It never ceases to amaze me how many people I come across who have been members of the AA or RAC for years and years. Every year they just renew without even comparing the price. Unfortunately, businesses, and especially the AA and RAC do not seem to reward loyalty in the least. Every time, without fail, you can get a better price by going on their website (when you factor in cashback).
I must start off by of course saying that there are many breakdown providers nowadays in the UK, not just AA or the RAC. But these two are the largest two and household names that many people would prefer to be with. This is especially true if you are looking at a family membership for breakdown cover.
A friend of mine is currently with the RAC. She received a call today from AA (who she was with previously) asking whether her existing contract is coming up for renewal and whether she wants to switch back to them. The price she was given on the phone was £169 which includes family membership for 4 with National Recovery, At Home and Onward Travel. She is yet to receive her renewal cost from the RAC so we do not know how it compares but I immediately did a quote with both RAC and AA. RAC came to £204.99 and the AA came to £199 so you would think £169 is a good deal (£30 off the internet price).
But this does not take into account cashback. For a £199 AA policy, by clicking through TopCashback you get up to £84.78 (as of 09/09/16) (Quidco offers £75 so not as competitive). This makes the effective cost of the insurance £114.22, considerably better than £169. Of course the cashback isn’t guaranteed and does take some time to come through but as long as you are a new customer and you click through, you shouldn’t have any problems. If you are already with the AA / RAC and you want to stay with them, the best thing to do is sign up for the new family cover with your spouses / partners name. Then there will be no confusion as to whether you are a new or existing customer. Ideally by changing company between them (alternating each year), you totally eliminate that issue.