Red Pennant Recovery Experiences
We have taken Red Pennant insurance on all our trips over 30 odd years. Only had to use them twice some years ago and found the service excellent, but neither involved vehicle repatriation. Have seen recent posts on other forums of poor service by the recovery operators ( not Red Pennant).
Red Pennant booklet mentions the use of UK based operators where possible. What experiences have members had?
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Hi mapman.
I have always signed up for Red Pennant on my overseas caravan travels. I had cause to use them for the first time last year. I won't bore you with the details but unfortunately the service was woeful. I was quite shocked now bad it was.
If I needed my car repatriated I was advised that my car would take up to six weeks to be returned to me in Kent. And I was only twenty miles from the French ferry port.
For this year I am signing up with the C&CC' s RAC Arrival Overseas Cover. Significantly cheaper, and the benefits look identical.
I appreciate my experience could have been the exception rather than the rule. But it certainly was no where near the gold plated service I had expected.
Good luck with your travels.
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Stato, you post has left me concerned and confused. We’re currently looking at three months touring in Europe. I searched for RAC Arrival in the C&C club, but there was no link. An RAC search picked up their service which is discountable for C&C members, which we are. But at a higher price for cover which didn’t include health, pets etc and a lot more than Red Pennant charges, and the RAC were offering less. I’m not saying that Red Pennant is cheap, just competitive. My searches have revealed a lot of insurers who vastly inflate costs ie £60,000,000 for repatriation. I know someone who was helicoptered off a Himalayan mountainside with a broken back, and ultimately repatriated to the UK for around £85,000. Published cover values are often inflated unnecessarily. Red Pennant looks to me, to make a very good fit with European touring. But I haven’t booked them yet
Should I look further?
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JennyC, Are you looking for a motor breakdown/ recovery service, or personal medical/ health insurance ? Red Pennant offers both , but if you want to look further you can find that each is available separately from other companies.
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PS. For example if you are willing to split the two elements you can look at Eurobreakdown for car and caravan breakdown/recovery, and Staysure for personal medical health insurance. But there will be others for sure.
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We want both breakdown and medical insurance, sourced either separately or as a package. The C&MC’s offering combines the two, apparently without cracks. Ideally we’d chose a ‘one stop shop’ so as to avoid arguments over who covers what. And we’re prepared to pay a little more for that reassurance, but not a huge amount. Like much in life ‘the devil is in the detail’ such as repatriating our dog, who can’t be flown back to the UK. Many years ago I knew a family who demolished their caravan on the French Spanish border having driven non stop from Calais. That’s a long haul for a solo driver. My enduring vision is of the entire payload littered along a main road mixed up with matchwood. (His description) Where would any of us start to resolve that problem? Another friend, a woman was taken into French intensive care in a coma after a car crash. She was repatriated three months later. We all, understandably, want to avoid wasting money, so I’m alert to people’s advice on this forum. As a footnote, I’m being quoted £210+ in vet bills prior to departure with more to pay before returning, along with premium costs for taking our dog across the channel. - and he needs insuring too.
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Hi jenny - my comments refer to motor cover only. Like a lot of people we have personal insurance from our bank. Which I am more than happy with.
The cost comparison for me are as follows:
- Mayday plus Red Pennant (Annual 31 day trips) approx £320
- C&CC/RAC Arrival (Ultimate plus Overseas Cover Annual 90 days) approx £260
The cost difference will be even greater when you increase Red Pennant to 60/90 days.
I could not see any obvious differences in the level of cover between Arrival and Red Pennant. But please do check yourself.
As I said earlier, my experience of using Red Pennant may have been the exception rather than the rule. But after the service I received it made sense for me to look elsewhere. Especially as I expect to be away for than 31 days this year.
Have a safe trip wherever you go.
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Thank you Stato. We’re intending to stay for up to three months, being of retirement age. There are a couple of background health issues too. The motor, van, roadside, repatriation, health, cancellation etc quote from Red Pennant is £365. Although we’ve used Red Pennant in the past, there’s been quite a long gap, and we’ve never needed to claim, so I can’t identify problems from experience. I’ll check a few more quotes as you suggest, although I’m losing the will because it’s fiddly.
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Hi again Jenny.
Yes, there does seem to be a lot more faffing around now booking these insurances. I was quite happy in the old days, pretty much choosing the Club for everything (travel, sites, insurances etc). However, post covid, we now seem to live in a different world. In my opinion, levels of service seem to have plummeted. On occasions anyway. The Club is no different in that respect.
A couple of points.
Remember that the costs I included in my post above include UK breakdown cover for the year. And I have chosen the most expensive RAC UK voters available (Ultimate at approx £165 pa). Cheaper options are available. The Arrival overseas add on is approx £95.
Also, bear in mind that Red Pennant now expect your caravan (and car for that matter) to be serviced to manufacturers specs for the cover to be valid. Or of course, they may not! It depends who you speak to lol! Seriously though, if that may be an issue for you it would be wise to get confirmation, in writing, of their policy. And good luck with that!!
Whoever you go with have a lovely trip.
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Stato.....Nail on the head there... I was quite happy in the old days, pretty much choosing the Club for everything (travel, sites, insurances etc). However, post covid, we now seem to live in a different world. In my opinion, levels of service seem to have plummeted. but as eurotraveller above says there are cheaper options available with good quality cover...,.Staysure is a very respectable company and is half the price of Red Pennant (Personal)t with a 35 day cover vs 31 RP.. Eurobreakdown is part of OTIS...which I and led to believe uses the same breakdown garages as others...priced at £74.99 for Annual cover car and caravan (max 7m excluding A frame)
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You are right GTP. There are other options available that are well worth checking out.
One thing to bear in mind though, especially for us tuggers, is you must make sure your breakdown cover is "caravan friendly". This is, obviously, very very important. You need to make sure your caravan will be recovered in the event of your car breaking down whilst you are away from your caravan. And, of course, you will need your caravan covered in case you gave any issues with that (breaks, hitch etc). The C&CC/RAC policy covers all that. I assume Staysure does too. Many "bog standard" breakdown policies will not.
Please don't think I'm just knocking the Club and Red Pennant for the sake of it. I'm not. But I've got to be honest and say that the service I received was poor. The follow up to my initial complaint wasn't handled very well either. That was just adding insult to injury.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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)."0 -
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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GTrimmer - You are, of course, correct.
But on the presumption that the OP is referring to motoring cover only then, by my calculations, C&CC Arrival plus added Euro cover is significantly cheaper than Mayday plus Red Pennant. Eurotraveller mentioned Eurobreakdown.com as well which appears to be another good value, caravan friendly, option.
I appreciate there are lots of variables involved, especially if you want to add on health cover. The benefit of these posts is that members can read of other options, check the small print, and then make an informed choice.
Hope you all have trouble free trips this year.
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For 6 of the 8 last years I have been fortunate enough to have European cover, including caravan attached, provided by new car manufacturer cover. I have never in this period or prior to it ever dreamed about NOT taking out Red Pennant with medical cover.
In 2015 I was on the receiving end of exactly why you take this specialist cover out. We were staying in a fairly remote forested area in the Dordogne and after a two week stay left the site early on a Sunday morning for our campsite in the Loire area.
100 yards out of the campsite the drivers side wheel [recipient of a new bearing 3 months earlier] was making a very nasty noise. I pulled over, crawled underneath and checked linkages which were all fine. I suspected shoes binding or the bearing had come out of it's seating. Thinking back the wheel had been a bit warm on arrival 2 weeks earlier after a near 600 mile drive.
I called Red Pennant and was put through to a recovery mechanic within minutes. I later found out it was the parent of a sixth form student I taught, small world. He advised the checks I had made already and and agreed my suggestions sounded likely. Back to the Red Pennant receptionist and I was re-booked back into a very busy site on a pitch near reception to aid recovery if needed. I had not booked this site through the C&MC.
I was informed that as it was a Sunday then I would not see a mechanic until the Monday. About 2 hours later, to my surprise and relief, campsite reception informed me help was on it's way. The contractor who serviced the campsite owners vehicles had been contacted and was on his way. A very clean and shiny pick up truck arrived and two mechanics. The campsite receptionist acted as interpreter, the van was jacked up, wheel off, brake drum cleaned out and wheel bearing "re-seated" with my big copper Thor hammer.
One hour later we were on our way again. Red Pennant were called and they contacted our next campsite [not booked through C&MC] to explain our situation and await our late arrival.
The service was excellent. I cannot complain
For this summer 30 days is going to cost us £170, no small amount but big piece of mind. Now retired I've also worked out if we do a late summer one year followed by an early one the next we can do a 30 day multi trip that spans the two years and gives better value at £310.
Colin
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