Is RAC EU breakdown cover with Bennetts worth the money?

[primalcarl]

Before I go to France next month I just wanted to check if the people on here have had any experience using their RAC EU breakdown cover included with their Bennetts policy?

My bike is a '98 Honda VFR, will the age of the bike be a problem do you think?
____________________
Bikes: Honda S-Wing > Honda Varadero XL125V > Yamaha XJ6N > Honda Silverwing> CBR600rr > VFR 800 FI > R1200gs

[raesewell]

I also have the Bennetts all singing all dancing policy but have not had to use the breakdown service at home or abroad. So I will also be interested in the replies, I am off to France at the end of April with a group of six of us.
____________________
Yamaha FJR 1300 Normanton West Yorkshire

[Pigeon]

Can't answer re: EU. But I went bang a few weeks ago and dialled into Bennetts to claim on RAC recovery.

It was very quick and efficient......except that the RAC initially gave a recovery time of 3 hours. Not ideal when stuck at side of dual carriageway in the sheeting rain.

Also, the RAC sub out, so I didn't get recovered by RAC but Honest John's recovery. Who were excellent and got there within 45 minutes.

Ultimately it was all just one quick phone call, and resulted in a very quick recovery. Well worth it!

[Azoth]

I strongly advise against using the RAC. The RAC is a big name but it has next to no fleet nor a team of mobile bike mechanics to make it worthwhile. The RAC has been silently consigned to the past and is now just a name being milked by a multinational arms and oil conglomerate. It doesn't really have much apart from a call centre.

When it comes to bikes, all they can do with roadside repair are the most basic things: battery charge and maybe temporary tyre repair (plug and CO2). If their mechanic can't fix it, or if it's decided over the phone that they couldn't fix it, then they give you the option of having the bike recovered to an address of your choice or to a nearby garage. In the latter case, they ask you to find one and tell them! Then it's down to you to call around find out where the closest bike garage is, whether it's open, whether they'll receive you, etc. How does the RAC recover your vehicle? Simple. It makes a phone call. There's an operator at the other end of the line, with a PC. He enters details of your location on a website, and he gets a set of quotes. He chooses one (just one, because they don't want to waste time finding the best deal for their customer) to give to you. Then the flatbed recovery truck, run and owned by a subcontractor - often just a man with a van/truck - is sent your way.

I've been left waiting for hours by the 'RAC'. I've also been given the runaround by their depressed and miserable call handlers. In retrospect, I should have never taken out RAC cover.

Do you have a smartphone and a toolkit including a set of tyre plugs and CO2 canisters? You can outperform the RAC easily, on time and price, using these two things. Plug your own tyre to hobble to the next garage. Search online for your man-with-a-van and get more quotes than just one.
____________________
Safety in numbers

[BTTD]

For Europe I use ADAC cover. It's German, and you'll need to phone them up. €109 cover for myself and the wife in any vehicle and travel insurance cover across Europe for myself, wife and child.
Full recovery (except in UK where they only take you to the nearest garage), but they will recover you from mainland Europe back to the UK.

[groovylee]

the biggest issue i came across when looking for breakdown cover abroad was the 'no bikes older than 16 years' rule.

where the hell did they pluck 16 years old from?

that said, i have brittannia rescue through my nationwide account as recommended by MattB and others. no age limit of vehicle, and a load of other benefits too
____________________
Past - 1988 honda revere 600, 1996 kawasaki gpz500s, 1999 Yamaha R6

Current - 2002 Aprilia RSV1000R & 1999 Kawasaki ZX6R

[Omega]

[Polarbear]

[Omega]

[BTTD]

It might be worth checking into, I'm not sure if ADAC have an age restriction.
From some of the threads on pistonheads that I found when researching ADAC, they'd had no problem with classic vehicles being recovered.