I've been putting off getting cover for ages so I'd thought I'd ask who would be the best to go for, The AA or RAC. If someone could give me pros and cons of either company what would be great.

Thanks in advance

Martyn

I'm with the AA.

I've never had any problem with them.

I've used both over the years extensivly due to buying old unreliable cars.

If I had to use of them again it would be the RAC as the AA allowed me 8 call outs within a 12month period and then told me I had to buy another 1 year policy where-as the RAC never complained about how many times I called them out.

I used to always use RAC until they decided they didn't like Ireland anymore.... i've just had standard insurance co breakdown cover since

I've used both over the years extensivly due to buying old unreliable cars.

If I had to use of them again it would be the RAC as the AA allowed me 8 call outs within a 12month period and then told me I had to buy another 1 year policy where-as the RAC never complained about how many times I called them out.

What about response times? On average who was the quickest to get to you or was it about the same?

I've just canned my AA cover because my HSBC account includes RAC option 1 (They'll take you where you were heading, or home).

My Experience with the AA has been so/so. One call out saw a guy trying to revive a golf mk2 that had lost all water and over heated.. He didn't get it going but did spend 2 hours trying (I think he was enjoying him self)... So big thumbs up for that.

Recently came a-cropper in the snow, charged me £102 one off fee for recovery as it was not technically a breakdown.. I can understand there position on this but it still made me feel let down "the 4th emergency service".. Naaa, not in this case as I waited 4 hours and then cancelled the pick up (though.. it WAS that Sunday/Monday when everything stopped because of the snow) they must have been sooooooooooo busy.

I actually prefer Britannia rescue..

with the AA, not had a problem with the Fabia, touches wood, but when i had problems with a couple of Fiats owned , the AA were most helpful

was a RAC member for a year , came free with car insurance , but never had to use them , so no experience

I'm with the AA, got the full package for a quarter of the price with a promo that was posted out to me.

It's also quarter of the price if you pay using Tesco clubcard vouchers, essentially that would mean free!

happy days!

I was gonna post up the same question myself...... great minds think alike (and obviously cannot make decisions for themselves! :P)

I have been with the RAC for 3 years now, and have so far, not had to call them out - as a benefit for no call outs, i'm currently recieving a 30% discount if i should choose to renew.

However, i also have an AA credit card that has accumulated £95 of AA points that i 'think' i can use on AA breakdown cover......... So, i could get the AA cover for virtually nothing this year.

So i need to weigh up if it's worth me throwing away the discount that i have built up so far with the RAC in favour of one years free cover with the AA.

What would others choose to do in this situation? and does the AA reward customers with discounts for no call outs?

Stay with the RAC and spend the AA vouchers on something else you would use IMHO.

If the AA vouchers are only useful for that one thing, then it depends on the total cost IMHO, as I assume you would lose the 30% next year if you don't renew this one.

When I had the Golf, I was with the AA. The response times were really good and iirc they used to send a text with an ETA. One chap was brilliant, really knew his stuff but I remember another one being quite rubbish.

Now the Fabia has hit the 3 yr mark I have taken up the offer of RAC basic cover with my insurance policy. No experience of them as yet (touches some wood!).

Sister has been with Tesco for years. she's found it good.

Might be an option if you are looking for basic cover.

Moneysavingexpert site also has a section on breakdown cover.

I was advised by a recovery driver to avoid them both and go with green flag, he said he contracts for them all and they are by far the best. I am still with the AA though :P

I was with the AA until recently. My membership was full member with all the perks but when I needed the car recovered 10 miles to a garage they were going to charge £105+VAT! I got a local firm to do it for £70 so the AA didn't even give a preferential rate to a member. They told me that as the car had not broken down, but was damaged, it was not covered for free recovery. I've since signed up to the RAC as I believe they will offfer this service for free to members. Boo to the AA.

I've heard some not very good things about the AA since they got private equity purchased and torn apart a few years back.

What about response times? On average who was the quickest to get to you or was it about the same?

Personally I would say it was about the same although the RAC seemed to employ much happier people.

I did leave both of these and went with Green Flag for a few years and they were really helpfull on the 1 time we needed them, I'm now with Flux Rescue as I can lump it as part of my insurance.

Interesting comments on here re RAC. I have found them a bit pants to be honest. My last Octavia decided to split a coolant hose when I was on holiday. I stopped - worked out what was wrong, called them out - 2 1/2 hours later they turned up after ringing them a number of times. They don't carry spare coolant hose - so they decided to bodge the old one together. They didn't carry any coolant - so luckily I wasn't far from a garage and had to go and fetch some water! Not overly impressed.

My dad then had problems with a coolant hose - again waited 2 hours to come out (although we were at home this time), replaced the dodgy clip (but then didn't tighten it properly) - so I ended up under his car a few days later to sort it out!

To be fair both engineers said they were busy and they were both pleasant.

I was thinking of changing to the AA this year - be interested to see other comments about RAC.

I had great sevice from green flag in the past.

But for some time now have used co-op insurance that comes with breakdown included.

Then got a new Skoda. did not need the co-op breakdown bit because of the Skoda assist thing.

Here's the interesting bit, when I re do the co-op insurance for the new Skoda and opt out of the free breakdown bit, the price comes down by about £15. Still that makes the breakdown bit cheap.

No one has commented about how good or bad the Skoda breakdown is.

Had called out the AA once, not a problem, were with me within 15 minutes, and even gave me a ride to the local motor factors to pick up a replacement part!