Red Pennant Recovery Experiences

Thanks. We already have Britannia Rescue for our two cars in the UK, but upgrading that to Europe and adding in the caravan didn’t create an encouraging quote. Mind you, you might ask why we haven’t historically covered the van for UK breakdowns.

Perhaps 130 miles then six weeks in the New Forest last summer is part of the thinking.

This year our semi wild campsite price in the NF price has tripled.

Why did you have to specifically add the caravan to your Britannia cover - as I understand it cover is automatic. For what it's worth our NW policy with personal cover (travelling in any vehicle) plus EU costs £142 / year which seems reasonable.

Having said that I had an unfortunate experience with Britannia last week - recounted elsewhere.

Barclays Bank do a Travel Pack, full RAC breakdown cover including caravan Uk & EU with full medical insurance for the EU £12.50 per month, i think you only have to have a bank account, Nationwide is similar offering but i think they use the AA, you have to pay an additonal premium for trips longer than 30 days. I have used the medical insurance and it was brilliant, the RAC let me down in the EU but they did give me £100 as a sweetner.

When we checked with Britannia, caravan cover was extra in Europe. Strangely too, they wouldn’t add it into the schedule until less than one month before departure. I don’t ever remember such complication in the past. Though we’ve had a lay off foreign travel for over ten years. 

That's very strange. As far as I can see the cover is exactly the same as it's always been. Here is the link to download the policy details: https://www.lv.com/-/insurance/media/gi/breakdown-insurance/pdfs/33621-2021_bi19_-_risk_policy_wording.pdf?la=en&u=20210915121454

Section B - vehicles includes the wording:

"Caravans and trailers – your cover includes any caravan or trailer that is attached to your vehicle at the time of the vehicle breakdown, unless the breakdown occurs at your home address or the normal place of garaging or within a ¼ of a mile of that address or the location at which your caravan or trailer is normally stored. Caravans and trailers must be fitted with a standard 50 millimetre ball coupling. All caravans and trailers must meet the requirements of the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986."

This also appears in the definition of "vehicles":

"any mechanically propelled vehicle, registered in the UK, that requires insurance for use on the public highway as specified under the Road Traffic Act 1988 and does not exceed any of the following dimensions when fully loaded:
• Caravans and trailers - 8 metres in length (including A-frame)."

The key words being 'attached to the vehicle'.  Red Pennant appears to cover more than this, or did in the past, so in the event of (say) flooding of a campsite where the car isn't affected, because it's been driven off site to safety,  Red Pennant used to repatriate the damaged caravan.  I remember floods in the Var area some years ago, which we narrowly escaped, when the Caravan Club Red Pennant 'agent' helped lots of people get their caravan damage sorted.  However, I'm not sure this would still happen with their new policy underwriters.   Certainly reading some recent posts on other caravanning groups, more people are unhappy with Red Pennant because they no longer got the service they expected either from their personal cover, car cover, or caravan cover.

We took out RP a few times-it was the reason we joined the club back in 1991-and called on it twice.

Once was in the days when our bank cards did  not have a chip in them and all the enroute filling stations I tried were automated-so we ran out just short of Dieppe.

Second was when a replacement tyre was flown out to France as it was impossible to get a like for like replacement..

Both times the service was very good however, like may I have moved away from RP, largely due to finding a better value, for us, product.

When our car was out of warranty, which included European recovery, and out travel insurance quote more than doubled we looked at the options and decided on the Nationwide Flex Plus account which gives Worldwide travel cover, including cruises, European Breakdown and mobile phone cover for £13/month.

There are additional costs, such as 70+ and trips over 31 days but I do regular comparisons and its still the best-for us.

ValDa is absolutely right. The key phrase is "attached to the vehicle". In many cases, as happened to me last year, a breakdown will occur when you are away from your caravan site. Your car may well be recovered, but you will be left to sort out your caravan yourself. That could be extremely difficult and/or expensive. I suspect many of the breakdown policies that people sign up to are not "caravan friendly". The other issue is are you covered with faults to the caravan (ie brakes, hitch etc).

The only caravan friendly policies that I am aware of are Red Pennant and the C&CC/RAC Arrival. I think there is at least one other. It may be Staysure, I can't remember. 

The issues I had with Red Pennant last year were not "third party" issues. They were mainly with how Red Pennant dealt with my issue. Hence my decision to try Arrival this year. It's cheaper as well. 

Stato,  Your post might mislead readers. Sorry.

Staysure is a personal travel insurance not a motor breakdown recovery insurance .

For caravanners there is no need to stick to breakdown/recovery policies from one or other of the two Clubs. For example there are policies from Eurobreakdown, and for a caravan insured with Safeguard there is an add on caravan breakdown/recovery policy costing only £65 per year.

For Motorhomers there are options of including brealdown/recovery as a package with normal annual insurance. Many motorhomers insure with Comfort, but there are others.

Nevertheless I hope you have a trouble free journey.

Thank you eurotraveller.

It was indeed Safeguard I meant to say, not Staysure. And as you imply,  Eurobreakdown appear to be "caravan friendly" as well so that may well be worth checking out.

I don't know about all the others like Nationwide etc, but would urge everybody to check the smallprint, tedious though that is.