Caravan Club Red Pennant Insurance Rip Off. (1 Viewer)

[Clarky]

For several years we have taken the Red Pennant travel and vehicle insurance for our foreign travels. The annual cover expires in August but I needed to notify them of a change of vehicle before we whizz off to France in a couple of days.
Previous van was an AutoTrail with max weight of 4250kg, our new Carthago, also on a Fiat Maxi base, is a tad smaller but we have a weight upgrade from the usual 4250 to 45ookg.
Due to the extra max weight, which as we all know is just a paper exercise, they want an extra £200.
This extra cost is because any recovery of over 4250kg requires a much larger and more expensive recovery vehicle......allegedly.
The whole annual policy for two over 70 wrinklies plus the vehicle is only £256 and they want £200 extra for the remaining 3 months.
I asked if their underwriters arrive at work on horseback, wearing a tricorn hat and carrying pistols.

The daft thing is that as it's a new vehicle we have free breakdown and recovery from Fiat and our Safeguard insurance also includes UK and Europe recovery.
I don't think we need the CC somehow and I don't think we will be renewing in August. Bonkers!!

Richard.

 

[grumps147]

I wonder how much business they have lost recently, we did not go with them this year for identical reason. I would have paid a premium, but the £200 extra they wanted I also thought was ridiculous. Relying on Fiat cover ourselves, and will look at the insurance offerings when renewing cover in 2 years time.

 

[hchris]

Red pennant Quoted me £369 for 16 days European cover plus £68 for green flag for a 5 ton 7.8 m tag !!! Just for breakdown recovery

 

[Clarky]

Red pennant Quoted me £369 for 16 days European cover plus £68 for green flag for a 5 ton 7.8 m tag !!! Just for breakdown recovery

Ouch!
Like I said, rip off.

Richard.

 

[cliffanger]

For several years we have taken the Red Pennant travel and vehicle insurance for our foreign travels. The annual cover expires in August but I needed to notify them of a change of vehicle before we whizz off to France in a couple of days.
Previous van was an AutoTrail with max weight of 4250kg, our new Carthago, also on a Fiat Maxi base, is a tad smaller but we have a weight upgrade from the usual 4250 to 45ookg.
Due to the extra max weight, which as we all know is just a paper exercise, they want an extra £200.
This extra cost is because any recovery of over 4250kg requires a much larger and more expensive recovery vehicle......allegedly.
The whole annual policy for two over 70 wrinklies plus the vehicle is only £256 and they want £200 extra for the remaining 3 months.
I asked if their underwriters arrive at work on horseback, wearing a tricorn hat and carrying pistols.

The daft thing is that as it's a new vehicle we have free breakdown and recovery from Fiat and our Safeguard insurance also includes UK and Europe recovery.
I don't think we need the CC somehow and I don't think we will be renewing in August. Bonkers!!

Richard.

All OK with Safeguard until you break down and try to get roadside assistance - the AA will refuse you roadside assistance to try to get you on your way as you are over 3.5 ton and will send out a sub contractor wrecking truck with a big hook on the back to tow you to a garage that cant even look at your engine management fault for another week. They refused to send out an AA van with a computer to fix a simple fuse.

We are in the middle of a dispute with Safeguard/AA/Swinton who have all passed the buck. Safeguard were the first to pass the buck, and its moved down the line since then - all three passing the buck merrily.

We have said that we will put this on the MHF forum to lose them business, as everyone with motorhomes over 3.5kg will be very concerned that they will receive the same crap/no service.

Be aware and very wary of Safeguard - be very wary of Safeguard...

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[Badknee]

What they should and could have done is send a van out to try and fix engine fault on a bog standard cab unit and if that failed whistle up a suitable tow vehicle, or is it me?

 

[cliffanger]

What they should and could have done is send a van out to try and fix engine fault on a bog standard cab unit and if that failed whistle up a suitable tow vehicle, or is it me?

Yes, you would think wouldn't you - but no. We explained that it was an EMS fault, and we just needed a van with a laptop to diagnose it. WE explained that the engine was running fine, and that it was obviously a fuse or something that had blown somewhere - without a laptop ourselves we didn't know which fuse it was - but the speedo had stopped working, as had the Odometer and cruise control. They flatly refused to send out a van with a computer and just kept repeating over and over again that because of the weight of the van all they were prepared to do was as they had done - send out a sub contractor wreck towing van to tow us to the garage. One garage couldn't look at it until the following Wednesday, the other the following Friday. This was on a Friday afternoon of a bank holiday weekend, so what they expected us to do between then and the following week I have no idea.

We weren't going to post this thread until after we had got to the end of the process, but we have just had another half hour phone call to Swinton, the name of the company who we have to talk to about complaints with the policy, having got no where with the AA who we are supposed to talk to in cases of complaints with roadside assistance.

Swinton say it has nothing to do with them, they are just the equivalent of Compare the Market, and we have to talk to Allianz, even though they are the contact on the paperwork for complaints.

We have assured them and Safeguard and the AA that details of every conversation we have had with all of them will be posted on every review site, to warn every other motorhomer with a vehicle over 3.5 tonne who has their insurance, thinking they are covered - that they are not.

 

[Popeye]

Be aware and very wary of Safeguard - be very wary of Safeguard...

Which is not
Unlike my
Dad dance

 

[WillH]

We are 3500kg and have never had a problem.

 

[cliffanger]

We are 3500kg and have never had a problem.

Do you mean that you have broken down and have received roadside assistance with AA cover through Safeguard?

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[WillH]

Have used the service after breaking down and got a swift response, no problems, have always thought the cost was reasonable as well but it was not as high as quoted above. Off to Holland on Thursday and using their cover again, we take out full cover as we have chronic medical conditions.

 

[Popeye]

what situations have you not had a problem with?

All of them............

 

[cliffanger]

Have used the service after breaking down and got a swift response, no problems, have always thought the cost was reasonable as well but it was not as high as quoted above. Off to Holland on Thursday and using their cover again, we take out full cover as we have chronic medical conditions.

So you are talking about the Caravan Club insurance?

 

[WillH]

Yes, Red Pennant, that's the subject header on this thread.

 

[cliffanger]

Yes, Red Pennant, that's the subject header on this thread.

Quite right, but the original post referred to Safeguard as a better option, which was what prompted my post.

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[WillH]

Suffice to say that with medical conditions it becomes increasingly difficult for us to get cover and Red Pennant provides that along with the breakdown cover. We are going to Australia in a few months time and getting insurance for that trip is becoming a saga in itself.

 

[cliffanger]

Suffice to say that with medical conditions it becomes increasingly difficult for us to get cover and Red Pennant provides that along with the breakdown cover. We are going to Australia in a few months time and getting insurance for that trip is becoming a saga in itself.

I think we may have to look at Red Pennant again - we used them years ago, when we had the caravan but then the age of the towing car meant we couldn't get cover any more and we went to Britannia, with no problem there either.

Safeguard and the AA have been a nightmare regarding our breakdown last week - despite the fact that we have had the insurance and breakdown cover for three years now, and they knew full well that the van was over 3.5 tonne when they took the money.

Hope you have a lovely time in Australia once you get the dreaded buying of insurance out of the way!

 

[WillH]

Thanks for that, we have the flights booked anyway but only a deposit on them. Strangely, I don't particularly like Australia having been there a few times years ago but some of my wife's family were visiting recently from Oz and she wants to go see for herself. The trade off is a few days in Singapore on the way back to visit my old haunts once again!