I took out monthly RAC membership through the offers bit of the app when I upgraded to Monzo Premium. Along with travel insurance it was one of the main reasons I chose to pay £15 a month to Monzo. The offer for Monzo paid customers was £7.50/month for their “Advanced” level. This morning I have had a letter from the RAC saying that from next month my premium will jump from £7.50 to £11.17 each month, a rise of almost 50%. The letter says this is due to inflation and the price of fuel. Both are significant to everybody right now, but hopefully transitory. I wonder if the RAC will be so quick to drop their premiums, and by so much, when hopefully fuel prices return to a more normal level.
I will be shopping around for breakdown cover now, rather than pay the higher fees because £134 a year really doesn’t seem like a good offer. And, sadly, as a result I think I will be downgrading my Monzo Premium to the free tier too, as one of the main benefits for me is no longer available. That and the savings interest rate not having kept up with competitors. It seems daft to be paying Monzo money now to take up “offers” that I could get on the open market without paying a fee.
On the plus side, for anyone sticking around with the RAC, you will now get a free hot drink from Greggs once a month, so, umm, that’s all fine then!
This is usually the norm tbf, after your 12 months contract is up, the prices increase. Like you say make sure you shop around as there’s always a cheaper price. Try the competitors and if you want to stay with RAC, ring them and say you’ve got an offer at £x with whoever, can they match it.
I cancelled my direct debit to RAC they rang me yesterday and said they’ll give me 3 months free if I want to restart it, took the offer, I’m covered and don’t need to pay anything for next 3 months
As I said in my in-app feedback to Monzo, nothing can beat Nationwide’s FlexPlus. Their breakdown cover is now with AA, basically their top tier, all included in the FlexPlus price.
Called the RAC (pressed the options to get through to cancellations department) and explained the issue about the 50% price rise letter. They said this is called their “Scaled Upgrade Scheme”. Said I could speak to a colleague to ask for the price to be capped at the current level. Transferred me to another department who did this for me, so all fixed now, no change!
They did say they don’t normally do this (price cap) so worth calling them and mentioning “Scaled Upgrade Scheme” and “price cap” if anybody else gets a letter like mine with a massive price increase.
I too took out breakdown cover with RAC with the Monzo offer.
When my renewal came up it was due to go up massively.
Called up RAC customer services and they happily changed the renewal price to reflect a fairer cost , if i remember correctly it worked out £100 for the year for advance cover plan. Less than £1 extra a month.
I am a Monzo Plus subscriber but Nationwide FlexPlus is my primary packaged account. Monzo really need to step up their game especially with an option for the joint account.
I just got this letter and my jaw hit the floor. Fuel goes up, so everyone has to pay almost double? Albeit with a free upgrade which I’ll also not make use of.
I used to be loyal to RAC until their ridiculous price hikes for very little difference in their service (before covid and before the cost of living crisis).
I’ve just done a quick price comparison on MoneySuperMarket and then got full cover (home, onward travel, etc) for ~£30 for the full year.
It’s worth shopping around - staying loyal gets you nothing nowadays
edit: was money super market, not money saving expert (although I did save money)
