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Will i need breakdown cover for my hire car?

Breaking down in a rental car could be a nightmare if you don’t have any breakdown insurance.

So it’s vital that you prepare for such an eventuality before you set off by either buying your own vehicle breakdown provider insurance or checking if it’s included in your rental car’s terms and conditions.

Breakdown cover for rental cars

When renting any vehicle - large or small - you have two main choices of breakdown cover, either:

1. Rely on the breakdown insurance possibly provided as part of the rental
2. Buy a driver-based breakdown package which covers you for any vehicle.

Rental cars including breakdown cover

Most of the major car rental firms, such as Europcar and Hertz, do include some form of basic breakdown insurance with their hire vehicles. Europcar, for example, provides “complete 24-hour emergency roadside assistance”.

If your hire company provides breakdown assistance, then the details of how to get help if you have a roadside breakdown will, most likely, be printed either:

• On the keyring attached to your car key
• On a discreet corner of the windscreen
• Inside the car’s handbook, usually stored inside the glove box.

However, every rental company will offer different breakdown cover terms and conditions. This means that while one company might offer a comprehensive service including roadside assistance, a tow truck and the cost of new parts, other rental companies may not be so generous.

Ask your rental company if breakdown insurance is included in the price - particularly when driving during winter months - and if so, what the breakdown package includes.

Driver-based breakdown insurance

If your rental car doesn’t include any breakdown insurance, then it’s time to compare car breakdown deals for driver-based breakdown insurance.

Driver-based breakdown cover is, as the name suggests, only concerned with the person driving the car, and not the car being driven. This type of breakdown cover is favoured by the AA.

The major benefit of driver-based breakdown insurance is that it gives you the freedom to drive any number of cars. Sometimes it even provides you with breakdown cover when you’re only travelling as a passenger.

Some providers will let driver-based breakdown insurance be extended to others, such as family members, for a small extra fee. This could be the ideal choice if you’re, say, a family travelling around the UK on holiday using several different vehicles.

Be sure to read the smallprint carefully when you compare multi-vehicle breakdown cover options, because each firm will have different policy stipulations. These could include:

• Restrictions around the type of breakdowns covered
• Mileage constraints
• Parts and labour costs

Compare car breakdown packages.

Popular Breakdown Deals

Company	Package Name	From	Roadside repair	Online Discount	Tow to nearest garage
	Recovery Plus	£60.00		33%
	Roadside, Recovery & Home Cover (Personal Cover)	£105		27.34%

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