RAC breakdown renewal …..??

sev112

Turns out I have been a member for 31 years 

last year I had a huge strop at them for upping the price by about £250!
I particularly had a strop at them about their £100 “arrangement fee”. 

The6 dropped the price £100 to £380 (Roadside Rescue, Recovery, At Home (our most common use over the years for slow flat tyres), Onward Travel)

This year they have raised again to £508.

just looked and AA will give me this for £126, albeit that’s a short term 40%discount and an introductory  price that will also go up.

Gits,  Blooming computers.  Will call them tomorrow and see what they will do, but that seems to be taking the p for a a short call out every couple of years for a flat tyre/buckled wheel from a pothole,  they should do it by MOT declared mileage, we do bugger all each year.

anyone else got any thoughts, good alternatives etc ?

blobb

They do this to long term customers. Join AA for a year and when they do it you next year join the RAC again. Etc... They do the cheap deals for 'new members only'. Just check the autorenewal dates and make the change in good time.

m_c

Alternative is pay for a 'premium' current account.
I pay the Bank of Scotland (aka Halifax) £21 a month, which includes various things, along with AA including At Home and Relay.

Kittyfrisk

I can't say that I have a definitive answer to your question, but I went with 'Start Rescue' https://www.startrescue.co.uk  after an attempt at financial non consensual screwing by the RAC.
* In the interests of balance, the AA had pulled the same renewal stroke on me earlier...
Any possibility of having a mutually beneficial relationship, based on loyalty with any insurance (or other) company is 
long gone, if it ever actually existed.
Do your research & if by any chance you think that Start might be OK for you, let me know & I'll see if there is a benefit you can get by recommendation from a member.
I haven't had cause to use them yet & have zero interest in the company at all, other than being a current customer.

sev112

Thank you, that looks very interesting 

EricTheWeary

I've had Brittania (LV) for years. It's linked to my membership of Boundless (if you are a civil servant, police officer,etc) which gets me a useful discount on a couple of things. I can't remember the exact cost but it ain't £380. I have European cover on my main vehicle and personal cover for me and MrsTheWeary in the UK (ie driving any car). 
It's a bit of a special case I suppose but if anyone works in public service worth a look. 

maharg101

Same here, I told them to stuff it unless they could do it for 200 quid. A quick chat with a supervisor and they come back on and said 205 ok ? Yep. 

RandallFlagg

There is no loyalty in insurance, as above, I have to go through the tedious renewal call every year with AA. I get the inflated double price renewal offer, cross check with the new customer offers from RAC, Green Flag and AA themselves and ask them to price match or I leave.

We have cancelled AA and rejoined as a “new customer” in my wife's name before. 

There must be enough people passively accepting the inflated renewal offers without challenging it to make it worth their while trying it on.

I just checked and we paid £140 in September 2023 with AA for:

Cover for two

Roadside Assistance

National Recovery 

At Home 

Onward Travel

joeW

I don’t use RAC or AA but I can’t help wondering if these auto increases are to make the slightly more than inflation increase more acceptable.  Start at 200 they want to get to 220 (some inflation - now only 2%) and some profit.  So ask for 300 and customer feels like they have won when they argue to 220.  It’s ruins the brand for me and it’s a practise I loath but I suspect it’s an algorithmic solution to what produces the best profit.  Seems horribly short term-ist to me.  

RandallFlagg

joeW said:

I don’t use RAC or AA but I can’t help wondering if these auto increases are to make the slightly more than inflation increase more acceptable.  Start at 200 they want to get to 220 (some inflation - now only 2%) and some profit.  So ask for 300 and customer feels like they have won when they argue to 220.  It’s ruins the brand for me and it’s a practise I loath but I suspect it’s an algorithmic solution to what produces the best profit.  Seems horribly short term-ist to me.  

It is short termist, that's the nature of the contract, 12 months risk that you pay them to take on. Agree the algorithm part, data analytics is the bedrock of the modern insurance industry.

The modern AA is a far cry from the network of motor enthusiasts from a bygone era, it's now owned by a consortium of private equity funds who will want profits.

TTony

sev112 said:

 At Home (our most common use over the years for slow flat tyres), 

Buy yourself a footpump, or a tyre compressor if you're lazy.

Either way, that's £30.  And you don't have to wait for the man in the little van to turn up.