So I’m a Monzo Max customer - and today I discovered that my RAC breakdown cover through my Max policy doesn’t cover me! More fool me for not reading the fine print on that one I guess.
Like many people I work from home and the office that my job would have been at was a victim of the Covid cull. On the odd occasion I have to travel for work due to the lack of office, which the car insurance gods have declared must take place under business cover and not commuting cover due to the workplace having no fixed address. Guess what the RAC policy included with Max really, really doesn’t like? Cars insured for business usage. Under the policy, regardless of why you’re using the car when it breaks down , if there’s any form of business cover (such as my SDP + business), RAC won’t touch the car under the policy.
Contacted RAC, they said if I was a direct customer that problem could disappear for an extra £2 a month, but as I was a customer through Monzo I had to ask Monzo. Contacted Monzo, and as it stands there’s no option to upgrade the cover. Meaning I have breakdown cover - but I can’t use it.
Given it’s only a minor price difference with RAC directly, including an option to pay extra to expand your cover through Max seems like such an easy fix. Aware it would mean Monzo has to iron out a new agreement with RAC (maybe a stipulation that it needs to be a personal car used for business purposes on occasion rather than it being a business car proper), but given I technically already pay for breakdown cover I’d much prefer just paying Monzo a few quid extra than having to take out a separate policy and pay for that on top of Max.
Honestly - sounds like an annoying problem. However, these deals and partnerships take a loooong time to figure out, most likely too long for Monzo to want to iron out another detail for a small use case which does not affect the majority of customers.
That’s the really rankling thing: Something as ordinary as getting business cover on your car basically makes the RAC policy via Monzo pretty much worthless. You’d think that for cases like yours, they’d throw an easy add-on in since it costs only a few extra quid. Cross a few fingers: Monzo will work out a better deal with RAC soon; at the moment, it feels like you’re paying cash for something that is totally useless just when you really need it.
Thanks for posting this and bringing it to my attention. I recently took Max expressly because of the breakdown cover. Both my cars are insured for business use for the same reason as the OP.
On review of the What’s Covered? (IPID), in the What’s Not Insured section, it does indeed state:
x Vehicles that are used for business - even if you aren’t using it for business at the time.
Monzo, please can you take a look so we can continue to use Max?
I think this is likely to impact more people than it initially appears. A lot of people I know have their car with business insurance cover for an odd trip or two they need to make to see a customer/supplier, as the cost increase is fairly minimal. Even though they might not actively use it frequently, it’s easier/more cost effective to have it on for occasional use.
This is the boat that I’m in - my SDP usage on my insurance policy is 10,000 miles. The business usage is only a tiny 1000 (which I’d be shocked if I ever hit!)