Which car rescue service?

axisus · September 2023

I've been with the AA for decades, but they are seriously taking the piss the last couple of years, renewal is now running at over £200 (inc home relay). I'm thinking of ditching them for something cheaper, anyone got an opinion on the AA, RAC, Green flag, other???

DiscoStu · September 2023

I've been with AutoAid for the past few years. Not had to make use of them but they offer great value.

Kittyfrisk · September 2023

I have Start Rescue.
Don't know if they are any good, as like most insurances, I haven't had to use them yet but the AA & RAC pissed me off decades ago with their attitude, prices & crap performance.

Other individuals experiences apply too

TTony · September 2023

DiscoStu said:

Not had to make use of them but they offer great value.

If you’ve not had to make use of them, how do you know the value they offer?

Its like insurance policies (it is an insurance policy!). You can always buy cheaper, but until/unless you make a claim, you don’t know whether your saving will cost you a lot more ….

MrSwanson · September 2023

Gem Motoring Assist were always great for me whenever I needed them.

ArchtopDave · September 2023

I was in the same situation and cost recently, and I rang the AA up and put it to them that it was getting to be on the high side. They rapidly offered me a discounted annual renewal for £166.

Kittyfrisk · September 2023

ArchtopDave said:

I was in the same situation and cost recently, and I rang the AA up and put it to them that it was getting to be on the high side. They rapidly offered me a discounted annual renewal for £166.

I rang them years ago & despite me being a loyal customer with their insurance, they couldn't match the functionality or price of my alternative quote.
When the person on the phone referred to the AA as being better & reliable & slated the alternative company as being 'new & probably useless & I would regret leaving them' I told them to insert their offer in the awkward place.
I miss the cool old bumper badges, but otherwise, Non, je ne regrette rien...

crosstownvamp · September 2023

I get RAC with my Barclays bank a/c - they've been pretty good but none of the three call outs I did in last few years have been urgent or more than a mile from home.

Chatting with one of the guys he said AA had had the guts taken out of it via venture capital and he thought RAC was heading in the same direction.

skunkwerx · September 2023

I used to switch every year. Between RAC, AA and green flag. Whoever was cheaper.. I only ever had to use RAC once for home start, when my battery went flat.. so I wasnt really stranded or anything.

You can see if your bank offers something with breakdown, I know some do.

Currently with Merc, if you service your car at a dealers they give you their own breakdown rescue service for the year. Not had to use that either.

EricTheWeary · September 2023

Had Brittania ( I think it’s now called LV=Brittania or something) for years. Have called them out in the past and was fine. I haven’t shopped around for years so maybe not the best deal but it’s personal cover for me and MrsTheWeary and European cover for a named vehicle. I have it through membership of Boundless which is what used to be the Civil Service Motorists Association and I get a couple of other discounted things through that. IIRC the OP works for the civil service so might be worth looking at (essentially it’s a good deal if you want 20% off a short break in the Forest of Dean).

blobb · September 2023

I was with AA for years, including insurance for the last few, until renewals became expensive. I phoned them up to negotiate, nothing. I pointed out that their web offer for new customers was a lot lower, no. I offered a compromise or they would lose custom, no. Nothnig. So I left and went RAC. After a year I saw RAC put their price up so went back to AA, they signed me up for £70, with all bells and whistles included. Crazy. I've always had good service from the AA mechanics when I needed them.

ICBM · September 2023

I've always had excellent service from the RAC - somewhere around ten call-outs in 25 years I think - but I've read reports saying the opposite, so who knows... it's probably pot luck with any of them. I do pay for the full works, which is maybe not the most economical option but it's been worth it. The best service I had was a call-out when I was on holiday and they arranged for a tow back to the holiday cottage on a Sunday and then a trailer to home the following day, which was technically outside their terms, but it was a bank holiday Monday and there were no garages who could fix it locally, so they agreed to do it - that saved me literally hundreds of pounds and avoided having to miss work on the Tuesday, as well as not ruining the holiday.

BillDL · September 2023

I just carry a couple of young, fit migrants in my boot. They will be able to push my car to a garage if it breaks down. It probably wouldn't take much longer than waiting for the AA, RAC, or Green Flag to turn up, and it's quite affordable

Kilgore · September 2023

The AA and RAC aren't what they used to be. Standards started declining decades ago when they stopped saluting.

Bod · September 2023

I've gone with RescueMyCar the last few years. As with many of these services, it's impossible to know how good they are until you need to use them, but they've had some good reviews and are affordable. They've got a high Trustpilot rating, but you can largely ignore most of the reviews as they're just stupid people commenting about how easy the cover was to purchase, which is entirely irrelevant. If you dig through though, there are lots of positive comments about their breakdown experiences.

rlw · September 2023

Which puts Start at the top of their poll.

digitalscream · September 2023

For what it's worth...RAC caused irreparable damage to my wife's Peugeot - she called them out for a flat battery (I know, I know...she didn't tell me what she was doing) and their engineer replaced the wiring harness on her stop-start car with one designed for one without it. Fried the harness, damaged the ECU and then they refused to pay for any repairs on the grounds that she didn't tell them it had stop-start. Turned a £4k car into one that couldn't pass an MOT because of the MIL indicator; she ended up scrapping it because she had a lot of stress going on and couldn't add the hassle of trying to get them to admit fault to her mental load.

Anyway...following this one, 'cos I've never had to call a rescue service even with several years of owning an MG, and my run of luck can't last forever.

Switch625 · September 2023

AutoAid are good. They offer a personal cover so that the driver is covered and not a specific vehicle... so you can be driving your car or somebody else's and be covered for breakdown. I think they also do a vehicle specific policy for much cheaper. My family have used them several times for callouts and they basically just use local recovery people to get you going on your way or tow you to a garage if needed. Usually show up within an hour.

RandallFlagg · September 2023

I've just renewed with AA, 2 person membership, home start, relay, national recovery for £140, It was £132 last year.

The renewal offer was over £250 or there abouts (I can't quite recall). We do the same dance every year - I check the offers for a new member and call them to tell them I am not accepting their renewal offer and will leave and we will rejoin under my wife's name.

They then seem to mysteriously be able to find a speical one off offer where they can price match the new customer price. Some years they won't so we will flip flop between RAC & AA or switch who's name the policy is under.

There is no customer loyalty in insurance it's simply a numbers game and enough of the high price renewals must stick with customers who can't be arsed to haggle or switch to make it worth it for them.

At least most of this tedious nonsense can be done online of a phone call now rather than an odious insurance man coming round the house like in the 1970s!

Dominic · September 2023

Much of a Muchness
The universe always conspires against me in these matters;
If I break down it's always a bank-holiday at 9pm and I'm in the middle of nowhere ....like if we need a vet it's always 9pm on Sunday.
I've found both RAC and AA have been marvellous on some calls and woefull on others .......luck of the draw

axisus · September 2023

RandallFlagg said:

I've just renewed with AA, 2 person membership, home start, relay, national recovery for £140, It was £132 last year.

The renewal offer was over £250 or there abouts (I can't quite recall). We do the same dance every year - I check the offers for a new member and call them to tell them I am not accepting their renewal offer and will leave and we will rejoin under my wife's name.

They then seem to mysteriously be able to find a speical one off offer where they can price match the new customer price. Some years they won't so we will flip flop between RAC & AA or switch who's name the policy is under.

There is no customer loyalty in insurance it's simply a numbers game and enough of the high price renewals must stick with customers who can't be arsed to haggle or switch to make it worth it for them.

At least most of this tedious nonsense can be done online of a phone call now rather than an odious insurance man coming round the house like in the 1970s!

Interesting ....

RandallFlagg · September 2023

axisus said:

RandallFlagg said:

I've just renewed with AA, 2 person membership, home start, relay, national recovery for £140, It was £132 last year.

The renewal offer was over £250 or there abouts (I can't quite recall). We do the same dance every year - I check the offers for a new member and call them to tell them I am not accepting their renewal offer and will leave and we will rejoin under my wife's name.

They then seem to mysteriously be able to find a special one off offer where they can price match the new customer price. Some years they won't so we will flip flop between RAC & AA or switch who's name the policy is under.

There is no customer loyalty in insurance it's simply a numbers game and enough of the high price renewals must stick with customers who can't be arsed to haggle or switch to make it worth it for them.

At least most of this tedious nonsense can be done online of a phone call now rather than an odious insurance man coming round the house like in the 1970s!

Interesting ....

I've just checked the AA site and the offer we got appears to be gone and it's quoting £280 for the same level of cover now!

RAC is £185

Green Flag is £123

I would go with Green Flag if renewing right now

Lestratcaster · September 2023

I'm with RAC. Usually been good whenever I've called them out, I had a dead battery a few years ago and as part of the cover I had a free replacement which was handy. A few years back my gearbox fucked up and also the clutch en route to a show in Brighton. Still managed to get down there and do the gig ok but I had to be towed back to London.
This year's renewal jumped up but AA would have cost more even as a new member.

ronnyb · September 2023

I’ve been with Autoaid for over 20 years but never actually used them. I’m pretty sure they’ve been the MSE best buy for a long time. I paid £68 to renew in April for 2 cars that’s for me and Mrs R. What I like about them is that if you break down and it can’t be fixed at the roadside they’ll transport you to either the nearest garage, your destination, or home. Most of the cheaper ones will only take you to the nearest garage.

crunchman · September 2023

We have breakdown cover (and travel insurance plus one or two other things) with our bank account. We have an account where you pay a monthly fee but you get the extras.

We benefited from the travel insurance a few years back when my wife's nan died. We had a holiday booked in this country, which you wouldn't normally have insurance for. We had to cancel because her nan died the week before, and there were all the funeral arrangements etc. The travel insurance paid out on the money we lost on the accommodation.

I'd need to check the statement to see what the cost is now, as it's probably gone up, but when we went for that account, it wasn't much more than the AA renewal fee would have been on it's own.

grungebob · September 2023

I’m with the AA each year they increase on the renewal, each year I call em up and they put it back to the previous years price.

It’s annoying you have to call but it is what it is.

Lestratcaster · September 2023

grungebob said:

I’m with the AA each year they increase on the renewal, each year I call em up and they put it back to the previous years price.
It’s annoying you have to call but it is what it is.

They do it on purpose to see which ones can be arsed to go through all the waiting around on the phone to negotiate a better deal. To create that hassle and chore some people can't be bothered with so they just leave the renewal.

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories

In this Discussion

Become a Subscriber!

Which car rescue service?

Comments