Newbie - Insurance and storage

[JapanRed]

Hi all,

We collect our first ever caravan in a couple of weeks. I need to arrange storage and also insure the caravan. I also need breakdown insurance to cover the ‘van.

Are there any comparison sites that do caravan insurance? Any recommendations? I’ve joined the caravan club - do they have any preferred partners?

How do I go about selecting a good storage place? I’m based near Wakefield/Doncaster if anyone can recommend anywhere - not after the cheapest, I’m more concerned that I want the ‘van to be safe and secure.

[snake_oil]

Look on the cassoa website for storage near you. They have different ratings depending on the level of security which may or may not be beneficial for your insurance.

Insurance is so cheap via Caravan Club (<150) we have never bothered shopping around.

[JapanRed]

snake_oil said:

Look on the cassoa website for storage near you. They have different ratings depending on the level of security which may or may not be beneficial for your insurance.

Insurance is so cheap via Caravan Club (<150) we have never bothered shopping around.

Thanks very much. Very helpful response.

[ALY77]

Found our storage through the local dealership, though they are also gold rated on the CASSOA lists so would probably have found them anyway!

I've used Frank Pickles brokers each year of late.

We haven't joined the Caravan Club (read enough to put me off) so can't shed light on their insurance services.
I have read their roadside assistance is second to none, but I don't think its massively discounted.

[C0ffin D0dger]

Just be aware that not all CaSSOA gold sites are equal. The first place we stored at I was never really that confident about but it was the only place in the local area with availability when we first got our caravan. The compound was secured with a chain and combination lock, that was it. There was some CCTV but hard to know if it was actually doing anything. Also the compound was used by a local car dealers and quite often left open while cars were being moved around.

The place we store at now is light years apart from the first place in terms of security. Double set of gates over the main entrance which are locked outside of opening hours, and then each compound has a solid metal gate magnetically locked and your own key fob to unlock it. The owner records all movement by recording when your key fob has been used, this was very helpful when ours got hit in storage (it does happen unfortunately) but the owner of the caravan that hit ours tried to blame us! CCTV everywhere as well.

In short go and have a look at a few places and ask what the setup is.

For insurance we also used Frank Pickles, very competitive and also good when it came to making a claim. We got breakdown at the same time, didn't cost much to add it to the insurance.

[Deerfoot]

ALY77 said:

We haven't joined the Caravan Club (read enough to put me off) ...

Do it, the discounts available at places like Cotswold Outdoors (15%), Snow & Rock (15%) and Enterprise (10%) pretty much cover the £45 annual fee for us...