Breakdown + membership costs

[minimodz]

Hi, Just joined the forum so apologies if this has been touched on before.

I’m currently a member of C&CC and use RAC Arrival breakdown cover, with the personal extras as we have two caravans in the family, and want us all covered in any car, with or without the caravan(s) attached.

From what I’ve seen so far Greenflag’s Mayday is the way to go as it appears to be a lot cheaper than RAC’s Arrival which is due up for renewal.

Am I right in thinking that Mayday is for Caravan Club members? And if so does Greenflag actually offer a discount for being a CC member??

Just trying to see if it’s actually worth joining the CC, or if the discount isn’t worth it….

Thanks in advance!

 

[Niall_McIntosh]

I am a member of Green Flag's Mayday and, as far as I am aware, this product is only available to CAMC members. So, you don't get a discount for being a CAMC member, but you can't get the cover unless you are a member.

 

[thedoog1]

Had my renewal yesterday from Green Flag it was £134 for premium cover.

 

[waffler]

We are with RAC through C and CC and have just renewed.I phoned and quoted the C M C (green flag) price to find it reduced and I was offered a £50 voucher for John Lewis so making it very competitive. Interesting to note that cover is now very similar.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Generally the caravan cover offered through the clubs, gives great cover, but comparing other offering to the clubs you should pay close attention to the details especially about whether the policy covers larger caravans, and whether it includes recovery of the caravan as well as the car.

 

[Dustydog]

The CAMC Green Flag not only covers the car but also the caravan against breakdown. In the event the car breaks down the caravan will be towed to your holiday destination and at the end you and your caravan will be taken home. Meanwhile the car is taken to a garage of your choice for repair.
There are other extras too numerous to mention on here. But it is not the cheapest. You only get what you pay for. The C&CC offering is very similar too.

 

[mealsonwheels]

The Premium cover with Green Flag from the Caravan & Motorhome Club also provides a driver to tow your caravan if the driver is incapacitated, which is important for us.

 

[Buckman]

It has come to light that even if you have the top premium cover with Mayday there is a HUGE gap in the cover. If you are on your way home and breakdown, they will either take the car and caravan to your home or to the storage. If you opt for the storage, you will then need to pay to get the car to the garage and also for you to get home. It is not covered under the dual recovery. I am wondering what happens if it is a weekend and the garage is not open. Mayday will not cover you for the same fault for a period of 28 days!

 

[Raywood]

There is a thread on the CAMH site running at the moment which might help with your choice. The Mayday cover from them is cheaper than the C&CC Arrival but it transpires that if like us your caravan is kept in storage they will not drop the caravan off in the storage and the car at your home but only both at one of them under the policy terms. They have said that if the two are close and one is on the route to the second they will do the two drops provided the driver agrees and there is no extra cost.
The Arrival policy is quoted as saying they will allow two drop off points so this may be a point worth looking at when choosing. Our caravan is kept in storage, if it was left at the house then there would be no cover. If we opted for the storage site then there is no provision for the car, so we would have problems if we could not get a drop at both.

 

[minimodz]

Having read through everyone's comments - and had heard myself about the issues with Mayday and dropping off at storage OR home, we have decided to stay with Arrival. slightly more expensive but also means wit the personal cover I can save money by not having to get separate breakdown cover for any of the other cars we have.
After a phonecall I got them to knock £40 off the renewal price too!

 

[Buckman]

Can any one give us a breakdown of the costs to have the breakdown cover with Arriva if you are a C&CC member? We have two cars on the Mayday cover. Thanks.

 

[minimodz]

Can any one give us a breakdown of the costs to have the breakdown cover with Arriva if you are a C&CC member? We have two cars on the Mayday cover. Thanks.

Yes sure so we have the Arrival Package, with the Personal Cover which covers all adults in the household as drivers or passengers. The Onward Travel covers any issues with car or caravan/trailer either on way to or from holiday etc and does cover drop off at storage, etc.

We haven’t got the “At Home” as if we do have issues at home then I can get the vehicle sorted easily enough.

They say…
UK Caravan Breakdown Cover
*Applies to Arrival Roadside, Recovery At Home & Onward Travel
• No restrictions on length, width or height for caravans, trailer tents, folding campers or trailers
• Arrival will cover the car you're in; even when you're not with your camping unit
• If you break down, we'll take you to your campsite and back home again if your vehicle can't be repaired
• Tyre replacement support
• If your tow car breaks down, Arrival will source a hire car with a tow bar where possible
• Leisure battery replacement support
• Help when you've topped up with the wrong fuel
• Snow, mud, flood water and sand recovery included as standard
• More choice with Onward Travel when you break down

The other selling point for us is it covers personal cover in any vehicle with no age restriction – Greenflag is vehicles under 16yrs old. We have 3 cars over 50yrs old so if we had gone with Greenflag we’d have to take out separate cover for them.

This has come out at £215 all in with RAC – C&CC membership is £40, so £255 grand total. We have also got our caravan insurance through C&CC too so get a discount there too.

 

[otherclive]

Having read through everyone's comments - and had heard myself about the issues with Mayday and dropping off at storage OR home, we have decided to stay with Arrival. slightly more expensive but also means wit the personal cover I can save money by not having to get separate breakdown cover for any of the other cars we have.
After a phonecall I got them to knock £40 off the renewal price too!

Thats what really annoys me about insurers its that the loyal customers get screwed unless you force the issue and they think that you are going to move your business elsewhere..AA just as bad. Same with phone/broadband and energy etc.

 

[Buckman]

Can any one give us a breakdown of the costs to have the breakdown cover with Arriva if you are a C&CC member? We have two cars on the Mayday cover. Thanks.

Yes sure so we have the Arrival Package, with the Personal Cover which covers all adults in the household as drivers or passengers. The Onward Travel covers any issues with car or caravan/trailer either on way to or from holiday etc and does cover drop off at storage, etc.

We haven’t got the “At Home” as if we do have issues at home then I can get the vehicle sorted easily enough.

They say…
UK Caravan Breakdown Cover
*Applies to Arrival Roadside, Recovery At Home & Onward Travel
• No restrictions on length, width or height for caravans, trailer tents, folding campers or trailers
• Arrival will cover the car you're in; even when you're not with your camping unit
• If you break down, we'll take you to your campsite and back home again if your vehicle can't be repaired
• Tyre replacement support
• If your tow car breaks down, Arrival will source a hire car with a tow bar where possible
• Leisure battery replacement support
• Help when you've topped up with the wrong fuel
• Snow, mud, flood water and sand recovery included as standard
• More choice with Onward Travel when you break down

The other selling point for us is it covers personal cover in any vehicle with no age restriction – Greenflag is vehicles under 16yrs old. We have 3 cars over 50yrs old so if we had gone with Greenflag we’d have to take out separate cover for them.

This has come out at £215 all in with RAC – C&CC membership is £40, so £255 grand total. We have also got our caravan insurance through C&CC too so get a discount there too.

Seems quite comprehensive however very expensive. With Mayday as we pay the Premium cover if there is an issue and I cannot drive, they will send a chauffeur to drive the unit home. My wife does have a B+E licence but has never towed so would not be fair to expect her to get behind the wheel of my 4x4 and tow a twin axle caravan as she may be a "danger" to other road users although she is a competent driver.

 

[Raywood]

I think it is better to choose the cover that suits you best rather than worry too much about price. Getting it wrong will cost you far more than a modest saving on the premium. The Arrival package looks expensive but if the others fall short of your needs then you still need to take it.

 

[Buckman]

I think it is better to choose the cover that suits you best rather than worry too much about price. Getting it wrong will cost you far more than a modest saving on the premium. The Arrival package looks expensive but if the others fall short of your needs then you still need to take it.

That is true however it is very annoying to find out that despite paying the extra there is a lack of cover and you have to rely on the goodwill of the breakdown driver.

 

[Raywood]

I think it is better to choose the cover that suits you best rather than worry too much about price. Getting it wrong will cost you far more than a modest saving on the premium. The Arrival package looks expensive but if the others fall short of your needs then you still need to take it.

That is true however it is very annoying to find out that despite paying the extra there is a lack of cover and you have to rely on the goodwill of the breakdown driver.

I suspect a small bribe will probably be the answer but it should not be so.

 

[kasey]

Hi, I was with the rac through the c&cc. until they wrecked my brand new caravan. I was returning from Norwich when my freelander started makeing an awful noise, I thought i would take it easy and try to make it home. Unfortunatly i got as far as boroughbridge the gearbox by then was giving out clouds of smoke so pulled onto the hard shoulder phoned rac and waited for help. When the mechanic arrived (after 45 mins) the gearbox had cooled down,but could still smell the burnt oil. He asked me to follow him to the services at boroughbridge. I did so but the temperature was up again when we arrived. I asked him if we could be recovered but he replied no as my car was still able to tow. I told him i would not get very far and i would wreck my car, he said he would follow me for a few miles just in case. As we were talking the heat from the gearbox melted one of the rubber hoses and lost all the water. He then called for a rescue truck. The truck arrived( a third party truck) loaded my car on then hooked caravan on back, He then wrapped the safety breakaway cable around the ball hitch coupling which left the cable with no play, I warned him it was too tight but he said it wes allright. By the time we got to the storage compound there were no brakes left as it had plled the break on and the heat melted the plastic mudguard and cracked the drum. I then had to plead with him to drop us off home. Which he did but cost me a fiver. So beware.

 

[Raywood]

I take it you complained and wonder what the reaction was. They all use third party recovery vehicles at times so I think the last bit could have happened with any recovery insurance.

 

[Buckman]

I take it you complained and wonder what the reaction was. They all use third party recovery vehicles at times so I think the last bit could have happened with any recovery insurance.

You can only get the RAC Arrival if the join the C&CC and can only get Mayday if you join the CC. These offers are promoted by the respective club for their members.
If you have an incident as described above, who would you be taking to court to recover any losses, the club, the breakdown organisation or the third party breakdown who caused the damage? Surely your contract is with the club as with the CC you login to their website, complete the form and pay the CC for the breakdown cover. Not sure about C&CC?
However with Mayday come renewal time you then pay Mayday directly unless when doing the form on the CC website you opted for Continuous Payment which means you are paying the CC for the breakdown service.
Any thoughts on this?

 

[Boff]

Regarding mayday, which is of course Greenflag rebranded for CC ltd t/a CAMC. If you are unforunate enough to breakdown. You will get through to a Greenflag call handler. My experience is that the call handler won’t necessarily know about the extra featuresof Mayday, particularly the double journey feature of Mayday. We encountered this when we broke down 20 miles into a 300 mile trip to Cornwall. We had to argue the point with call handler, we were fortunate in event our problem was sorted out in a couple of hours and on we went. More seriously friends of ours had a clutch failure on their way to Scotland they got towed home and holiday cancelled. We pointed out they should of been able to get towed to their destination. They complained and did get a reasonable amount of compensation, but still lost a holiday. Make sure you are aware of what you are entitled to and have paid for, because the person at the other end might not.

However, when have used Greenflag/Mayday we have always been satisfied with the service that we have received from them at the roadside. I hope I am not tempting fate but that hasn’t been for a number of years.