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Quote: Originally posted by SAMMY11 on 24/6/2012

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I know the AXA one will not insure trailer if it is not attached at time of breakdown.

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Quote: Originally posted by Tentz on 26/6/2012

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Yes, I think in event of accident it is up to your car or trailer/caravan insurance to organize recovery not breakdown insurance. I doubt they would repatriate a vehicle or caravan etc of very little value tho, it would be cheaper to scrap it in France & pay out rather than recover back to UK.

I guess if trailer or caravan was not insured separately then it would not be recovered if car was not damaged. What would happen if car was written off & deemed not worth taking back to UK if it was towing a caravan at the time, I don't know, one would hope that in that case caravan would be repatriated as car could not be fixed. Certainly a minefield.

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It's all these kinds of questions and possible outcomes that's making me think it's just safer to opt for Red Pennant again. I know it's pricey, but it's also peace of mind. Our car is old and worth far less that our caravan, so the chances of it  (car) being repatriated after a  breakdown are quite low, since many policies will only repatriate a car if the cost of doing so is less than the market value. Added to that, a lot of insurers will only repatriate a caravan if it was attached to the car at the time of the incident/ breakdown. Most will not guarantee getting you a hire car with a tow bar either, which could leave you completely stranded! I don't think some of the policies are worth the paper they're written on when it comes to caravans.

The problem is that for some of us, it doesn't just save £50 going with ADAC.  We have multi-trip, any length trip, with ADAC, plus breakdown cover in the UK for a year.  That costs us just over £70.00 at today's Euro exchange rate!!!  We have health insurance which costs about £80.00 - and covers our pre-existing conditions. That's a total of £150.00 - we don't need anything else on top! 

If we took out Red Pennant for Personal and motoring cover the costs for 'basic' cover for annual, multi-trip, any length trip would have cost us £274.00 and £368.00 for 'Plus' (and those are 2011 prices - I can't find this year's on line but know they've gone up)  In addition we'd need Green Flag, or similar, for home cover and our quote for that would be £62.54. We'd also need 'Top Up' health insurance as Red Pennant won't cover our existing conditions.  It's impossible to find out what this would be, quickly, as it's such a complicated subject and usually involves long phone calls! So we could at least £186.50 and much more £280.00 depending on the top up cover costs!!  That's a LOT of money!

I think people's circumstances, too, affect their decision.  We're retired, meander, and this is not our 'one and only' holiday.  If it happened to be 'curtailed' due to problems, then we'd probably just go home and go again later in the year.  We aren't particularly bothered about 'continuation cover' and have two strapping sons, who if the caravan were left behind, would just go over and recover it for us.  Those who have children, when this is their only holiday and they can't just rearrange, perhaps need the Red Pennant 'Full Monty' much more than we do.