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Are there any decent alternative organisations to the RAC and AA for decent, reasonably priced car breakdown cover ?
My renewal letter from the AA has just come through, it is £233 a year for My wife and I, which is for Roadside aid and Relay.
It has risen £20 from last year.
Thanks.
Can you get a deal through your bank? We have breakdown, mobile and travel insurance through ours, saves a small fortune. RAC are now coming out, last time I used them it was Greenflag IIRC.
Green flag. Used them once and loads cheaper than the big two. I've only got the basic option as I don't need homestart or European cover.
Autoaid breakdown, they insure the driver not the car (so you'd have to pay for yourself and mrs belting but you are covered in any car you are travelling in or driving), it's £48 a year for more or less the same benefits as rac/aa
AutoAid +1
We get ours via Nationwide account. The provider is LV Britannia. Used them a couple of times - local sub contract turns up, but happily carried me and car back from Midlands to garage of my choice in York with no quibble.
Think it's about £13/month and includes myself and Wife as drivers of any vehicle we are in and also has home start equivalent.
And it includes Euro travel insurance and mobile phone insurance. For value for money you can't beat it really. (see next post for someone beating it probably!)
We're with Britannia, they have been pretty good when we needed them. £95/year for two cars, basic cover only, not home start. We might be getting it a bit cheaper through 'Boundless' but the £95 includes the Boundless sub. Boundless used to be the Civil Service Motoring Association, and you could join if you or anyone in your family worked or had worked anywhere that was or was once Civil Service, even if it had been privatised and sold on since.
Just had this myself. A large RAC bill. I started thinking it was silly money. There has been a previous thread on here about it.
Following that thread I rang my insurance co. and got the same cover via Britannia for £60 per year. Try your insurance co. first.
Start rescue. £25 quid for my 10 year old corsa and same for my crv. Had to call them last year and they were excellent. This was roadside recovery (but minus home start as if the car breaks down at home then I will have to fix it!)
Can no longer recommend autoaid.
OH was on call and en route to the vet hospital the car started banging and wobbling at the rear.
She crawled there and called the breakdown at 7.45 requesting a flat bed as it is a 4x4 auto.
Local firm came out with a small van, test drove the car and said he could hear the bang but it was "safe" to drive as it would be 2hrs waiting for a flat bed. She got 1 mile down the road it all of a sudden got much worse so she pulled over in a closed petrol station next to a garage on a Friday night 20 miles from home.
When I got there at about 9.30 I could see the rear wheel was at a weird angle. She took my car back up the hospital as she had another call and I sat with hers until about 11.30 when a different guy finally turned up in a flat bed.
This guy was great, ex military, very apologetic and worked hard to get it up on his truck as it was now undrivable as the rear control arm had completely separated.
We ended up getting home at 1am after the original call out at 7.45.
We raised a complaint with auto aid only to get a letter saying "we are satisfied we have resolved your complaint so have closed it" WTF! OH could have flipped the car had she been on the 60mph road and ended up being stranded 20 miles from home on a Friday night in a less safe location that she originally was.
Granted the fault was the 3rd party they use but they don't seem to give a crap.
My AA renewal was silly last July. I rang and said way too much, and, whilst they can't or won't match green flag etc, they will match any offers RAC are doing. Saved £80.
My autoaid experience has been great, and if you're married the £40 covers you and your spouse (although if you have different surnames, what with it being 2019 and all, they demand your marriage certificate).
I've had them out twice and they were excellent. They took the car home one night after the garages had shut and then took it to the garage the next morning for no extra cost. The guys they sent out were really good and helpful both times. The second one, on Christmas Eve, even showed me how to fix it myself so I could drive home on boxing Day once I'd bought the part from Eurocarparts.
They've been much better than the AA for the money.
Another great experience with Autoaid
Funny, I was about to post a similar question. The RAC increased my premium by about 70%, I complained and they were supposed to refund me to the same cost as the previous year, 4 months later and no refund, after another call I'm told it was rejected but no reason why and no one bothered to let me know, was then told someone would get back to me, but again nothing so I raised a complaint which can take another 20 days to get an answer! So won't be using RAC again, I'll be looking at some of those other ones mentioned thanks.
Thanks very much all !
I recently had my AA renewal. Two family cars, roadside, towing to destination of choice. Hotel... it went up but a 10 min call got it back to last years - £136.
I just get it tacked onto our car insurance, so it gets renewed at the same time. It's one less thing to have to worry about & for a half decent package seems to cost around £70 or so.
I've used it perhaps 3 times & it's normally a local recovery firm that comes out & either fixes the issue there & then, or tows you wherever you want to be taken.
Direct Line have been very good for us over the last few years. About £16 a month for two of us, two cars, but we are covered for any vehicle that we are in.
Our policy is up in May so we are now going for the joint bank account thing as above with breakdown, travel, phone etc insurance for £13 a month.
Autoaid here, never used them so cannot comment. Peace of mind for 48 pa.
Have Nationwide account here, as it covers any age of vehicle (the van is 23 years old) AND Europe .. combined that was 250 plus with RAC.
Have subsequently changed insurers to Flux Direct - they offer the same cover for £30 on the already very cheap policy!! Their web portal is shocking and they seem a bit disorganised (had to submit my photos about 3 or 4 times) but they don't run their recovery side so maybe worth a look.
Another fan of Autoaid here. I've called them out twice and both times they/their contractors have been pretty quick to arrive and got me going again in no time.
I currently have Auto-aid and RAC (current car came with 12 months free RAC cover but I already had AutoAid), when I inadvertently flattened my battery a few weeks ago I called both - RAC were estimating a 3hr wait time, AutoAid said approx. 1hr but arrived within 40mins.
I'm with Start Rescue as RAC costs were getting silly (and the RAC were crap the one time I needed to call them in 15 years). I went with Start Rescue as they were recommended by a few people on here a while back, I've never called them out though so no clue about the recovery service...
I pay £69 for full rac cover incl home start and european cover from my insurance broker.
I've had green flag cover with my bank account for years, and had to use them a few times, been very, very good.
Start Rescue here as well. About £25 for my car and thats for recovery home, not just to the nearest garage withing five miles like many other companies offer. They will also recover the vehicle after an accident which the AA will not. The RAC will but they charge extra.
It's AA's pro 'motorist' campaigning that made me leave, as much as the £££
I just renewed my RAC membership. I was ready to leave and move to greenflag. but they actually lowered the price to beat greenflag by a decent margin. So stuck with them. They said it was a loyalty discount because I have a silver card?? I've used them quite a few times and they have generally been pretty good. my one iffy experience was because I was in N Wales and they sent a contractor.