We pass broken down cars on the motorway almost every day when driving to work, and we think little of their predicament most of the time. After all, it won’t happen to us, right? Of course, in reality nobody is immune from the chance of their car breaking down on their way to a critical meeting or appointment, and even people in brand new cars or cars with a great service history can still find themselves left out in the cold when something goes wrong. This logic is why so many drivers continue to do without car breakdown insurance, and why many end up paying much more overall by not getting covered in advance.

There’s any number of reasons your journey might get cut short, from basics like flat tires to more complicated problems like engine trouble, and it’s not always obvious when these issues might occur. Either way, if something like this happens on the roadside, the first thing you have to do is make sure you get a recovery service to you as soon as possible. From here, it’s the people who are insured who get the best deal by a huge margin. They pay nothing for the callout, they are priority customers and they nearly always have their onward travel covered, so they won’t miss out on wherever it is they are going.

Roadside assistance has advanced a lot in the last decade as well, and thanks to clever technology over 80% of calls made for assistance are problems that can be fixed on the roadside. However, in the cases where things can’t be fixed straight away, not having the required insurance can be a massive drain on your time and resources, and can completely ruin your day even if you car is later fixed. Most breakdown cover will pay for the car to be taken to a nearby garage, although more expensive options give you access to other very useful features for regular drivers, such as replacement vehicles.

One of the things that turns people off breakdown cover is the huge amount of choice available from different companies. There’s normally a number of different ways you can access some sort of breakdown cover, the most popular being through your existing insurance company or through a premium bank account. However, while the ease of these options might be attractive, it’s still worth checking out comparison sites online to compare breakdown cover and find out which companies are offering the best deals. These sites make it easy to check up not just price but features too, so it’s much easier to make a direct choice between two similar companies which isn’t something that’s possible on a phone call.

The crucial part of choosing any insurance package is to find the right balance between cover and price, and breakdown insurance is no different. For most people, the basic packages offered by most of the big name providers should cover more than enough, but if you drive often or just want the extra piece of mind that comes from being better covered if something goes wrong, a more midrange package might suit you. There are also luxury packages available, although these are often more targeted towards businesses or people who travel to Europe for work and need cover across the continent rather than just in the UK. Always make sure that you know exactly you’ll get covered for before signing on the dotted line.