So start with the two checks below. If either applies, close this page and keep your money. If neither does, the rest of the page is the actual arithmetic.

Two reasons not to buy it

1. You may already have it through your bank account

Some packaged current accounts, the ones with a monthly fee, include breakdown cover. Before you buy a policy, log in, find the account’s benefits page and look for breakdown or roadside assistance. If the page lists it, the bank says the account includes breakdown cover. Check the policy document for the level (it can be roadside only) and the conditions, such as whether you have to register or switch it on, before you rely on it or buy a second policy. Whether the account is worth its fee for that cover is a separate sum, and our bank-account guide works it through, along with who provides the cover and what to check about its level.

2. Your car may be covered by the manufacturer

Many new cars come with the manufacturer’s own roadside assistance for the first few years, and it’s usually good — the recovery goes to a franchised dealer who can actually fix the car. Some brands extend it each time you service with them. It isn’t the warranty: a warranty pays to repair faults, not to get you moving at the roadside, so check which of the two your car actually has.

If your car is under three years old, or you’ve serviced it at a main dealer, check the handbook before you buy. This is the single most commonly duplicated policy we see.

Your car insurance is worth a third look. If you ticked a breakdown box when you bought it, you already have cover. Whether that add-on is the better buy is its own question: car insurance add-on or standalone.

The arithmetic, if neither applies

Breakdown cover is cheap insurance against an expensive, badly-timed inconvenience. A single recovery bought at the roadside as a non-member runs into three figures, and that’s before anything involving a hotel, a hire car, or a missed ferry. Annual cover at the cheap end costs less than one such callout, so the policy pays for itself the first time you use it.

What makes the maths interesting isn’t the cheap end, though — it’s the spread. The lowest annual prices we’ve verified sit around £19–£33 a year. Meanwhile the two best-known brands advertise from £5.29 and £5.49 a month, which is £63 and £66 across a year for the entry tier. Same category, three times the price, and the brands charging more score worse on customer experience than several of the ones charging less.

That is the real answer to “is it worth it”. At £25 a year, obviously. At £66 a year for roadside-only from a provider with a 2.4-star customer rating, much less obviously — and that’s the version most people end up on, because it’s the version that advertises.

When it’s clearly worth it

• One car, and you need it. If the car not starting means you can’t get to work or the school run collapses, you’re insuring the day, not the vehicle.
• An older car. More things fail, and they fail with less warning. Just check the age cap first.
• Long or rural journeys. The cost of being stranded scales with distance from home, and so does the value of national recovery.
• Nobody to call. Cover is partly a substitute for a friend with jump leads and a free afternoon. If you don’t have that, buy it.

When it’s marginal

• A second car that barely moves. Consider personal cover on the main driver instead of two vehicle policies.
• City driving only, with a newish car. A taxi home and a garage in the morning is sometimes genuinely cheaper than an annual policy.
• You’ve got a large emergency fund and no schedule to protect. Self-insuring is a legitimate choice. It’s just rarely the one people are actually making.

Next

• What does breakdown cover include? — the six features, and which are upsells.
• Cheap breakdown cover — the short answer on price.
• The best UK breakdown cover — every provider we score, ranked.
• Renewal traps to avoid — how year two gets expensive.