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RAC: Breakdown cover reviews

Name: Breakdown cover
Rating: 1.75 (173 reviews)

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1.49

Based on 173 reviews, last reviewed 9th Oct 2025

200% increase in 5 star reviews

in the past 90 days

125% increase in 1 star reviews

in the past 90 days

14%

78%

Latest highest rating:

5

Reliable and cheaper I have not had to use RAC this year but I have in the past and they came in a reasonable time. They are cheaper than the AA . I onl... Read more Reviewed on: 12th September 2025

Latest lowest rating:

1

Let down. While driving along the motorway at night, I hit a road sign lying abandoned in the middle of the lane. Luckily I wasn't injured, and the vehicle was ... Read more Reviewed on: 9th October 2025

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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 (173)

** 1/10 Absolute Disgrace Years of Loyalty, Zer...

** 1/10 Absolute Disgrace – Years of Loyalty, Zero Support in My Hour of Need** After being a loyal RAC customer for years, I finally needed their **Premier Rescue cover** when my car broke down on the M5 with my wife and 1-year-old baby—only to be met with incompetence, heartless bureaucracy, and outright lies. The mechanic **guessed** (without diagnosis) that I’d "overfilled the oil," towed my car to a garage that couldn’t inspect it for days, and left me stranded. Despite paying for **full onward travel cover (3 days)**, RAC **deliberately made it impossible**—forcing me to beg for **one-day extensions** before a shockingly rude agent ("Karen") abruptly cut me off, falsely claiming I "caused the damage myself" (my garage STILL hasn’t confirmed the issue!). This left me **car-less for critical trips**—missing work, cancelling my elderly parents’ airport ride, and abandoning weekend plans. Even Enterprise admitted they’ve **"heard this story before"** with RAC screwing over customers. The final insult? RAC **lied to Enterprise**, saying I "admitted fault" to dodge their obligations, then left me bouncing between departments like a ping-pong ball. For a company that boasts "rescue," they **abandoned my family in crisis**, ignored their own policy, and showed **zero humanity**. Never again—**avoid RAC like the plague**. Reviewed on: 15th August 2025

RAC badly damaged my caravan

The RAC patrol man attended my breakdown at about 11am on the 15th july and could not fix the problem so they had to recover us and our caravan we were towing to our home address. I was informed this would be a relay recovery using 3 different companies doing a leg of the journey each. It was the last company that caused all the damage. The first company turned up about 4pm put our car on the bed of the lorry and towed the caravan. He took us about 30 miles. They were very professional. The next company arrived about 7pm and did the same, car on lorry bed and towed the caravan, also very professional, he took us about an hour to the last pick up of our recovery home. This was at birchhanger service station. The next company arrived about 9.30pm but his tow bar was unsuitable to tow my caravan. So he wanted to take us and the car home and leave my caravan in the services and he would come back and put it on the bed of the lorry and recover it home. I would not allow this, has im pretty sure my caravan would not have been there when he got back. At this point I spoke to the rac and they got back onto the recovery company they were using and it was decided they would send another vehicle to tow the caravan and our car would go on the bed of the other recovery lorry. The second recovery lorry turned up about 12.30am. He then informed me he did not even have a tow bar fitted. He said he will put the caravan on the bed of the lorry. I did say at this point are you sure you won't damage my caravan putting it onto the bed of the lorry. He said it would be fine. They started to winch the caravan onto the lorry when I heard a scraping from the back of the caravan has it was scraping along the floor. Theybstopped winching and let it back off the lorry and put skids under the back of the caravan and started winching again. It was half way up the lorry when i walked to the front of the caravan and they had bent the jockey wheel to such an extent the caravan was now stuck they had also cracked the cover over the A frame. They now had to jack up the caravan on the tow hitch to get the jockey wheel straight. First recovery driver got his jack out but that did not work so the other driver got his jack from his vehicle that was also broken. They now had to call another recovery vehicle out to bring a jack that worked. They then jacked up the caravan on the tow hitch which they bent. I said that the lorry bed was not long enough for the caravan there was too much overhang. They said it was fine. The third recovery driver then came up to them and said it was illegal towing with that much overhang and he would not do it, the drivers response was it will be ok. The drivers were laughing and joking, not caring that they had caused so much damage. I was very surprised that the RAC uses a company that does not have the correct equipment for the job, does not even have a working jack between 2 recovery vehicles and seems to think it is funny that they have damaged my caravan. We eventually got home at 5.30am on the 16th. After phoning the RAC and putting in a complaint and explaing the situation and that i was going on holiday in 2 weeks so they needed to get the caravan fixed or hire me one. They have not responded I asked them to transport the caravan to the caravan service center to get fixed they never responded so I had to pay to get it recovered to the caravan service center. The damage will be in the region of £1500 plus the expense of getting it taken the the service center and all the sress of it and missing out on our holiday. I am totally disgusted with the way they have handled this situation. I got the rac package through my banks travel pack the bank have also complained to the rac about this, they have also not had a responce. Next step will be the Ombudsman. I thought a national company of the RAC standing would have acted differently and sorted the problem out and apologised for all the trouble and stress the company they used have caused. Reviewed on: 11th August 2025

I recently booked a paid diagnostic service through...

I recently booked a paid diagnostic service through RAC and was left extremely disappointed. The technician arrived but failed to conduct a proper fault diagnosis on my vehicle’s air conditioning issue. Basic checks such as testing the power supply to the compressor, relay function, and electrical faults were completely ignored. Instead, I was told “it could be the compressor” and “if it were my car, I would just replace it.” This vague and dismissive approach is completely unacceptable from a company that claims to offer professional diagnostics. I paid for answers not guesswork. To make matters worse, the mechanic closed the case without identifying the actual fault. I was left exactly where I started: no fix, no clarity, and out of pocket. If I wanted speculation, I could have gone to an untrained garage for half the price. RAC’s service felt like a marketing con more about ticking boxes than actually helping the customer. I will be escalating this to the Motor Ombudsman, and I strongly advise others to seek proper diagnostic specialists instead. Extremely dissatisfied. I expected far better from RAC. Reviewed on: 18th July 2025

Terrible company, don't bother.

Terrible company, pay almost £100 a year for essentially f*** all, had an awful experience with them and they wouldn't give me any compensation and on top of that it's £35 just to cancel the membership. Reviewed on: 11th June 2025

Excellent service from start to finish.

Excellent service from start to finish. Logged my breakdown through the RAC app and was allocated assistance within 5 minutes. The patrol officer; Matt called to advise me that he’d be with me in 20 minutes. He was true to his word and was simply superb; engaging, friendly, knowledgeable and a great ambassador for the RAC with my battery being replaced as part of my cover policy. I made the mistake of changing breakdown provider last year but won’t make that mistake again. The additional charge for key, tyre & battery cover gives me absolute peace of mind and proves that you “get what you pay for”. Great work RAC!!! Reviewed on: 8th June 2025

Waited in two days to get my vehicle recovered to a...

Waited in two days to get my vehicle recovered to a garage, over which I wasn’t given one update unless I called them. Called six times and was given different arrival estimates each time. Two days of work missed and they simply couldn’t have cared a less. Don’t use them - absolutely dreadful. Reviewed on: 28th May 2025

Be aware when thinking about using RAC Service Maint...

Be aware when thinking about using RAC Service Maintenance and Repair...during my recent MOT I had an advisory in relation to binding NSR and OSR brakes. My main dealer quoted £129 including VAT but said it might be cheaper if it didn't take the full hour. MOT & Service World in Horndean quoted £108 including VAT. RAC SMR £222 including VAT...no wonder they keep offering me £40 of a service...that's shocking over double the price of my local garage and almost double that of a main dealer... Reviewed on: 16th May 2025

Extremely disappointing experience

Extremely disappointing experience – never again. I booked a service with the RAC and while the mechanic arrived late, he was lovely and seemed to do a great job—except for one critical issue. The next time I drove the car, the window grill flew off mid-drive and hit the windscreen. I had to crawl home and then spent over 4 hours on the phone trying to get help. This turned into an incredibly stressful ordeal. I was left without a car for over a week. Most of the people I spoke to were genuinely kind and really tried to help—but it’s clear that RAC’s internal systems are completely disjointed. I was told the mechanic hadn’t touched the grill (he later admitted he had), I was passed from pillar to post, and responses to emails were delayed by days. In the end, I had to pay a man up the road £50 to secure the grill just to get the car to a proper garage, where it cost me a further £116 to fully fix the issue. RAC have now offered me £50 compensation, which is frankly insulting. I used to think of RAC as a trustworthy, reliable company—but this experience has completely changed my view. I feel very sorry for their staff, who clearly care and try to help, but they’re let down by a disorganised and unresponsive system. I won’t ever be using RAC again. I’m sure when things go smoothly they’re fine—but when something goes wrong, they’re worse than useless. Reviewed on: 8th May 2025

AWFUL CUSTOMER SERVICE!! Avoid AVOID!

Awful Customer Service I installed new front brake disks and brake pads. The disks were warped and they were causing the car to vibrate when braking at high speeds. One of the new brake pads sensors was not installed properly and it fell out. Everytime you phone RAC, the operators will say that they are waiting on managament team. I called so many times and always they keep saying that I will get a call back and I never did. After I left a complaint, they came and checked it, and said that the brakes are fine. The problem is that they only vibrate at high speeds so obviously, them testing it for 5 minutes on a residential area with 20mph speed limit won't prove anything. They charged me a refundable £75 and told me to do the wheel balance and if that does not help, they will give me the money back and get another booking. Well I did it and it changed nothing and guess what when I called to tell them, they keep saying that they are waiting for management team to approve it again and I am getting nowhere. Because I mostly drive the car around the town I can put up with the vibrations, which are not an issue at slow speeds but here I am 6 months later, with the same brakes and no one coming to check them. They completely ignored the online complaints and only called me one time when I was at work and got no follow up emails or messages. So if something goes wrong, don't expect much, their 12 months warranty is useless. Tried to save some money by not losing a day of work to go change the brake disks myself and in the end I lost another day of work, the "refundable" £75 and more money on the useless wheel balance. Date of experience: 25 October 2024 Reviewed on: 2nd May 2025

Is Your Loyalty Costing You? My RAC Wake-Up Call:

Today, I found myself battling the unexpected price hike in the world of breakdown services... For the past year, £15.99 per month covered breakdown for the entire family. Then, today's shock: £62.10 per month – a staggering, unannounced increase of nearly 300% after many years of continuous family membership. A year ago, I'd already fought a similar surge to get back to the "new customer" rate. Enough. I'm done being a victim of corporate tactics that penalise loyalty. The phone call was made, cancellation confirmed, despite the predictable offer to reduce the price. But the trust is gone. Why the annual haggling? Why is my long-term loyalty worth less than a new customer lured in by a deal I can't have? This feels fundamentally wrong. Dear RAC Shareholders: I'm not a child to be subjected to a nearly 300% price hike per month. You aren't doing me a favour. I'm buying a service, and I'll buy it elsewhere, at a fair price. A business model that doesn't seem to value long-term customers is one I can no longer support. This isn't just about money; it's about respect and integrity. I'm choosing to support companies that value relationships. This experience with RAC has reinforced my commitment to finding businesses that operate with fairness at their core. Moving forward, the search for a breakdown provider that understands true customer value begins now. If you're an RAC customer, I urge you to check your bill and question any significant price increases. There are likely better, more transparent options out there! Anyone else experienced loyalty penalties? Any recommendations for fair family cover? Reviewed on: 1st May 2025

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