There are several costs that come with owning a car – road tax, car insurance, petrol, etc. Adding breakdown cover on top of this can seem like yet another cost to cover, but the peace of mind it can give you and the money it potentially saves in the long run can make it a worthwhile investment. We’ve answered your questions about what the right Breakdown Cover Guide cover looks like and how to find the right breakdown cover so you can find the best cover for you and your vehicle.

Is breakdown cover worth getting?

While car insurance protects you against accidents and other drivers, breakdown cover protects you when your car runs into an emergency maintenance issues, whether you're in the UK or even Europe.

Whether you break down on your way to work or on the motorway halfway home, breakdown cover lets you call out assistance to sort you out. Your annual premiums should get you a number of free call outs over the year so you can get back on the road in no time.

This is especially valuable if your car is your main form of transportation, and even more so if you rely on it for work in some way. Not only does it help you get your car up and running as soon as possible, it also helps you to avoid unexpected bills for calling out emergency assistance.

What should breakdown cover include?

If you’re scouting out breakdown cover, whether that’s as an optional extra for your car insurance or as an individual product, there are a few features to look for which can make a policy worth investing in:

• Roadside assistance will come as a standard feature of breakdown cover, but it’s worth looking at where this cover includes. A number of policies will exclude your home and anywhere within a quarter-mile, so you might want to opt for home assist as well.
• Home assist makes sure you can get assistance if your car won’t start for some reason while you have it parked up at home. This works together with roadside assistance to make sure that you can make a call out to almost anywhere you might encounter a problem.
• Onward travel can help you reach your destination if your car trouble can’t be fixed by the roadside – this can range from car hire to overnight accommodation depending on your level of cover, and makes sure you aren’t left stranded.
• UK cover is a great feature if you expect to be making long journeys, as it allows you to choose a destination for you and your car to be towed to rather than a garage local to where you’ve broken down.

Which car breakdown cover is best?

The right breakdown cover for you will depend on a few factors, mainly how often you drive and how far your journeys are.

If you only ever drive around your local area every so often, you can probably find cheap breakdown cover that doesn’t need all the bells and whistles like UK cover. However, if you regularly make long distance journeys, having UK cover as part of your breakdown cover policy is something worth thinking about.

There is no one-size-fits-all breakdown cover policy, but the important thing is to pick a trusted breakdown cover provider with a policy which includes all the features you think you’ll need, such as European Breakdown Cover, roadside assist etc.

What is the best value breakdown cover?

Finding the best value breakdown cover will likely mean doing a comparison of different providers, to see what they offer and how much for. Value for one driver might mean the speed in which you can get recovered, but to another it might be paying the lowest for the policy.

Looking at reviews and recommendations can be one way to find the best value breakdown policies, but it’s all about finding a policy and a price which you think is fair for the cover you get in return.

Do you pay excess on breakdown cover?

This will entirely depend on the policy you choose – some policies won’t have any excess to pay when using breakdown cover services, whilst some other will.

By choosing breakdown cover with an excess to pay, you can bring the cost of your premiums down, but it may mean that you’ll have an extra amount to pay every time you need to make a callout.

With Asda Breakdown Cover there’s no excess to pay, meaning that there are no hidden extra fees and you’ll only have to pay for any services which aren’t included by the breakdown cover policy.

Is breakdown cover a legal requirement?

Unlike car insurance, you don’t need breakdown cover in order to legally drive on UK roads. While it is typically optional, you can sometimes get breakdown cover as part of a car insurance policy which may add extra appeal to a provider.

Is it worth getting breakdown cover with my insurance?

While having breakdown cover bundled into your car insurance policy can be convenient, you might not always be getting the best deal in the long run. Even if you’ve secured a great deal on your car insurance, it can be worth taking the same approach to breakdown cover and shop around for the best cover.

This will likely come down to assessing whether you’ve getting value for money by having breakdown cover as an optional extra on top of your car insurance, or if another provider can give you better service and features for a similar price. Make sure you look at breakdown cover separately and decide what the best option is for you personally.