Personal finance: Breakdown help on the superhighway

EVEN if it is not quite an emergency service, car breakdown cover is high on most motorists' priorities.

Roadside recovery starts at less than pounds 40 a year. Once you add extras such as European cover, the prices start to rise. The highest level of cover costs pounds 145 a year with the RAC, and pounds 126 with the AA.

The recovery organisations have embraced the internet with enthusiasm, and run sites that are excellent resources for motorists as well as a place to find out about their products.

Over time, the motoring organisations have become significant providers of financial and travel services. The AA's range of services, including insurance, loans, hotel bookings and publications, are detailed on the website. There's a host of other motoring information too, such as guides on buying a second-hand car. At the RAC, website options include winter maintenance tips, the RAC's hotel finder, and traffic information updated every 30 minutes.

On the breakdown side, the sites give details of cover options and target call-out times. For breakdown cover the AA, RAC and Green Flag have on- line application forms and accept payment over the net.

At the AA the most basic level of cover, Option 100, starts at pounds 41 for simple roadside rescue. At the RAC, individual membership starts at pounds 39 with standard cover at pounds 109 a year. The RAC website makes it easy to increase cover or add additional services from a list of options, so you can save money by starting with the basic product and tailoring it. Green Flag's most basic product is recovery only, designed for motorists who feel able to do their own repairs. This starts at pounds 34 a year. Roadside assistance costs pounds 38. The top of the range policy is pounds 145.

Green Flag covers the car, not the driver, while the AA and RAC will come out and help you if you are travelling in someone else's car which breaks down.

The motoring organisations face competition for their roadside rescue business from motor insurers. Telephone insurer Direct Line gives a third off breakdown cover to its car insurance customers. It has borrowed ideas from its insurance business and offers a no-claims bonus on its breakdown cover. For motorists with new or reliable cars, this is an easy way to save money.

A cheap operator with a different approach to the market is the Environmental Transport Association. The ETA stresses that it does not actively promote car use; the AA and RAC are often associated with the "roads lobby". The ETA's breakdown policies start at just pounds 23 for the simplest vehicle-based cover, although there is ETA membership, at pounds 20, on top. Like Direct Line, the ETA offers a no call-out discount of 20 per cent; unlike the other breakdown organisations, the ETA also offers a service for pedal cycles.

Links: Direct Line, www.directline.co.uk; ETA, www.eta.co.uk; Green Flag, www.greenflag.co.uk; Norwich Union Direct, www.norwichunion.co.uk/direct; RAC, www.rac.co.uk; The AA, www.theaa.co.uk