AA or RAC??

[ropey]

Hi all,


My yearly subscription to the AA is almost up, and I've just received my renewal - £222 Granted, that's for my girlfriend as well, but that only adds £25 (which I shall be removing as she is no longer using her car). But that's still nearly £200 for the Option 300, which strikes me as a little steep.

Now, I know why it's more this year - it's cause we had a couple of claims over the past 12 months (mainly on her car I might add ) so the only way to get cheaper roadside cover is to move over to the RAC. According to their website you can get the top cover (solution 3 or 4 - not quite sure what the difference is??!) for £106. Which is clearly quite a saving.

So, the question I put out to the masses is.... are the RAC as good as the AA, or better even? Do they have flat-bed recovery vehicles like the AA that you can order if you need to get your car to a garage?

Oh, and I know that the RAC don't do the "parts and labour" warranty thing, but as I already have a warranty I'm not bothered about that.

So, any TVR owners out there with the RAC?

Cheers,
Ropey

[andyoleary]

Was that the renewal price quoted on a letter in the post? They did this to me so I checked for a quote on-line and then rang them to let them know the massive difference in the quotes and told them I would be transferring the cover to another provider unless they honoured the lowest quote I got (the online one was a lot cheaper than the one on the letter) which they pretty much did after a lengthy discussion.

Might be worth checking it out yourself...

Andy

[ropey]

Yep, that was a newal price in a letter, and because we've had some claims, they don't give you a discount. On the AA website, they'll do the same cover for £102 - so I might give them a call and have an argument. I went through this about 2-3 years ago and eventually they backed down. I just wondered if who was better?!

[custardkid]

if you have a lloyds current account the AVA upgrades are a cheaper way of getting AA cover.
will be switching to this rather than getting it direct when mine runs out!

custard

[ColG]

custardkid said:

if you have a lloyds current account the AVA upgrades are a cheaper way of getting AA cover.
will be switching to this rather than getting it direct when mine runs out!

custard

Thats what we have done for the everyday car, and classic car insurance for the Taimar which has it included.

[ropey]

Unfortunately I don't have a Lloyds account - Barclays, A&L, Nationwide and Cahoot, but for some reason not LLoyds!!

[tamore]

ropey said:

Unfortunately I don't have a Lloyds account - Barclays, A&L, Nationwide and Cahoot, but for some reason not LLoyds!!

ropey, i have a barclays current account with additions plus added (£14 pm). that gives me full european brakdown cover (recently tested!), and holiday insurance for you and your family. there's other benefits too such as cheap share trading if you do that sort of thing. still, for short of £200 per year, it's a bargain.

edit: the breakdown cover is with RAC too. it was first class when i called it in. i'll bore you with the details via email if you want!

Edited by tamore on Thursday 30th August 16:00

[SGirl]

RAC were good when the clutch went on our Cerb.

They used to insist on sending out an engineer to check the car over first, but in this instance I explained it was all very obvious, the clutch had gone so there was no point in sending someone out - best if they just sent a low-loader. The girl asked me if I was 100% certain the car was undriveable, I explained that without a clutch, it wasn't going anywhere fast.

So she asked where we wanted it schlepping to, and did we have to have a low-loader and not an A frame. I told her Fernhurst, and that yes, a low-loader was the only way to go. She then told me that company policy these days was to tow a maximum of 30 miles (changed from the days when I got a car towed all the way from Devon to Bucks!). I explained that the Cerb is a specialised car and needed a specialist to work on it.

All no problem. A low-loader arrived within half an hour and drove the car to Fernhurst.

Very impressed with the RAC at that time. This was what, 2 years ago?

Edited by SGirl on Thursday 30th August 16:00

[Markopolo]

Just got my cover with the AA - All the trimmings for £122/yr.

Best bet is to ring them up and say that you are leaving and when they ask you why, quote them the online price and ask them to match it. I did mine over the phone so no need to do it online either.

Same as any subscription company - they always try and shaft you and then come crawling back when you kick up a stink. They probably get a load of peope who just think it's normal and pay it and that's how they make their money.

[Mrs Dalesman]

We have been with the RAC for 12 years and have Personal cover which means we can call them out to any car that we are in.

You will need to let them know if you are members of any affiliated clubs as that may get you a discount.

We needed them a few years ago when the alternator went on the TVR just as we were getting on the ferry at Hull - they met us at Zeebrugge docks and took us down to a lucas agent who made the repair there and then so that we could continue our journey + their rep kept in regular contact with us over the next 48 hours to make sure we were still okay.

Great service.

[gemini]

TVRCC also give a discount through RAC

[ropey]

Hmmm, some good reports all round really... I think I may give the RAC a call and see what price they can give me with a TVRCC discount, and then call the AA and see if they can/will compete.

Thanks all for your replies.

Ropey

[kevin63]

I have been with the RAC now for 22 years, thankfully I have not had to use them much, on one occasion they recovered me after a crash, and sent a flat bed, they also brought my mother back from Maidstone to Sheffield on a flat bed, the rear brakes had locked on, ( as they arrived, I got in the car and the brakes released) I have one car (my mothers) named as registration number, and I am covered personally, this covers both my cars and any others I am in, I got £49 discount through the TVRCC and pay £104, they were very helpful in the way they tried to get me a low price, but full cover, I can't fault them up to now.

[scorcher]

If you shop with Tescos and have clubcard vouchers you can get RAC cover for about 25% of the normal cost.

[Cat01]

Would recommend RAC - called them out Monday, my chim had a split fuel pipe that was leaking over the exhaust.

They arrived within 20 minutes of my call.

[HarryW]

RAC, no messing.......

[heightswitch]

Is the MSA still part of the RAC?

If so then that's probably the single most important reason to stick with the RAC.

Neil.

[Roy C]

heightswitch said:

Is the MSA still part of the RAC?

No. The Royal Automobile Club sold off RAC breakdown a few years ago. The MSA is now a stand-alone governing body for motor sport.

I joined the RAC after being completely let down by the AA, who refused to answer my call out because their database did not show my membership and their HQ staff could not be bothered to check as it was close to their 5pm departure. I took their compensation money, but not their offer of a discount on my next premium. I've been with the RAC ever since.

[Bluebottle]

I used to be with the RAC but got hacked off with the ludicrously long call out times (3hours on one occasion) and the ever increasing premiums. So I switched to Greenflag(Direct Line) after talking to an indipendant Recovery guy who had contracts with all the main ones. He told me that with GF they try to get there in 30mins (55mins is the worst i have had) but with RAC/AA they are not penalised if it takes over an hour for a call out.

Premium for similar cover was £60 pa cheaper. I also found out that you can get it even cheaper if you don't put your TVR as the primary car. I put my family hack as the primary car and it knocked 25% off the premium.
I have the family policy which covers you or spouse in any vehicle (even if you are not the driver.

[SGirl]

Bluebottle said:

I used to be with the RAC but got hacked off with the ludicrously long call out times (3hours on one occasion)

The shortest wait time I ever had was with the RAC. The clutch went on my car just outside the car park in Ascot, so I limped the car in and parked up. Then I phoned the RAC and explained that I had to go to work and show my face, but asked them to come out to recover the car. I mentioned I wasn't going to wait with the car and asked them to phone me when their driver was 10 minutes out so that I could stop what I was doing and walk the 2 minutes back to the car park in time to meet him. No problem, they said.

Arrived at the office 2 minutes later to see the office manager with the phone in her hand. "Here you go, call for you. It's the RAC."

Yep. As I'd gone round the corner on my way to the office, the RAC guy had driven into the car park and found my car. He must've arrived about 30 seconds after I put the phone down.