Plenty of things can go wrong when you’re on the road. Driving comes with a wide variety of risks, with countless accidents and collisions occurring every year. This reality is why car insurance is a legal requirement, but this coverage doesn’t generally protect drivers against malfunction-based calamities. A car coming to a halt on the road, independent of collisions and accidents, requires a dedicated breakdown cover policy. One popular way to approach these policies is with personal breakdown cover.
Breakdown cover personal cover is a policy format that covers a specific driver, rather than a specific vehicle. This article will offer all the necessary insights you need to properly understand personal cover, so you can decide whether it’s the right avenue for your needs.
How personal breakdown cover works
Making breakdown cover personal means focusing the policy on you, the named individual on the policy, rather than the vehicle. This makes the cover more flexible and portable between vehicles. Any coverage in a personal policy is tied directly to you, not any particular vehicle’s registration number.
Eligibility requirements
Breakdown personal cover provides protection in any eligible vehicle, whether you’re the driver or the passenger. This generally covers most private cars (including rentals), with some policies also covering vehicles like motorcycles and vans.
You must be there during the breakdown
The most important rule of personal car breakdown cover is that the policy holder must be present at the event of the breakdown. A family member insured in your car won’t be eligible for help or support if they break down and you’re not there with them. But, as stated, it will be viable to get the support you need even if you’re only a passenger in the car at the time.
What does personal breakdown cover include?
The average personal cover provider will offer a few different tiers of service, meaning it’s worth digging into what you might get for your money. The average services provided in a personal cover policy include:
- Roadside assistance. Basically, the bare minimum of most mechanic support systems, with an operative sent to your location to attempt to fix the vehicle on the spot.
- Local recovery. Cars that can’t be fixed at the roadside should be towed to the nearest garage for further attention and repairs.
Once you start to pay for more premium personal cover, the services might include:
- Home start assistance. This is a repair or start support in case your vehicle breaks down at or very close to your home, so you can continue to work or wherever else.
- National recovery. National recovery is the same as local recovery, but tows your car to any destination in the UK, so you can figure out the next steps wherever you feel more suitable.
- Onward travel support. This can cover the cost of an additional rental car, public transport or any overnight accommodation in case your car can’t be repaired and you need to continue your journey – ideal for UK summer holiday breakdowns.
It’s worth noting that some policies also offer the option for family plans and other things of the sort, so your personal cover can extend across multiple people in multiple vehicles.
Is personal breakdown cover worth it?
If you’re the kind of person who’s constantly moving between different vehicles, perhaps for work or because of a family dynamic, personal breakdown cover might be the right choice for you. However, it is generally a fair amount more expensive than cover policies focused on vehicles alone. If you’re generally resigned to one car at a time, there’s likely no need to splash out on a personal policy.
Make sure to discuss your options with any provider that you choose to work with – they should be able to point you in the right direction.