Steve, Safeguard Policy booklet 'Safeguard Assistance Section 4 vehicle Recovery to the UK' under "What we will Cover" says;
"if the treating Doctor overseas confirms in writing that the only driver in your party is unfit to drive,we will arrange and pay for a replacement driver to bring your vehicle home. We may also at our discretion bring home those members of your party who are fit to return and for whom there are enough seats including that used by the driver".
Ray

 

Steve...for what it's worth, we have had Saga insurance since we qualified for it. When we got the new van 3 years ago it came with Fiat Assistance and we treated that as breakdown cover only -ie not insurance cover- and kept on the Saga.

In our first month, in France, we had 3 breakdowns and a puncture. We called Fiat out for the breakdowns ( turned out- when we got back to UK- to be misaligned brake disks) and Saga for the puncture.

We had a lot of aggro with each Fiat callout- and with a subsequent one in UK when the immobiliser immobilised us- but Saga dealt with the whole thing perfectly.

They do offer a get-you-and-van-home service and, I understand, even though I am a named driver they will still repatriate the van if, as is likely, I don't elect to drive it home.

They have treated us very well all the time we have had van and car insured with them.

G

 

So the only person to get repatriated is the person who is ill, even if the driver is ill and not able to drive, the passengers would then have to find alternative arrangements.

 

So the only person to get repatriated is the person who is ill, even if the driver is ill and not able to drive, the passengers would then have to find alternative arrangements.

That wasn't what I understand Ray's quotation to say. If there are seats for the rest of the party and if they are well enough to travel then they will be able to come back in the van. Deciding this has to be at the discretion of the company however and not taken as a right.

In our case if my husband was unable to drive I'd have to make my own way home as there are only 2 belted seats in the van - one for him and one for the company driver.

G

 

So the only person to get repatriated is the person who is ill, even if the driver is ill and not able to drive, the passengers would then have to find alternative arrangements.

That's not what they are saying. What would happen if both parents were not able to travel, would you expect the driver to bring unaccompanied children back with him? There has to be discretion for the recovery driver / insurance company. Rememeber this is breakdown / recovery insurance provided as part of insuring the MH, it is not a substitute for personal travel / medical insurance.

 

Does Fiat breakdown assistance abroad cover punctures? If it doesn't its of absolutely no use and will need to get additional cover for an insurer who does.

 

Does Fiat breakdown assistance abroad cover punctures? If it doesn't its of absolutely no use and will need to get additional cover for an insurer who does.

We only went to Saga for the puncture because

a) Fiat had been such a pain to contact and had cost us a fortune in mobile phone calls ( mainly spent repeating irrelevant details given earlier or listening to canned musak)

b) we felt that the puncture was bad luck and not a fault of Fiat so went for Saga: 1 minute phone call, 25 minutes to arrival of garage repairman.

Fiat would have done the repair.

In UK Fiat call out the AA ( or they did to us anyway)

G

 

Thanks for the replies.

I think I will take out breakdown insurance that's offered with Saga motorhome insurance as its about £50 extra. They are now owned by Acromas as are the AA

We have just taken out annual travel insurance as we are flying to USA sometime next year and it will cover all our trips up to 60 days each but there is no mention of repatriating your own vehicle in any of the policies I've read - and that's quite a few in the last few days
They all have so many getout clauses - luckily neither of us have any pre-existing medical conditions -at least that we know about

When I phoned Fiat Assistance I was passed around three or four departments in Italy and given other freephone numbers to ring but they couldn't understand why I was phoning as I hadn't broken down. Eventually I got verbal confirmation that the cover was for mechanical breakdown only. Their website is rather sparse in detail apart from the phone number. I also found a recent press release from Fiat stating they are now teamed up with EuropAssistance

Steve

 

Fiat

Hi

Camper Assist attended to my puncture, after first advising that a puncture was not a warranty item so they would not be attending! Anyway, they did attend and all in all, it was about four hours from first call to getting sorted. Not great.

Russell