Red Pennant cover policies

I personally agree with you. We often have a UK portion of our holiday before embarking for abroad and found the same problem as you.

They try to explain it away by stating in the event of a breakdown in the UK they would have liabilities for the rest of the holiday. Sometimes those extra days push you into a significantly higher bracket of premiums.

There's nothing much wrong with the actual cover but I've managed to arrange my cover with other providers at a much lower cost and am happy with cover provided.

Thank you. It would be good to know who other providers are so that we can attempt to keep the Club competitive. Which they should be.

I will, of course, post any response from the Club here.

This same question has been raised before. 

In the past the Club have said that Red Pennant starts the day you leave home. The reason surely is that if you have a medical incident or major breakdown before you get to the port of your UK departure  you will be covered for any expenses like crossings or sites booked and that is why you are being asked to cover the period from the date you leave home. Now some might not be too bothered by that but many will. I suspect they are trying to offer a policy that suits the greatest cross section of members and that is how it is underwritten. If they do allow you to cover just the overseas part of the trip the UK part will be at your own risk.

David

suspect they are trying to offer a policy that suits the greatest cross section of members and

I disagree David. I think most would be happy with just the European bit covered for breakdown ..... hence then often repeated question/query.

Red Pennant is a comprehensive insurance policy and hardly cheap and seems to be designed to cover the whole holiday from the day you leave home.  From what you read on here that there are a fair few of the experienced overseas travellers that use alternatives to Red Pennant, probable don't book sites in advance etc. But if you are a less seasoned traveller and you have booked one of the Western Channel overnight crossing with cabin cost say £500 and also booked and paid for all the sites you will be using on that holiday six weeks ahead of your crossing then you have a lot to lose without proper cover. There could be a great deal of money at stake.  I would have thought that if you are going to take out a comprehensive policy you would need it door to door. I can understand not needing the cover on your return to the UK but not before you go.

David

For UK purposes the Club offers MayDay policies with three levels of cover and several possible add on options. One can choose. 

But for European purposes the Club only offers this one comprehensive Red Pennant policy. It does cover just about everything, and seems tailored to people who have booked and paid for all their sites in advance. 

But not everyone wants that full package and I do sympathise with the OP in his plea for more flexibility. 

The OP also has my sympathies, but on one occasion when we had RP cover we did breakdown on the way to the ferry. It was a Friday afternoon and the ferry was on the Saturday night. We could not get the M/H looked at until Monday which meant that we missed the ferry. RP were very good in dealing with it and keeping in touch with us throughout, the M/H was fixed on Monday and we caught the Tuesday ferry which was considerably more expensive, paid for by RP.

On your return to the UK if you want to spend some time touring as we often do, all that RP as is that you allow time (within your cover)from the ferry to home  (home to home policy) so if like us you were coming into Hull and could be home by midnight that night, then that is when your cover would stop, however if you were coming into Plymouth and it would take you 2 nights stops to get home then you need to allow for these in your cover. It doesn't stop you touring once back in the UK and then going onto your Mayday cover.

This was explained at some length before on CT but I'm pretty sure you won't be able to find it.

Was your Red Pennant quote just for 'car and caravan' or did it incude personal cover as well?

I feel that Red Pennant really ought to be more flexible, and allow you to choose options for cover, especially if you have MayDay already and are only purchasing cover for the car and caravan and not adding on 'personal cover'.  I do understand that it's an 'all-inclusive' policy, but as you say, this isn't what some members want.  

We tried to get more comprensive cover than our 'ordinary' breakdown cover, when hosting a Caravan Club Tour in France.  At the time our caravan was stored in France, and we would have been quite happy had they offered to cover us in France,  from pick up at the storage depot, to return to the storage depot, but we were told they couldn't cover us at all unless the cover was 'from home and back to home'.  As our home was in the UK that simply wasn't possible so we had to rely on our own breakdown insurance.

At the end of the day you will probably go elsewhere, and the CMC will not get money they could have had.  I hope you are able to get the sort of cover you want - but this is one area where needs are not always met.

Which they should be. 

We have breakdown cover with LV= through our bank account. Similarly our Medical cover and Personal Accident are covered under the Nationwide policy. The caravan insurance is fully covereed in Europe with Saga.

One thing to note is that the caravan insurance with the club does NOT include repatriation of the van in the event of an accident when detached from the car. This is picked up in the Red Pennant aspect. 

Saga cover this aspect, so for myself I am happy with the cover that I have. Others have different needs and priorities.

I would say though that I did save hundreds of pounds last year when we had 2 long separate holidays in Europe.