I’ve used the same two companies for breakdown insurance for years.
Thankfully I’ve never had to call on either of them. I had full AA membership for the UK, and European Breakdown insurance was provided as one of the freebies attached to my bank account.
Then I listened to Front End Chatter and their adventures with breakdown companies after accidentally throwing a Triumph Tiger at the Scottish countryside.
Oh …!
Breakdown Cover
When I write it down – Breakdowns are not Accidents – it’s obvious. Yet, since as far back as I can remember, I’ve thought of the two things as one and the same when it came to getting home. My breakdown recovery company would turn up if I had an accident. It turns out that with many breakdown companies, that assumption would be incorrect.
If I had inadvertently found myself standing in a field, wondering how badly bent the bike was, the call to the breakdown company would have involved me listening to them explain why they were not coming to get me.
To be fair, there are a couple of finer points I need to mention. Telling me that accident recovery isn’t covered under breakdown cover isn’t the same as not helping. I’m sure both organisations would have offered to assist me, once I’d agreed to pay.
Secondly, as I’m insured, both organisations would have told me to call my insurance company first as this was an accident, not a breakdown. All good so far; assuming I’m insured with a decent insurance company, it will all work itself out somehow. I’d just need to fund everything first and claim back what I could later.
But what if I have an excess on my motor insurance policy that is higher than the recovery cost? Am I going to have to pay someone to recover my bike out of my own pocket?
Accident Cover
It is a difficult question to answer specifically – so none of this is advice – but it seems to play out like this.
The first and golden rule is that if you are involved in an accident with someone, then call your insurance company and go from there.
Talking to ETA Breakdown, where I bought my cover – more on them in a moment – they are happy to recover me from an accident or a breakdown. Sometimes the insurance company might prefer to use their favourite recovery company, but if there are no objections, ETA will recover me as their policy covers both situations.
So, in the case of a low side that leaves the bike unrideable or unroadworthy but isn’t going to cost too much to repair, calling ETA is how I get home.
And as my cover includes Europe, if the field I find myself standing in is in Spain, Italy or Germany, to name but a few of the countries covered, ETA will recover me and the bike, even if that is all the way home.
Why ETA?
Realising my incorrect assumption that breakdown cover also provided me with accident recovery, I went on an internet trawl looking for a company that provided both.
The Environmental Transport Association otherwise referred to as ETA was a company that appeared in numerous reviews, was always near the top, and had been around for 20-plus years.
As to why “Environmentalists, who happen to sell insurance” – which is how they describe themselves – sell breakdown and accident recovery cover is a mystery to me. Yet, regardless of their motivation, I now have breakdown and accident recovery insurance across the UK and Europe for the coming year.
Clarity
We are not associated with ETA other than as a customer. I paid the usual price for my cover. No freebies, associate sales, favours, envelopes stuffed with cash, or any other form of remuneration were received.
Is ETA the right policy for you? Visit their website and make your own decision.
The header image is based on an original work by Ekaterina Belinskaya and used here under license.
