I wanted to buy RACV road side assist. One of my friends suggested that, I don't buy now and keep paying. Instead, buy only when the need arises. This could save some money. Is it a good advice ? has any one tried this approach ?
RACV Road side assist buy only when need arises : need Advice
chrismatt on 19/12/2019 - 20:49
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Break down, buy roadside assist, sleep in car for 48 hours, get towed. Obviously.
Where is this 48 hours coming from ?
I made it up, as I couldn't be bothered looking, same as you. qwerty has answered your question below though.
I am sure they have a certain period where you can't make a claim or callouts. So this honestly just sounds stupid. It is just the same as not having roadside assistance at all.
Waiting Periods
• Provided that there is no pre-existing Condition, ERA becomes
available 24 hours after an ERA product is purchased, unless a
nonrefundable one or two year subscription is paid for the
provision of immediate assistance24 hour wait + breaking their rules
I did this. I was locked out. I was advised I could pay 100 call out fee or pay for two years of road side for 180. So I did that and they came out straight away. I never used the roadside assist in that two years after that incident.
What would be your recommendation ? Do you think it would have been useful for you to pay 100$ call out ?
This road side assist thing looks day light robbery to me just like other insurance products. You keep paying even when you don' t use it. Hope someone comes up with a better way
It’s not daylight robbery. Roadside assistance is a service they are providing throughout the whole duration that you have paid.
Whether you’ve “called” or “used” roadside assistance or not, the service is still being available to you 24/7.
You are paying for that service.
You are paying for them to have an operator to answer your call and mechanic on the road.The value of that service is your determination.
If you don’t agree with their pricing structure then don’t buy it.Lol how much do you think it should cost for someone to be at your beck and call 24/7.
As kofs2s said, it is a service. You just decide whether or not you need it. It is that simple.
$100 sounds like a dream, when my battery died last week RACQ told me it would be a $180 fee right now for a callout AND couldn't guarantee it would happen. So I might pay $180 and not get the service that night. Told them to stuff that, took a uber home and then back the next day with a battery and installed myself.
I wanted to buy RACV road side assist.
Are you expecting a breakdown?
My car is in excellent condition.
Seems pretty smart to me. You could probably do the same for insurance too.
Depends on if you own an unreliable model car or have trouble with simple things like changing a tyre.
I am in WA, they charge an extra $100 or something if you sign up and request help immediately. You also need to pay up front on the spot.
I agree with your friend.
some car brands when you service at their dealership you also get free roadside assistance. eg: Hyundai
Think Kia does too
some new aami policy, if you have been with them a few years eith no crashes, u get complimentary roadside
check ur,policy, I recent got it and used it look at battery
I pay for roadside assistance, and count it as an insurance policy, aka, I hope I don't have to use it but I have it if I need it.
I had RACQ for many years and had no breakdowns, but in one single year I used it 3 times.
The cost of a tow is huge if you are paying for it yourself.
Not in Victoria, towing is strictly regulated. If it's just for a breakdown (not an accident) a 10k tow should be less than $120.
Instead, buy only when the need arises
or you can just use one of the on demand roadside apps like https://www.gotu.com.au/ (not linked to them at all)
a quick google shows a few companies offering on demand roadside services. https://www.roadangels.com.au/ and https://www.budgetdirect.com.au/roadside-assistance-australi… for example
I got a reliable car now and I pay my annual fee. I used to have a bomb and I called roadside assist out a hundred times, flat battery, starter motor, run out of petrol, a whole load of things.
The best one was once I blew a tyre 70km north of Rockhampton at 2am, pulled out the spare and it was trashed.
Hitched back to Rocky with the spare wheel, (thanks to that guy in the ancient Corolla)
In the morning a truckie asked me what I was doing at the side of the road with a wheel, he took me to a tyre shop, then I called the RACQ,
I had called them first but they told me they can’t help unless I get a tyre.Anyway, they came and picked me up, drove me all the way back to the car and changed it for me. The guy even offered to show us the local nudey swimming hole but I took a pass on that.
Ever since then I’ve jumped at the chance of paying my annual fee, knowing it will subsidise some irresponsible fool somewhere."irresponsible fool", damn straight, you passed up on the local nudey hole.
TBH I let mine lapse, had it for many many years and only used it 2-3 times in all that time and always it was just for a dead battery so this year I bought one of the gooloo battery starters from a deal here to cover that eventuality. Even if I did have to pay for a tow to the mechanics for some reason the couple of hundred bucks would probably still be cheaper in the long run. In nearly 40 years of driving I have NEVER needed a tow.
Its like contents insurance, some one breaks in and grabs your tv, depending on your excess, it might not be worth claiming,
but if your house falls into a sink hole, and you have a total loss, all of a sudden its worth every cent..I picked up the NRMA deal for my car and my partners, 2 more policies that increase my discount on all my other NRMA policies :)
Its like contents insurance,
Home contents insurance is more like comprehensive car insurance. Roadside assist is like paying a monthly fee to keep a tradie on standby.
yes this is true, but I was drawing a comparison to whether its worth while or not and utilising that as an example.
Plus there is more than one reason to have roadside,
re: my discount % is now higher on all of my policies, so the cost of the roadside is very negligible.
How do you plan to achieve this?