RAC Renewal - again

Mr Tidy

Mr Tidy

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 North West Surrey
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My cover is due for renewal on 27 December. They charged £214.99 last year, but wanted £325.98 this time. :o

As they have my card details I needed to sort it out before they took the money.

Got a quote for abut £182 from the AA as a new customer and called them up as I've done for the last few years. Lo and behold they managed to provide cover for £147 and guarantee the same price next year, so one phone call saved me almost £180. I wish I didn't have to do this every year, although at least I won't have to next year!

Just for clarity this is for personal cover, so any vehicle I'm in, and covers Roadside Assistance, Home Assistance, National Recovery and onward travel. Allegedly they were able to offer this deal because I've been with them since 1996 and haven't needed any help since 2018. I used them twice that year, for a tow to my Indy when the electric water pump on my 325i died then 6 months later when the battery died at home. And I've no idea if or when my 330i has had a new water pump. :roll:

At least I won't need to go through this nonsense again until my 330i insurance is due in April. :)
 
It’s just such a pity that they take us all for mugs unless we push back..he having automatically renewed his AA cover
 
Have you looked at GEM Motoring Assist Iain, I'm currently paying £97 per year for their Revovery Extra, hasn't gone up for years. Think they've been consistently voted one of the top 3 breakdown service.

https://www.motoringassist.com/breakdown-cover

I've not had to make a claim as yet but used to be with the RAC and AA in the past and was always paying silly prices going up each year.

Tim.
 
Just be careful with the AA, Iain.
They auto renewed my cover this past year without ANY correspondence at all. I only noticed when the 70% increased premium showed on my credit card statement. :o

I should have noted the renewal date, admittedly, but I didn't expect the robbing bastards to just take whatever they felt like without letting me know TBH.

I need to keep an eye out next year, as my wife called them out in the Summer so they will want to fleece me (even more) now.
 
Check on that though, mostly that doesnt give you much cover, usually its just roadside assistance which is pretty useless.
 
coldel said:
Check on that though, mostly that doesnt give you much cover, usually its just roadside assistance which is pretty useless.
Click to expand...

They give various options of cover. Basic was only £30 and I'm sure my premium policy was about £80 and it covers things like home start, onwards travel and hotels.

The one time I had to use it my car was on the drive. The alternator had failed and the car was taken to a garage of my choice.

An exclusion is the car has to be under 16 years old. That'll be an issue for most E86 Z4.
 
The problem with auto renewals is some companies include it automatically unless you tick the microscopic box to say you don't want it, naughty really.

I've just cancelled the auto renewal on my Coop home insurance which is due soon. Just been getting an online quote with Allianz home insurance and at the very end there's a one liner saying the insurance will auto renew however if you wish to opt out tick the box. It's easily missed after filling in 10 previous screens to generate the quote.

I think they do it in the hope you miss the question so come the following year you won't know about it until payment is taken. I thought companies were supposed to let you know before taking any monies regardless of an auto renewal :?

Tim.
 
I’ve got a “travel pack” with my Barclays bank account. It’s about £15 a month and includes RAC comprehensive breakdown (both wifey and me as joint account holders) and worldwide travel insurance. You can cancel it whenever. It’s gone up from about £12 in the last five years but still quite reasonable.

The downside is that the RAC service is absolutely woeful. We’ve used it twice this year, once when my wife’s Qashquai broke down on the M4 in Wales, once when the gearbox failed on the i10. Both are long stories, but we could have walked home quicker. I suppose it was better than not having any cover at all.

When I was a young driver, I remember Green Flag coming out within half of an hour of the call, with the right rescue vehicle, and getting it right first time. Nowadays they take a couple of hours to send out a patrol vehicle that can diagnose what sort of recovery you need :x .
 
Beerman said:
coldel wrote: ↑Sat Dec 21, 2024 12:18 pm
Check on that though, mostly that doesnt give you much cover, usually its just roadside assistance which is pretty useless.

They give various options of cover. Basic was only £30 and I'm sure my premium policy was about £80 and it covers things like home start, onwards travel and hotels.

The one time I had to use it my car was on the drive. The alternator had failed and the car was taken to a garage of my choice.

An exclusion is the car has to be under 16 years old. That'll be an issue for most E86 Z4.
Click to expand...

I've always done the RAC Personal cover rather than pay for recovery on both cars' insurance, and in any case they are both over 16 years old now. :oops:

I haven't needed to use the RAC since 2018 when the electric water pump died on a sunny May day but they got to me within an hour. Next time was in December when the battery died at home. It took a bit longer that time, but I just had a cuppa and put the TV on!
 
Its worth checking out banks and other insurance cover. I have a life / travel insurance which includes RAC for free
 
We have AA membership included with our joint bank account. Yesterday (Boxing Day), we had only gone 10 miles down the A11 from Norwich on the way back to Basingstoke when the wife's car engine developed a fault and went into limp home mode.

After waiting for almost two hours for the patrolman, he had a fiddle about and we tried to drive it. Half a mile further on it died again and he had a second try. That died very quickly too, so he arranged recovery home - I got him to confirm that it was covered in our policy!. We went to a nearby cafe for coffee and didn't have time to finish it before the recovery truck was there!

He could only take us to Birchanger Services, but let people know his ETA. We were only waiting there for 20 minutes before the second truck showed up and took us all the way home.

Getting home at 18:30 instead of 13:30 wasn't much fun, but especially on a Bank Holiday I'm sure it could have been a lot worse.
 
I was with the AA until last week when
I needed to renew. They were looking about £225. I went through TopCashBack with the RAC and paid £255 for cover for me in any car. As part of that I get £160 cashback, which means it only cost £95.
Try TopCashBack as they do AA deals also.
 
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