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Old 6th July 2010, 09:09 PM
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Default AA or RAC?

I've just got the annual renewal notice through - £264 for family membership, home start, and relay.

Go on the AA website, and the same cover is £191 (brand new customers only?)

The RAC price for the same cover is £163.

Other than the AA claiming they have more recovery vehicles on the road than 'any other breakdown service', which presumably means they also have more members... are there any real differences in service or cover?

The only thing I can see is a tiny advantage with the AA in terms of 'fair callout policy'. Family membership with AA is up to 4, but up to 5 with RAC.

Experiences/views please?
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Old 6th July 2010, 11:04 PM
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An RAC plus is the BIG BILL you get after they start your car by using easystart. Yeah! That proves its starved of fuel.
Thanks, I guess that saved them using the diagnostics. Now all you're left with is replacing the two week old MAF and Ben (AVP) having to put the air intakes back together. Hmm, about £165 quid. Cheers RAC. Well done.
Are the AA any better? Hope so, cos the RAC have ducked & dived and dodged their responsibility, and left me no option but to vote with my five car contract. Bah!
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Old 7th July 2010, 12:12 AM
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I found that the AA did the same to me Clive but Ive got a mate who works at the RAC control centre and is involved with sales. The AA quoted me over £100 more than they did when I joined 2 years ago and the RAC gave me a like for like quote which was more like the original AA joining quote. On the RAC guy's advice I waved it in front of the AA and they came within £5 of matching the RAC price and adjusted my monthly direct debit accordingly, so it really is worth trying that if you like the AA service but dont like the price.

If you look at which magazine, Which? Best Buy breakdown providers for 2009 are The AA, Britannia Rescue, AutoNational and the RAC but for value the newbie AutoNational came out top - AutoNational provides a similar roadside fix-rate as the RAC, but its £66 breakdown cover, which includes recovery and homestart, costs less than two thirds of the price of the RAC’s equivalent breakdown cover, saving you £43 and getting to you faster on average.
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Old 7th July 2010, 12:12 AM
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I crap myself when the AA tech goes anywhere near my car.
I Just fumble about with my keys as he spends 30 mins trying to find the fuse/relay box. He then calls a team of Audi specialists who are as much help as petrol on a burning fire. Of course I could easily have told him where to look but If the AA can't sort my car, they owe me £500 so I wasn't in a hurry! Not that a fuse/relay would have fixed a broken engine/gearbox anyway.

Anyway, in my experience the AA have been okay, sometimes they have taken ages to get to me, if you have a quattro be prepared to wait for a flat bed but probably the same for the RAC. The breakdown repair warranty is very good and they pay up no problems so that could possibly swing it your way?

Could you not call the AA and ask them to price match the RAC?
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Old 7th July 2010, 09:37 AM
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As you might be aware I had a seized caliper and i live in London and had to get it to Ben (AVP - Burton upon trent) last friday. I used to be with AA but changed to RAC since I took out their warranty & you have to be an RAC member. I called them at roughly 6:30 in the morning and they quoted the guy will be with me in 25 mins, within 10 mins I saw the RAC guy pulling into my road. He was a very nice guy, took the wheel off and tried to unseize the caliper, that did not work he gave it his all! Then I showed him my RAC warranty certificate and asked about the procedure to claim via warranty he told me to take it to the garage and then get the auth code or whatever and you should get your money back. Then he put the wheel back on but noticed it was defintiely seized and called out the recovery for the flat bed type. After 30 mins I got no call then I called RAC and asked whats going on to my amazement they told me the RAC guy who tried to get me back on the road was trying to source a caliper (as I had warranty) and was hoping to come and fix it for me, now I explained that it had to be a genuine part and the chances of them getting an S8 caliper would not be your off the shelf job. Then after a few minutes I got a call saying they could not source it and a local recovery garage (C&S) was on its way. Then after 40 mins along came a jolly chap who took me from london to burton it was a boring journey as im not into politics but he was and he felt as though he had to get things off of his chest! Anyways he was a decent bloke overall. They took a bit longer as they were a local recovery guys but all in all it got me to Ben safely. I was happy with them this time!
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Old 7th July 2010, 07:39 PM
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you always have the option of telling them to leave well be and drag its carcass back, i did that when my alfa made poorly sounding engine noises, told him not to mess as there was nothing he could do and recover it so i could fix the poor old soul. I imagine there will be good and less good "on the road" folks from both companies but i'm always narked that you can be a good long term customer who doesn't use the service and still have to pay more than new customers.....doesn't seem fair, and essentially forces a change annually to get the best price when numbers retention should be a better marketing strategy.
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Old 8th July 2010, 12:23 AM
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Im in same boat After RAC said i lost my bonus after 8yrs for 1 call out. Moved me from £117 to £235, just for 1 call out. Where in there rules it says you are allowed 3 callouts a yr. There reply was i was correct, but 1 call out loses your bonus for that yr.
Im now looking to go away from the main two.
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Old 8th July 2010, 09:05 AM
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I have always banked with Lloyds and was always previously with the AA. The moment they started offering their packaged accounts including AA breakdown cover, I went for it.

I pay £17 a month for their platinum package but it also includes home start as well as mobile phone insurance, card protection, and world wide travel insurance.

http://www.lloydstsb.com/current_acc...e_accounts.asp

I know that the COOP bank's current accounts are even better value for money (£13/month including European breakdown cover!) so may be a thing to look into also:

http://www.co-operativebank.co.uk/se...urrentAccounts

Oli
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  #9  
Old 9th July 2010, 05:06 PM
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Well steve found us the cheaper way to get cover. It's silly but works.
Steve let the RAC runout. To break our membership with them for 7 days. Now if we want to go with RAC, we are now classed as new members, so get all the offers a new member gets. Well we now have same cover we had before for £235 as a 8yr member. To £107 for been a new member with same cover we had before.
Cover we have is roadside, home, recovery. Dont need anything else.
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