Sales Enquiry Line : 0800 440 2417 Lines open Mon-Fri 9am - 6pm and Sat 9am - 1pm
Brought to you by QDOS Insurance Services Ltd.

We try to make our website informative and easy to understand, but we appreciate you may want more information to help you decide if our policy is right for you.  If you do we'd love to hear from you and you can contact us through our live help facility or by calling 0800 440 2417.

In case you're browsing outside office hours we have compiled a list of the questions we get asked most often and provide our answers.  Please have a look to see whether these will help.  If not, you can always email your question to [email protected] and we will get back to you as soon as the office is open.

General breakdown questions are answered at the top.  Any questions relating specifically to European Cover are answered below that.

Cover Related Questions

The policy terms and conditions mean cover is not permitted to commence within 72 hours of purchasing the policy. This is to help us prevent fraudulent claims and to keep premiums lower for everyone.

No. The term of insurance starts on the day requested by you so as long as the day is 72 hours or more from the time of purchase. If we agree to waive any of the 72 period, then you will lose the period we waive from the term of your policy.

We are unable to provide immediate assistance for the cost of one of our policies. We provide an insurance policy that guards against the risk of breaking down. This is much cheaper than paying for assistance once you have broken down. However, you are welcome to Contact our help line to discuss a price for uninsured assistance.

We currently fix 4 out of 5 vehicles at the roadside within the hour permitted under the policy.

The vehicle, along with the driver and any passengers, will be recovered to the nearest repairer, which shall be at our discretion (conditions apply).

We will always attempt to fix your vehicle at the roadside. If we cannot fix your vehicle in the first hour, and we have reason to think the fault could be repaired the same day, we will recover you and your vehicle to the nearest garage. The choice of garage is at our discretion; however, if your preferred garage is nearby it may be possible for you to be taken there.

Where your vehicle cannot be repaired by the end of the working day and you have National Recovery & Onward Journey the vehicle and all persons will be transported back home, to your original destination, or a repairer in either location. (Please note a hire vehicle or B&B accommodation may be covered).

Our policy is to assist you with a breakdown. It does not pay for repairs carried out at the garage.

We cover cars, motorcycles exceeding 120cc, light vans, estate cars and 4x4 vehicles. The maximum age of vehicle we insure is 16 years old for UK annual, 9 years old on EU annual and 13 years old on EU Single trip policies. Eligible vehicles need to be owned by or the responsibility of the policyholder. All need to be in a good roadworthy condition, and maintained and operated in accordance with the manufacturer's recommendations.

We are unable to cover motorcycles under 120cc, vehicles used for Hire or Reward, couriers, vehicles with more than 8 seats or those exceeding 3500 gross vehicle weight, 5.18m (17 feet) length, 2.44m (8 feet) high, 1.95m (6 feet 3 inches) wide. Vehicles used for motor racing, rallies, speed or duration. Please refer to the policy terms & conditions for full limitations and exclusions.

The policy states that the insured vehicle must be maintained and operated in accordance with the manufacturer's recommendations. Please refer to the manufacturer of your vehicle if you are unsure.

Our policies do not impose a call out charge or excess. We also don't ask you to pay for the recovery and claim the costs back at a later date like some other recovery companies.

Our policies cover unlimited callouts unless the One Call option has been included. Where the same fault occurs twice, we may only respond where you can prove that the original fault was rectified by a suitable garage.

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Personal cover is available and covers the named person(s) in any eligible vehicle as a driver or a passenger. A Vehicle policy covers the vehicle and anyone who is legally insured to drive the vehicle.

We cover most of the countries across the European Territories. Please check the policy document for full clarification before travelling.

We do not store any card/payment details and do not automatically renew your policy. We remind you to renew it approximately four weeks before the end of the policy by email and then by telephone closer to the renewal date. You can either renew online by purchasing a new policy, or by contacting our Sales Team on 0800 440 2417.

We use a fully audited network of independent recovery agents. They all adhere to a strict service level agreement and are ISO accredited. They are all members of professional recovery associations.

Unfortunately, we cannot offer breakdown cover if you reside in Guernsey. However, we do offer cover for residents of the Isle of Man and Jersey.

General Questions

We are relatively new to the industry, although we have been selling breakdown insurance since 2005 through Insurance Brokers and Car Dealerships. We do not advertise in the same way as others, but we can be found on various comparison sites. Reviews for our company can be found on independent review sites such as www.reviewcentre.com and www.reviews.co.uk.

We do not operate our own fleet. The advantage to this is we do not have the costs of operating a fleet which would increase the cost of our premiums. We have plenty of recovery vehicles available to ensure speedy response times.

We prefer to say, 'why are they so expensive?' We do not have the cost of operating our own vehicles. We also operate mainly on the internet which allows us to save costs on staff and postage charges.

There is the option to get a free quote on every page. The process is simple and you only require the vehicle registration number to obtain a quote. You will not be asked for any personal information unless you accept the quote and proceed to buy.

It may be possible that the comparison site has not asked for all of the information needed to formulate a valid quote or it may be a 'starting' price.

No we do not operate a 'zone' system when travelling abroad. All of our European policies cover all of the above countries.

We do not currently have the option to pay the premium in instalments. We ask for one payment at the time of purchasing the policy.

Yes. QDOS Insurance Services is Trustwave compliant. Our payments are taken by Sagepay who are a multinational organisation and are PCI compliant.

In the event of a policy amendment, or cancellation, there is a small administration charge of £7.50 for us to process the amendment/cancellation for you (this is half the cost of our competitors). It also ensures that your policy is up to date as we cannot cover vehicles that are not notified and registered with us.

Yes. A change of vehicle or address must be notified immediately. Please note that we can only assist those vehicles that are registered with us. Please phone our Sales Team on 0800 440 2417 (policy amendments are subject to an administration charge).

If you have Vehicle Cover then the vehicle is insured and the policy will cover anyone who is legally insured to drive the vehicle.

If you have Personal Cover you cannot add another driver to the policy.

This is something we are currently working on and will be available to all customers soon.

Yes, you can cancel your policy at any time. If you cancel your policy within 14 days of receiving your documents (which are sent out automatically when you purchase your policy) you will be entitled to a full refund less our administration charge of £7.50 (subject to no claim having been made). If you decide to cancel after 14 days, no premium refund is due (please refer to our Terms of Business).

Claim Related Questions

Our Help Centre is open 24 hours a day, every day of the year. You can find the numbers on our Broken Down page of the website.

You will find all our contact numbers on our Broken Down page, including a mobile-friendly number. Note that this could depend on your mobile operator/agreement.

You must use one of the emergency roadside phones provided and obtain assistance from the local authority. At the same time, please remember to contact us so that we can make arrangements to meet you where the local recovery services leave you.

Documentation Questions

We aim to keep costs down wherever possible, and to do this we email policy documents as soon as the payment is received. If you require the documents in the post you can request these by speaking to our sales centre and you should receive them within 7 days.

The documents are sent to the email address you provide. It may be possible for the email to make its way into your junk/spam folder rather than your inbox, so 'whitelisting' our address is a good idea. If you do not have an email address please contact our Sales Team on 0800 440 2417.

Review Centre independent customer opinion ratings

Rating as of Feb 2014
  • QDOS

    5 Stars
  • AA

    1.9 Stars
  • RAC

    2.1 Stars
  • Green Flag

    2.1 Stars
  • Start Rescue

    3.6 Stars
Sales Enquiry Line : 0800 440 2417