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RAC: Breakdown cover reviews

Name: Breakdown cover
Rating: 1.86 (216 reviews)

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1.86

Based on 216 reviews, last reviewed 29th Aug 2026

No new 5 star reviews

in the past 90 days

11% increase in 1 star reviews

in the past 90 days

12%

81%

Latest highest rating:

5

good pricesgood for money good prices/good communication/reasonable time to solve your problems Reviewed on: 21st August 2026

Latest lowest rating:

1

RAC European Cover NEGLIGENT RAC European Breakdown Insurance. I had a blowout on the autoroute and managed to limp off the autoroute on a complete flat tyre. After 1 hour of spea... Read more Reviewed on: 29th August 2026

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About this product

RAC breakdown cover is available in three levels – Basic, Standard and Extra.

RAC claim to get to most breakdowns in 60 mins or less and say that patrols fix 4/5 breakdowns on the spot. In the myRAC app you can get savings on fuel and tyres. Options are available for vehicle cover, personal cover and family cover.

RAC breakdown cover reviews help you find out what it’s really like to be a customer. If you’ve used RAC before, you can also leave a review and share your experience.

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RAC Breakdown cover reviews (216)

RAC European Cover NEGLIGENT

RAC European Breakdown Insurance. I had a blowout on the autoroute and managed to limp off the autoroute on a complete flat tyre. After 1 hour of speaking to the RAC, they handed me over to RAC France to repeat the exact same information. The RAC said it was not their problem as I had broken down on the motorway and to call emegency services 112. I hadn't, I had managed to get off the motorway through the toll gates and onto a public road. That is why when I called 112, they said I wasn't on the motorway and it wasn't their problem. I spent €1,000 sorting this out and taking 6 hours. My dog had to go to the vets re heatstroke (12 year old dog in 39c for hours all because of the RAC). I hope you read this David Hobday (Head of RAC) because I am taking legal action against you. The RAC left us to rot and almost killed my dog. They are negligent. I went with them as they are cheaper than the AA who I have used before. What a huge mistake. These people take your money but have no intention of helping. The lady on the call in France told me to say to 112 that I had children in the car. How unprofessional to ask me to tell lies. I urge you not to use this uncaring negligent company and use anyone else instead. The service offered by this company on the day was borderline criminal. Reviewed on: 29th August 2026

good pricesgood for money

good prices/good communication/reasonable time to solve your problems Reviewed on: 21st August 2026

Avoid RAC at all costs!

Avoid RAC at all costs! Over promise and mis-selling for breakdown cover and tow service. Raised a complaint with reference no. CC56520139 regarding the company’s over promise about the tow service. After our car broke down on 18 Jul morning, we called RAC for assistance. The staff provided us tow service information and asked if we need break down cover. At that moment, minimal information was provided by the staff. We didn’t have much information about the service and details of the policy. The staff also didn’t mention there is a cancellation charge for the policy. However given that we would like to settle the case soon, we agreed to pay upfront to start the services. After around 2.5 hours, a truck came. The driver asked us the destination. Since we were in the middle of the trip and didn’t know what was available around the stop point. We tried to check with the driver for advice and the garage service nearby. However, he said no information or advice could be provided. This is totally different from what RAC mentioned on its materials on Website that professional advice will be provided by trusted partners. He said what he could do was towing the car to the designation we provided. As a result, we have no choice but to ask him to tow the car to our home area Manchester. Driver said he checked with RAC and it was ok to arrange another truck for that. We then waited for another half an hour. No one came and we called the RAC again to check the status. To our surprise, the staff said Manchester was not covered due to the distance limitation. A surcharge of £600 was required. This is totally nonsense and not what we agreed. After transferring our call to many teams, we finally got no solution on our case with a long for more than 4 hours. The staff told me this was because I bought the policy on that day, some of the cover won’t be available until the next day. This very important information was not provided by the staff who sold the policy to us. With a long conversation which our call was transferred to different teams, the only suggestion for us is to pay £600 to tow our car. I then requested for a full refund of both the tow service and the policy as they were totally not fitting our needs and not matching with the service level promised by RAC. The staff told me that I could only get back the full amount if I cancelled the policy. Again this was not mentioned during the sale of it. The staff also queried about why we cancelled the tow service and asked the driver to leave. Actually, we didn’t asked him to leave. That was the driver said another truck would come and take us to Manchester. Again, only 10 miles cover without any advice on which garage available is totally useless. It was also misleading to ask us to further wait at the point. I can’t see the service quality of “professional and trusted partners” offered by RAC. Now, RAC just agrees to refund the policy premium and rejected to refund the tow fee even they provided towing service. A totally ridiculous and non-professional company. Reviewed on: 18th August 2026

They have stolen £2600 from our account over 5 years.

They have stolen £2600 from our account over 5 years. This is theft. I asked them to sort it and they refused citing that they cant trace where money goes to. They are the most dishonest company I have ever dealt with and I urge you to avoid them at all costs. Reviewed on: 5th August 2026

RAC: Breakdown cover that breaks down.

I pay RAC so I don't get left stranded. When I actually needed them, they completely failed. After hitting a pothole, I was left at the roadside with my two young children. The first patrol didn't arrive for more than 2 hours. Then he realised he had forgotten the hydraulic trolley jack needed to change the tyre. Instead of fixing the problem, he refused to recover us to the town he had just driven from. To make matters even worse, he drove away in such a rush that he left his hydraulic trolley jack under my car while we were still sitting inside with one side of the car raised. He only came back 30 minutes later to collect it. You simply couldn't make this level of incompetence up. By then, I had completely lost confidence in RAC. After around 5 hours of waiting, I had to arrange and pay £250 for my own recovery because RAC couldn't provide the service I was paying for. Their response? An insulting offer of £50 compensation. RAC didn't recover my car. RAC recovered their jack. If you think breakdown cover means help when you actually break down, think again. When it matters most, RAC leaves you stranded. Reviewed on: 30th July 2026

BE VERY CAREFUL.

BE VERY CAREFUL. I had an online quote from the RAC for front disc and pads for my Ford Grand Tourney. The quoting system found the car and proceeded to give me a quote of £249. Very similar to the AA price. I booked the car in to have the job done. The tech turned up on Monday, stripped the car down removing the parts that needed replacing only to find that the parts supplied where the wrong parts. He then rebuilt the car , checked the parts locally and apologised and said he would return the next day between 10-12am to complete the job. Later that day I received an email to say this would now be done on Wednesday and not the Tuesday as said by the Tech. After speaking to the RAC they said it would be Wednesday at the earliest for the job and I would get contacted by another tech to sort the job. Wednesday came and I get a call late morning from a tech named Jay who said " your not gonna like this but the price is now £770" no explanation other than GSF where quoting more for the parts. I asked him to recheck and come back to me as my car had been off the road for 3 days and was costing meoney not working ( private hire vehicle) he didn't call back but text saying nothing he could do and gave me the wrong number to call customer services. Spoke to a nice girl at customer services who explained their was not a lot she could do on the day but escalate a complaint further on and she would pass me through to the tech booking team again. While on hold I contacted the local ford garage who quoted me £264 for genuine ford parts and GSF web site where they ranged from £120-£170 for non genuine parts. Got me thinking that they were going to charge over £500 just to fit the parts. Put through to a lady called Katie who just basically wanted me off the phone and not interested in the price. It was a case of that's the price. End of. She went away and spoke to somebody senior then came back to me and said that it was an inbound call centre and I could not speak to anyone senior even though she had. Again no explanation as to price increase of the job. I said I wanted to talk to someone more senior which her reply was I'm now going to terminate the call as nothing else I can do. Really disappointed in an organisation like the RAC to treat customers this way. It's left me in a really bad situation with a car that's off the road. I must not be the only person they have done this to and makes me question have they done this as they know I'm desperate to have the work done. I would never recommend RAC to anybody else again after this and would advise anyone to tread very careful because apparently it says in the small print they are allowed to change the quote. Reviewed on: 22nd July 2026

Waiting for them two days no one comes and respond o...

Waiting for them two days no one comes and respond on telephone, don’t waste your time and money Reviewed on: 3rd July 2026

Horrendous lie after lie still haven’t brought my ca...

Horrendous lie after lie still haven’t brought my car back to me called 1am and it’s now 18:30 lie after lie Reviewed on: 2nd July 2026

Terrible experience with RAC today.

Terrible experience with RAC today. The mechanic they sent was careless and almost caused severe damage to my engine. I couldn't trust them to finish the job safely, so I had to call out a different mechanic out of pocket. Instead of giving me peace of mind, RAC just caused me extra expense and a massive amount of stress. Avoid at all costs. Reviewed on: 29th June 2026

My experience with RAC was incredibly frustrating fr...

My experience with RAC was incredibly frustrating from start to finish. On 29 April, an engine warning light appeared and the engine began rattling and running unevenly. An RAC mobile mechanic attended and advised that the vehicle was still safe to drive. I booked a service for 1 May, during which the warning light was cleared, but it returned during a journey to Nottingham later that day. On 3 May, a drivetrain warning light appeared and the vehicle entered limp mode. A second mechanic attended on 4 May and identified nine fault codes relating to the VANOS solenoid. Recovery was arranged for the following morning. This is where the real problems started. Recovery was booked for between 07:30 and 08:00 on 5 May, but nobody arrived. Throughout the day I was given multiple revised ETAs, promised callbacks that never happened, and no clear explanation as to why the recovery kept being delayed. By the evening I was told a third-party contractor would attend the following day. The next morning, a tow truck arrived unexpectedly at around 7am with no prior notification. As I was asleep, the driver left and I was told I would have to rebook. After rebooking, I was given another collection time, only to discover later that the recovery had been cancelled without anyone informing me. Again, nobody could explain why. After two days of chasing updates, waiting at home, and repeatedly contacting RAC for information, the vehicle was finally collected at 4:53pm on 6 May. Even the recovery driver questioned why the vehicle was being taken into storage rather than directly home and described the process as "lazy". I am also concerned about the advice I received from the first RAC mechanic. When the engine warning light first appeared and the vehicle was running poorly, I was advised that it remained safe to drive. A few days later, after the vehicle entered limp mode, a second mechanic identified nine faults relating to the VANOS solenoid and recovery was arranged. The vehicle has since required repairs costing approximately £5,500. While I cannot say with certainty whether earlier diagnosis or recovery would have altered the outcome, it is difficult not to question whether the advice that the vehicle was safe to continue driving contributed to the situation becoming significantly worse. What disappointed me most was RAC's response to my complaint. After detailing the delays, missed appointments, poor communication, financial losses, and concerns about the initial advice I was given, the complaint was largely dismissed. RAC refused to reimburse even basic expenses such as meals purchased while I was effectively stranded waiting for recovery over two days. I appreciate that delays can happen, but the repeated missed ETAs, lack of communication, unexplained cancellation of recovery, and dismissive handling of my complaint fell far below the standard of service I expected. Based on this experience, I would have serious reservations about relying on RAC in the future. Reviewed on: 25th June 2026

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