay annually. If you split the cost over the year, it is £4.80 cheaper overall though.

As usual, the cheapest option includes recovery up to 10 miles from the breakdown and if you want national cover, you have to spend another £38.50 to get the Extra package. Add At Home and the price goes up another £33 to a total of £143.99 – there’s no option to have separate cover for national recovery and home. That’s a penny short of the same cover with the AA, which we are sure is no coincidence.

Onward travel cover is much pricier though, at £42 per year, and if you use your car occasionally for business the RAC demand another £24.

Changing to personal cover bumps the price up and is noticeably pricer than the AA, with the cheapest option being £96.69. Adding the national recovery option is £44 and the top Complete cover is a whopping £179.19 a year.

Start Rescue

• Price from: £37.88
• Car or driver: Both
• Car age limit: None
• Driver Power rating: N/A

Start gets off to a good start as its prices are seriously keen. The cheapest cover for our sample car was £37.88 and this included recovery after an accident, misfuel cover and even alternative travel or overnight accommodation if your car can’t be fixed.

There are then five other levels, with the three-star policy matching the most popular ‘comprehensive’ offerings from rivals. This costs just £56.75, which seems great value, although we were surprised to see £30.89 of that is the company’s admin fee.

Start would also be the first place we’d look for European cover, as adding it is just £40.

Personal cover is not such good value, starting at £62.08 and rising to £109.37 for the three-star policy, but there is no restriction on the age of the vehicle. Again, it’s a shame that almost half of this is an admin fee.

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 included 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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