Have been with them for 30 years.

Last year Personal Cover for Me & Mrs + Euro Cover multi trip: £177
Renewal (exactly the same): £276

This happens every year and I'm fed up of phoning up, threatening to leave to negotiate a "fair" premium.

In all those 30 years I've only ever used their services twice. Once ofr a raod accident (not my fault) and once for our Coupe 20V that had a aux belt (double sided ribbed worst bit of design) failure where the outer rib got stripped/loose (like a carpet thread run) and got ingested into the cam belt and crank sprocket throwing the cam time timing off which the Mrs spotted the EML and saved the day by stopping)

Every year I say this is not acceptable and it all falls on deaf ears. The RAC are just trying on the loyalty crap hoping you will not tell leave them. Challenge and they generally respond BUT WHY WHY WHY. They know I'll complain, they know I'll leave if they don't give me a good deal. So instead I spend my time, their money (agents etc etc) just to get back to a place that they could have offered initially. :yuck:

When I take into account 30 years of expense for just two call outs I have to criticise myself for being a mug. That said I only joined the RAC as we did motor sport and they would give RAC affiliated club members off road recovery, track recovery, etc. (even if you blew your own engine up).

So in 12,000+ miles of motor sport thrashing, 30 years and only two callouts (both for normal road events) it is pretty clear to me that the RAC are taking the **** big time.

I can today cover all our cars + annual multi trip cover for one car for £154.84 (national recovery to any location etc etc.) I negotiated £177 with the RAC last year and years before.

BUT WHY WHY WHY should I have to challenge them. Maybe this year I'll tell them to go hike! OR give me a £100 five or ten year lifetime policy.

isn't it cheaper to get breakdown cover as a bolt-on thing with your insurance? Banks also offer it I think.
I have no loyalty to any of these daylight theft merchants; I just go to whoever will sell me the same product the cheapest

MaxHeadroom said:

isn't it cheaper to get breakdown cover as a bolt-on thing with your insurance?

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If you only have 1 car it often is but if you have lots of cars then rac, aa etc personal cover is better option as they cover you in any car even if you are just a passenger.
But always use a cashback site or get a price through one if renewing.
you can usually haggle down rac on price and get 15 months instead of 12

Bank policy will be bare bones.. recovery to local garage

I used to tow caravans.. the cover by
Their specialists had a scheme where they would take you to your destinatiin (within uk..)

Then take car to local garage.. or if not fixable
Take you home after the holiday

Im the same.. decades of cover.. only a few callouts

Holed oil cooler.. oil filter fell off after dealer service.. cambelt jumped 7 teeth..

Personal cover.. everything but homestart..
Free spouse cover..And a named vehicle

So thats 3 vehicles on the road for £100

My bank job is £17 x 12 months

( some are £30x12..!!)

Try GEM Motoring Assist.

I also got a silly RAC renewal quote, but there was no benefit in negotiating as I needed cover for the school car, which they won't cover. GEM were much cheaper, and happily cover the school car.

varesecrazy said:

Bank policy will be bare bones.. recovery to local garage

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That's not necessarily true I've got Halifax account that is 17 quid a month and for that you get full AA roadside, relay and homestart (which I don't need as I get the exact same through work).

But then on top of that it includes cover for my mobile phone (which I used to pay about 120 quid a year on its own), multi trip family travel insurance and cover home emergencies. I've used all of them few times over the years, definitely handy to be able to get a 24 hour emergency plumber without getting slammed for a call out fee.

I used to have stuff separately but it's much cheaper and if did change employer then literally the same level of cover.

Hi.
Please feel free to take a look at our breakdown offering if you wish.
https://www.adrianflux.co.uk/breakdown/
Regards,
Dan.

Sorry Dan, Adie Flux simply couldnt get anywhere near my quotes

This might be worth a look too

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/insurance/breakdown-cover/

My breakdown insurance on my Ibiza is part of my overall car insurance with a small add on to gain national "return or onward" transport of the vehicle and occupants. So if we breakdown on one of our odysseys to the "deep south" I can get the car recovered to home or destination if needed. Price is probably par for the course (through Green Flag I believe, although it's not a Green Flag number I ring to get assistance, it's one linking to my insurer).

On the other hand the Panda really only does local trips, at most to just outside the Edinburgh city limits to visit my boys or the likes of Ikea. Some time ago it occurred to me that cover might be more economically satisfied by using local garages who sub contract to the main breakdown providers. I've found 3 - there are more - who will come out - at all hours - and recover the vehicle, using a flatbed, to my home address for around £75.00 as long as I'm reasonably local. ie. I'm not down in Galashiels or Carlisle or as far west as Livingstone etc. I think about 15 miles from home is the limit but I guess they would go further for more money? So I keep all 3 business cards in the glovebox just in case. So far, and that's more years than I can remember, I've never had to call them so don't know how well this might work but can't see any reason it shouldn't work well. This must have saved me an absolute fortune over the years. No good for the trips down south though which is why the Ibiza is covered by a conventional provision.

AA wanted nearly £300 for breakdown cover on my minibus, was an extra £50 for same level of cover through my insurance. guess who they use to provide it? The AA

Well after many phone calls I've chosen my new provider.

Before I spill the beans with the RAC we had personal cover and Arrival which covered the caravan if ONLY the caravan/trailer suffered accident or mechanical failure. Most standard breakdown insurances only cover the towing vehicle but will recover the towed caravan/trailer.

This may help some people in similar circumstances.

1) I have confirmation from the new provider that were only the towed appendage broke down or had accident damage they would assist and not leave me stranded. However this would be chargeable.

2) The caravan insurance policy would not cover caravan breakdown but would cover caravan only accident damage. To this end they would refund recovery, repatriation to UK from EU and assoicated costs but could not provide "on site" support directly because they/the caravan insurance business do not have "recovery" set-ups like those that exist for vehicles in the UK/EU.

Both of these points mean that all the massive fees the RAC and other large companies were charging are not really required for the hopefully very unlikely caravan only event.

What you may conclude from 1) and 2) above is that a huge concern, roadside worry panic about who/when/how has been totally removed. Yes you may have to pay but you will get your money back and most importantly (even if you were never refunded) you have your breakdown insurance company (in this case) not leaving you abandoned and then having to blindly find a recovery in the UK or EU.

So here is some info:

For my our cars with UK nation wide recovery but no home assist
(no age limit):

500X @ £29
Barchetta @ £45
Strada Abarth @ £49

Single Trip Euro Cover +£72
Annual Euro Trip Cover +£71 or £77

Using their Personal Cover (2 people) we could cover all cars £102 UK and £174 with annual Euro cover (for nominated car of three).

So WHO HAVE I CHOSEN

STARTRESUE who are a Call Assist Ltd company so not a dubious choice and a Which 2020 recommended provider.

Now what I would add is that I'm really pissed off with Google and other search engines. When I did my research Call Assist did not show in search results high up the listings. Dig deeper and you can see the game. Companies paying for top listings. Companies that are in many cases inferior or far more expensive.

Massive thanks for this info - VERY interesting.


I trust its these guys? https://www.startrescue.co.uk/

MaxHeadroom said:

Massive thanks for this info - VERY interesting.


I trust its these guys? https://www.startrescue.co.uk/

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Well StartRescue is who I settled on and their customer services/phone support and their breakdown contact line are well manned and quick response.

So why did I call the breakdown line. Because when I spoke to head office customer services they confirmed they would not leave me stranded for a caravan issue only. So I thought/assumed that the breakdown line would be some sort of centralised call centre so wanted to test their response to my question. Firstly they answered as StartRescue and had the same initial automated phone line info. Then I got a person announcing themselves as "name" of/at StartRescue. Better still he confirmed that of course they would assist and not leave me stranded. Would also quote a price based on circumstances etc.

Note! There are most probably other equally competitive providers out their on both price and service but having done a lot of legwork on this myself I thought it appropriate to share.

Based on this new information, I'm going to review my current AA membership as I'm painfully aware of the increasing cost of it.

Because I was a long-standing member of the AA they offered me some free 'addons' for my apparent loyalty which included Homestart and another couple of things (I forget what exactly and have no doubt never used them). But that was years ago, and I think the 'freebie' benefit has now long worn-off as the cost has crept back up (loyalty doesn't offer any rewards when insurance of any kind is concerned, sadly)

Another thing that I have found (which I always knew but one tends to go to a price comparison website first) is that price comparison sites, "name" switch, ..... do not tell you the whole story. They generally offer only those providers that will pay them a commission.

That said I did find when looking for an alternative energy provider one site (can't recall name) listed companies with better rates in their listings but did say/flag them as not available through them which I find encouraging and honest.

As always "Buyer Beware" and even more so "Web Surfer Beware".

Just renewed my car insurance when with AA this year and got basic brakedown cover for. £15

chris3234 said:

Just renewed my car insurance when with AA this year and got basic brakedown cover for. £15

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No doubt you did so well done and thanks for sharing.

I'm coming from a:

3 vehicle, two drivers, caravan towing and one vehicle over 30 years old and Euro cover.

This set of requirements would challenge even the AA. As for included with your insurance is again possibly OK but all that depends on what your insurance premium actually is and again the number of vehicles and towing circumstances.

There are certainly cracking deals out there but getting a deal that covers all your vehicles and towing and Euro etc. can be far more expensive etc.

For my mix and cover I'm happy which is why I posted all the info I gathered in my quest. All just a pointer for people looking to find a provider. If one can do better then great. If one can't but prefer to stick with "Wile E Coyote" then also perfectly fine and no objection from me.

What is really key here is information sharing and from there people can follow or ignore as they wish / see fit.