RAC ripping off existing breakdown customers. sick of it

[lornemalvo]

I just received my renewal for RAC breakdown cover (pretty sure I opted out of this as I never opt in to this). It's gone up from £125 to £190.99, well over 50% increase.
I called to cancel the automatic opt in and to ask why the increase and was told I took it out with an introductory offer. I then asked why then now, after I've called, are you offering to "see what you can do" about the price? Why not give a loyal customer a decent price instead of me having to call to complain? It's an annual insurance policy, not a fking T shirt on a Tenerife market. I don't want to haggle, I just want a fair price. Current policies for newcomers are around £100 with full cover. No doubt they do it because many people just renew for the sake of convenience.

I'm absolutely fking sick of having to be constantly on the ball because companies try every sly, underhanded tactic to rip off their own customers, instead of just dealing in a straightforward, honest way. The greedy bds.

The law was changed to prevent insurance companies disadvantaging existing customers like this for car insurance and home insurance products, does it extend to breakdown insurance policies?

[lornemalvo]

paulrockliffe said:

Dingu said:

No, the new regulations don’t extend to breakdown.

They don't even really extend to Insurance either, they just change the terms of the new policies in non-material ways so that they can renew your out of date policy that is no longer available to new customers at the inflated price.

Doesn't surprise me. I think the real scumbags in life don't wear tracksuits and string vests, they wear grey suits

[lornemalvo]

jeremyh1 said:

vikingaero said:

Most people are lemmings and will grumble about the renewal price and then renew because it's something that most of us need.

Firstly, NEVER NEVER NEVER RENEW. Always be a ho and shop around. There is nothing to be gained to being a loyal customer. If you believe in AA Silver and Gold membership then more fool you. You can get decenty AutoAid cover for less than £70 for a couple which shows how much branded cover costs.

If you MUST to have RAC branded cover then buy via Quidco or Topcashback to effectively halve the cost. At renewal call up and cancel and never get involved in negotiation/discussions. Then take out a new AA policy via Quidco/TCB. Repeat every year. (Caveat - cashback can take a few months to be paid back to you and the cashback site takes a standard £5 cut).

An illustration of TCB discounts:
£130 cashback for fully paid breakdown policies with a value of £250 and over
£90 cashback for fully paid breakdown policies with a value of £200 - £249.99
£75 cashback for fully paid breakdown policies with a value of £153 - £199.99
£66.50 cashback for fully paid breakdown policies with a value of £123 - £152.99

https://www.quidco.com/rac-uk-breakdown-cover/

The RAC must be rogering the OP from behind because they have 50% off for new customers: https://www.rac.co.uk/

Its very easy to say this but a lot of us just don't have the time to spend Victor Meldrewing over such things
It is just easier for me to pay and enjoy what spare time I have doing the things I actually want to do .

like a lot of people on here I work hard and lots of hours for the rewards and life cant be wasted on this

Yet you have time to browse forums. I worked incredibly hard for 50 years and have the rewards to show for it, but I don't want to waste money by throwing at at greedy, global corporate tts who use sharp practices with their customers. Sometime principles count beyond pound coins.

[lornemalvo]

Pica-Pica said:

A perennial issue. I use Start Rescue. £47.54 for two cars for this year (66 plate 335d and 13 plate Fabia), and then £30 per call out.
I was with RAC for many years, then when I went to NFU Mutual Insurance, that included breakdown. Then I left NFU for LV=, and the 335d 3 year warranty covered breakdown, so only the Fabia to cover. Now, still with LV= but with Start Rescue for breakdown. I can’t recall the last time one of our cars has needed breakdown or recovery service. Certainly not in the Fabia’s 10 year life.

That seems like a good compromise if you run well maintained cars, which we do.

[lornemalvo]

Boxster5 said:

Cold said:

Megaflow said:

NS66 said:

You wait till you have to call them out ( hopefully not) and you will see how bad they really are!!!

What he said. Last time I had the misfortune to use them was because of a broken gear cable, from my initial phone call to actually making it home on a recovery truck, which was inevitable, despite them sending a van first, was 5 hours!

Five hours? That's a blink of an eye. I've been with them for over twenty years and earlier on this year I called them out for the first time ever.
I was driving a car back down the M40 when it suffered an alternator failure. It was overcast and raining and the car wouldn't have enough juice in the battery to complete the approx 130 mile journey.
So I stopped at Warwick services to make the call instead of grinding to a halt on the side of the road somewhere.

Thirty six hours. A day and a half. Apart from the occasional automated text message there was zero communication. Each piece of information I received about the recovery was from me phoning them every two hours to listen to another excuse.
They did refund the cost of the Travelodge and made a goodwill payment of £100 but it still took 36 hours to do the 130 mile journey.

Yikes that’s horrendous. I was driving my wife’s car back from the main dealer following a major service - 10 mile down the road on the motorway, oil pressure warning light came on saying stop driving as soon as possible. Called the RAC as dealer didn’t want to know - got a call within 30 minutes saying they’d be there within 20 minutes only to be then told as the car was an automatic and 4 wheel drive, they couldn’t recover as they didn’t have a flatbed so were passing me onto a third party. 4 hours later, freezing cold as I could sit in the car due to the hard shoulder & bursting for a pee, another recovery company finally turned up. As it was now 8:00pm at night car had to go to their compound then delivered to the dealer who eventually diagnosed the fault as a faulty oil filter sensor. Crap service from RAC who after I got home that night sent me a text saying they would be with me within 3 hours - they haven’t got a clue.

If I understand your post right, you sat in the car on the hard shoulder? If so, that's an insanely bad idea.

[lornemalvo]

Boxster5 said:

lornemalvo said:

Boxster5 said:

Cold said:

Megaflow said:

NS66 said:

You wait till you have to call them out ( hopefully not) and you will see how bad they really are!!!

What he said. Last time I had the misfortune to use them was because of a broken gear cable, from my initial phone call to actually making it home on a recovery truck, which was inevitable, despite them sending a van first, was 5 hours!

Five hours? That's a blink of an eye. I've been with them for over twenty years and earlier on this year I called them out for the first time ever.
I was driving a car back down the M40 when it suffered an alternator failure. It was overcast and raining and the car wouldn't have enough juice in the battery to complete the approx 130 mile journey.
So I stopped at Warwick services to make the call instead of grinding to a halt on the side of the road somewhere.

Thirty six hours. A day and a half. Apart from the occasional automated text message there was zero communication. Each piece of information I received about the recovery was from me phoning them every two hours to listen to another excuse.
They did refund the cost of the Travelodge and made a goodwill payment of £100 but it still took 36 hours to do the 130 mile journey.

Yikes that’s horrendous. I was driving my wife’s car back from the main dealer following a major service - 10 mile down the road on the motorway, oil pressure warning light came on saying stop driving as soon as possible. Called the RAC as dealer didn’t want to know - got a call within 30 minutes saying they’d be there within 20 minutes only to be then told as the car was an automatic and 4 wheel drive, they couldn’t recover as they didn’t have a flatbed so were passing me onto a third party. 4 hours later, freezing cold as I could sit in the car due to the hard shoulder & bursting for a pee, another recovery company finally turned up. As it was now 8:00pm at night car had to go to their compound then delivered to the dealer who eventually diagnosed the fault as a faulty oil filter sensor. Crap service from RAC who after I got home that night sent me a text saying they would be with me within 3 hours - they haven’t got a clue.

If I understand your post right, you sat in the car on the hard shoulder? If so, that's an insanely bad idea.

No sorry that was meant to say could NOT sit in the car and I was behind the safety barrier - luckily I had a jacket & a beanie hat but still freezing (it was around March time)

Some choice - being rear ended by an artic or getting hypothermia. As bad as that is, what really scare me is it happening on a "smart motorway". Possibly the worst transport decision ever made.