After loddrik’s and some complaining threads over the last few months….
I dumped the AA back in December as I thought their renewal cost was ridiculous, considering I’ve been a member for a good few years but haven’t actually needed to use them for most of that time.

So I’m after your experiences with the recovery service you use? If it’s cheap that would be nice to, but a decent service is what I’m after. I don’t need fancy options, just some-one who’ll get me home (or at least a garage of my choice), not just the closest garage or onwards, just back home.

Autoaid is the cheapest. No experience having to use them though but they are FULL cover for under £40.

You have to pay on card then claim it back so no good for some people.

I use the Tesco full cover service, which I have found excellent when I’ve needed it.

My Bank (RBS) also provides some level of breakdown cover under its Royalties Gold account.

The AA always seem to try and bump my premium up each year.. I normally quote them a competitors price and it soon tumbles. Either that or let it lapse and then renew it, using a cashback site for extra discount..

Currently using the Green Insurance Co.

No idea if it’s any good or not, but it was ~£40 for everything, compared to the £120ish that the AA wanted.

RAC via my bank account (Barclays) for me.
I’ve had to use them twice, including recently when I wrote my car off after hitting some debris on the motorway. Great service, in fact so good the last time that I actually contacted them to say thanks and got a really nice letter back thanking me for my positive comments. 🙂

Both times they’ve turned up in less than 15 minutes; first time they fixed the problem there and then, second time (with the wrecked car) they sorted out all the hard work – picked up the car on a flatbed, gave me a lift back to work, then drove across Manchester on a busy Friday night and dropped the car off at a secure storage depot.

AA or RAC will give you a bigger chance of somebody turning up who has a clue, and will attempt to fix your car there and then.

All the rest mostly use local contractors, who’s ability to fix vehicles varies greatly, but generally in the “it’s stopped going so we’ll just tow it” category.

Oh, and if you want recover home/garage of your choice, make sure you get the relay option, otherwise it’s 10mile max/nearest garage.

I have Autoaid as they are very good value (see http://www.moneysavingexpert.com) and have used them 3 times over the years with no problem.

The only faff is you pay first then claim back

mc – Member
AA or RAC will give you a bigger chance of somebody turning up who has a clue, and will attempt to fix your car there and then.

Ahem, like the AA man who put 2 24V headlight bulb into my g/f’s car… 😉

As mentioned above, look at the AA or RAC prices with the potential for cashback:

http://www.topcashback.co.uk/aa_uk_breakdown/

http://www.topcashback.co.uk/rac_uk_breakdown/

Ahem, like the AA man who put 2 24V headlight bulb into my g/f’s car…

I’m more surprised they had 24v bulbs in the first place.
They certainly never have any when their own trucks need them!

RAC paid for with Tesco vouchers.

I think it can depend where you live as to how long they take – they have been a lot quicker when I have broken down in the City. Have always thought the AA were excellent, and they turn up even quicker if you tell them you are female on your own, deserted country road etc..

and they turn up even quicker if you tell them you are female on your own

Hmmm, don’t think the’re ever gunna fall for that, when I have Mr. on my membership, let alone my voice.. to be fair when I did use the AA, they were very good, but I’ve not called them out in 5 or more years and yet my renewal price goes up every year.

AA and RAC act as lobbying organisations with a pro-car anti public transport agenda.

I’d spend my money elsewhere.

APF

The money goes up each year because its the same as insurance, you need to move about to get the best value.

Since we bought our last car we could have saved about £300 by not getting recovery cover. The last car we did use the recovery cover, however it was always the same problem, solved by rubbing a fuse.

I’d go for RAC, fix more cars roadside than anyone else. Also more patrols per member.

As for price shop around Quidco is good. Mind you they all offer a disounted first year, and put the premiums up over the course of 3 years or so. I guess they’re all just buying in customers.

Same as insurance, buy in the customer attempt to deliver great service and as the premiums rise the customer appreciates what they’re paying for.

what the spider says.

Ok, before I say anything else, Topcashback… My AA cover ended up costing about £8.

And that £8 might well be the best £8 I ever spent, the big red skip developed a cutting-out issue which I’d been driving round for a while, local garage had offered to charge me £100 to stick it on the diagnostic machine and test it… Plus “Oooh could take a while to fix mate, could be expensive”.

So on a trip to Wales it went from infrequent to dangerously common so I stopped, called AA. Wee man turns up, plugs in diagnostic thing, gets fault codes, discovers it’s the crank sensor. No garages open, don’t have relay cover, so though he could have just left me there he spent the next half hour checking it over before finding a bad wire (it’d been twisted when the crank sensor was replaced previously) and fixed it. Perfectly reliable since then, cost, £0.

RAC on the other hand I’ve never been happy with, ranging from “We can’t come out without a house number”- “I’m up a mountain in Scotland, I can see a house but it’s about 20 miles away” “Oh well too bad” to “my bike’s caught fire, I’d like it recovered” “We’ll need to check it to see if it can be ridden” “Uh, it’s been on fire, did I mention that” “Fine we’ll send a van.” Out comes van with no bike trailer, takes one look and says “You need a relay, that’s been on fire”. 7 hours wait from breakdown to pickup.