I have been with the AA for a long time , but I’ve just received my new quote and wow .
For me, my wife and daughter (17)
Roadside 127.10
Home start 114.13
Relay. 119.48
Family cover. 209.50
Now this doesn’t even include my son (20)
Whilst I’ve never been let down by them , this is an extortionate amount and before I go back to them and get a better price ,who do you use and what do you pay , last year it was 339.67 wow that is a massive increase
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Britannia Rescue has done me for years but only ever for two cars.
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I'm with start rescue, been with them for about 5 years. I think I pay 100 quid for 2 cars.
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Compare the Market breakdown service.
tinyurl.com/4k67b54y
I have found that adding it to House insurance is one of the cheapest ways of doing it.
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For a few years I had the everything AA cover, including breakdown repair costs (£500), on my Merc I use for work and the renewal every year has been around £350 and fairly epic phone battles got it down to around £200. Until last renewal where they wouldn't drop under £300.
Just sold the car and with great joy cancelled the cover (it was monthly renewal).
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At Home? not required, call an uber if journey really needed.
Relay? really needed? think about it then dump it - call an uber when needed.
All you need is roadside/recovery.
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My new car comes with free AA membership, incl Homestart, Roadside Assistance, Recovery and Onward Mobility.
Apparently this is maintained if you take it to MG for servicing (around £80 for 1st year if under 10k, and I think the same every year till about year 5).
The AA also can cope with out-of-fuel EVs - they take them to the nearest charging point apparently.
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If you have a FlexPlus current account with Nationwide at £13 per month breakdown cover, worldwide travel cover and mobile insurance is included. From March the breakdown cover will be provided by the AA
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That seems a good deal riddler.
Though in the past I have had "free" travel insurance with premium credit cards and the cover was not as comprehensive and inclusive as a dedicated policy.
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Get one off the autoaid type companies that cover the car for all that for about 50 or 60 quid.
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>> Get one off the autoaid type companies that cover the car for all that for
>> about 50 or 60 quid.
>>
Has that jumped up a lot in price? I suppose it's quite a few years since I used them but I'm sure it was only £20.
Last edited by: Bill Payer on Sun 30 Jan 22 at 22:13
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My Skoda came with all that stuff including European for the first three years. It's just turned three last week. Skoda offered to extend all the options for £90 (one year), which I took up.
Though it's branded as Skoda Assist they are quite open about it being the AA underneath, and indeed my bank statement shows the AA.
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Did exactly the same thing for my VW.... new to buying recovery so I thought £90 was ok, I suspect I should have taken up the offer of a two year deal because I can't believe it will still be the same price in years time.
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>> Did exactly the same thing for my VW.... new to buying recovery so I thought
>> £90 was ok, I suspect I should have taken up the offer of a two
>> year deal because I can't believe it will still be the same price in years
>> time.
>>
VWs only come with a year from new - whch annoyed me with the first one we bought as it replaced a SEAT and that had 5yrs cover. It never occured to me the roadside cover wouldn't at least match the 3yr warranty.
I've bought further cover for the VW in 2yr chunks - but have just taken the VW All-In package, which includes roadside assistance, so the car has duplicated cover for a year. Also annoying!
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Mercedes Assist (RAC) also expires after 3 years as well, but as long as you continue to have it serviced at MB it is renewed ‘free’. I say free, as MB servicing is generally on the high side, compared to BMW and VAG at least! But, the cover is pan-European, comprehensive and if you keep up the service history they’ll keep renewing for 30 years. But, the service the RAC actually deliver can be poor…
Edited to add, for non manufacturer branded cover it’s also worth checking your car insurance provider I’d have thought - I know LV offered it at with the renewal quote and, from memory, it was reasonably priced. Service actually provided by Green Flag I think.
Last edited by: PeterS on Mon 31 Jan 22 at 07:42
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Around £60 Green Flag covers my CRV for the full Monty Cover (ex European)
Are they any good? - I do not know as I have never called them.
The last time I needed roadside assistance was in the late 90s twice in 3/4 months - a diesel MB C Class that I thought would run for mega miles - it didn't - parts & labour were huge £580 for a wiper motor + fitting, fuel pump £1100, the next thing to go was the car.
Replaced with my Mazda Xedos which I had for nearly 15 years.
Like all my Japanese built cars in the last 27 years they have not broken down at the roadside and only minimal repairs due age eg bushes,
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I’ve never used Green Flag either, but the only time I’ve needed MB Assist has been for punctures which, in theory at least, ought to be a quick/easy fix but in both cases ended up being more drawn-out than necessary. Though, to be fair MB picked up the taxi/hotel costs incurred as a consequence of the punctures (under the breakdown/recovery cover) which I don’t suppose would have been the case with an standalone RAC product.
From memory I’ve been stranded at the roadside 5 times, twice because of accidents, twice punctures and once a breakdown, despite often running older cars alongside our ‘normal’ ones. The one that let me down was an almost new Nissan Almera (a National hire car) in 1999, but as it was quickly replaced by an Astra (G) I wasn’t too disappointed. The Nissan suffered a clutch failure and was undriveable - it was a hire car so definitely the potential for driver abuse, but it was only a few months old and failed suddenly, so probably not.
Quite a few cars have had non wear and tear issues though; an almost new BMW 535d had a faulty steering angle sensor of some sort that disabled the stability control, though the car was still drivable. A 2 year old Audi A6 (1.8T) had a faulty turbo, again still drivable. One of our Meganes needed a replacement coil pack. The 20 year old A2 needed an alternator. My Toyota Altezza in Japan needed a new minidisc multichanger (there’s a dead-end bit of innovation!) after 6 months. The A3 e-tron had a replacement mechatronic unit under warranty, and a sat nav antenna. The Merc has had a replacement hood under warranty to fix an alignment issue with the tonneau cover bit. All reads like a tale of woe really!! I’d guess it covers between 750k ~ 850k miles though
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Been with the RAC for at least 15 years or more now. I used to piggyback onto my dad's RAC cover, which made it cheaper by going halves on the membership costs.
I took over the policy in 2010 when he passed away.
Every year I have the same conversation with them about an increased renewal fee, asking why has it gone up from last year, etc. The usual haggling of prices that seems the norm now for any renewal.
Currently my cover with RAC is:
Roadside, Recovery, At Home.
24/7 roadside and home rescue.
Unlimited tow anywhere in the UK.
Plus a 20-mile taxi home.
Extras - Free Key Replace.
Last December they wanted to increase the price from £89.99 to £120. During the haggle, they first offered me 15 months membership for the price of 12. I pointed out to them that in 15 months time I would then be expected to pay even more to renew again. After having a conversation with his manager, he then came back with another offer which was the same price as I'm currently paying, £89.99, and a price freeze meaning next years renewal will be the same price as this year.
Incidentally I've been paying £89.99 a year for the last 5 or 6 years.
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I think I pay £26 a year via my house insurance to, I think, Green Flag. I have considered self insuring, but thought that I like the comfort of knowing what number to ring if I should break down.
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>> FlexPlus current account with Nationwide at £13 per month breakdown cover, worldwide travel cover and
>> mobile insurance is included
Virgin Money do something very similar for £14.50 a month. Green Flag provide the breakdown cover for any family member in any vehicle. We were paying £300 for slightly more limited AA cover and the same again for travel insurance excluding winter sports, so it was an easy choice.
Last edited by: Dave_ on Tue 1 Feb 22 at 21:51
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Road recovery services - Bromptonaut
