RAC Breakdown any good?

[Eggybreadwithnuts]

Always used AA, really happy with them as used a few times but price as trebbled this year! Cheapest they will come down to is £128 per year

RAC is quoting me £80

Anyone have any experience of using RAC?

RAC are fine. No different to AA.

I changed to AA after years with RAC for the sane reason as you’re changing to RAC @Eggybreadwithnuts. I think they all do this silly pricing rubbish after quite a few years with them and you end up switching as a result.

Have you had to use them?
Paid £80 last year now £220 but will reduce to £128. But RAC saying £80.

I like the AA as you can use their app had to use them a few times and always comms well.

Yes, I’ve used both. Zero difference except for the branding in my experience.

They're great. Always used them

RAC & AA have saved me several times
All good, no complaints

I never auto renew, I swap each year

I bought the cover through my insurance. Broke down whilst on holiday (in the UK) and they came out in less than hour and fixed the issue there and then.

RAC left my 17 year old daughter at the side of the road for 6 hours. They said they would be there within an hour, then 2 minutes before the time was up sent a text to say it would be another hour. This repeated another 4 times until they finally came…..

I'm just gonna leave this here...
Car broke down in Chiswick, west London and husband rang RAC at 8pm. Two hours passed with no sign of a breakdown truck. Fast forward another six hours and many phone calls and he decided to leave the keys and make his own way home (calling them to let them know, as it was 2am by this time). They eventually picked up the car at 8am. We'd let them know our preferred garage in west London but unfortunately they decided to take it elsewhere, to a garage in Potters Bar, 20 miles away, which didn't have the means of fixing the issue with the automatic gear box. And there it stayed - for 10 days, waiting to be towed to west London.
When we called customer services, the response was: "It's not unusual to wait six days for a tow."
Needless to say we are no longer with RAC.

Ummm thanks all...sticking with AA

Was with the RAC and was left on the side of a freezing motorway for 6 hours despite telling them I was a woman alone
When I complained there was absolutely no apology and I am terrified of driving on motorways ever since

After braking down in the early early pre sun rise hours on a motor way! This year the rac were fab, even though they couldn’t fix us road side they got us somewhere safe till a full loader could take us home as we have a 7 seater so many body’s. They where lovely and we could have used onward travel if we were not going on holiday for longer than the inward travel would have been for.

Even our own local garage still cannot work out why our car failed or continues to so no fault of the rac there either.

I had a bad experience with the RAC recently in that the time they were going to come kept being put back. It started out as they were coming at 9.40 am and was between 3 and 5pm when I gave up. I was in a car park so a safe place but it was a rubbish experience. I separately arranged for the AA to come and change the battery the next day. The AA guy said all the services were struggling massively to get rescue staff with the right skills. The AA is putting quite a lot of effort into apprentices to try to increase the pipeline for the future. He told me that the AA has more rescue staff than the RAC.

I’ve only had one good experience with RAC and that was when I broke down on the bend of a slip road in a very dangerous position and they were literally there within minutes, slightly panicked themselves, sorted and towed home within the hour. But that was six years ago and then two years ago I changed to AA after RAC left me on the side of the road for 8 hours, then phoned me to say they couldn’t get to me at all that night. Made my own arrangements to get the car home at cost to me and cancelled my membership the next day.

No!! RAC take AGES to arrive unlike AA who have always been brilliant. RAC also have a terrible and unhelpful European cover that I will never ever use again. AA all the way! They have never let me down.

AA and RAC both let me down over the years, as a woman stranded alone with young children. I won't use either now. I prefer the smaller companies that tend to give jobs to local recovery agents. Much cheaper too!

Recently had a terrible experience with the RAC, subject of a complaint that they are ignoring. 9 hours before they came out, managed to lose the car for 3 days while relaying it home and now don’t answer my complaint emails. Will never give them a penny ever again.

Never used AA but have always found RAC to be good. I used them for a breakdown only yesterday - they came out within 90 min (to a car parked in a safe location) and dealt with things very pleasantly & efficiently.

I’ve tried them both and also green flag who were the quickest to come out both times. Unfortunately they also trebled the price on renewal so back with the AA. Would never go back to RAC, twice my daughter was in a remote area on her own and they expected her to wait for over 6 hours!

The response time isnt a standard thing for every person in every spot in the country at every minute of the every day for any of the breakdown services

In my family in recent times I think we've called the RAC in three different occasions and the service was great each time.

For price reasons I'm now with the AA, no need to call them out yet but I wouldn't assume I'll have the exact same experience as anyone posting here, I just hope it would be good

They're all much the same really, the response time totally dependent on how busy they happen to be at the time you call them. I actually had to call the RAC today and they came after 35 minutes and got me back on the road. My colleague waited 6 hours on the side of the M62 for the AA a few weeks ago.
I always had Green Flag until the price got stupid, my quickest wait for them was 2 1/2 hours.
So, in a nutshell they can all be good or terrible depending on the time, area and how busy they are.

DH waited 8 hours beside a dual carriageway last night, in the pissing rain. RAC managed to "lose" his location despite him giving them the What3Words, a Google pin and the identifier number of the emergency layby. This is the second time they've left him stranded for hours. Will be cancelling membership shortly.