Rival motoring organisations the AA and RAC have gone head-to-head again - but this time they are competing for your car insurance premiums rather than breakdown cover.
This week the RAC launched a new insurance arm called RAC Insure, which plans to give the AA a run for its money. Jason Richards, RAC financial services manager, claims: "No other motor insurance provider can offer the range of services provided directly by the RAC."
The AA, however, may dispute this. It has been arranging cover since 1969 and claims to be Britain's biggest car insurance broker with nearly 1m customers on its books.
RAC Insure has a panel of 18 UK insurers - including Axa, Norwich Union and Churchill - from which it tries to find the best quote. But this is fewer than the number sitting on the AA panel, which has 22 insurers.
The RAC also describes itself as a "one-stop shop" where people can quickly and easily find a quote. Mr Richards says: "RAC Insure not only saves you money, but also valuable time. Nearly 70% of people who shop around spend at least an hour looking for a quote. RAC Insure could cut this to less than 10 minutes."
So, what to make of the competing claims? Do the RAC's claims for its new service stack up? We decided to "mystery shop" both organisations to see which would find us the best quote.
We posed as a female secretary, aged 32, living in central Manchester and driving a four-year-old five-door VW Polo 1.4 CL, looking for a quote for comprehensive insurance. The policy was to include one named driver and six years' no claims bonus. The car is used on a social and domestic basis only.
The result? The AA at first beat the RAC on price quite significantly, but its quote included a much higher figure for an excess on accidental damage.
When we asked the RAC to quote on an identical basis, the difference between the two narrowed substantially, with the AA just £16 cheaper. The AA were more efficient in obtaining a quote - it took just 10 minutes compared with 25 at the RAC.
Both the AA's and the RAC's best quote was from Churchill Insurance, which is perhaps less surprising than it first seems as insurers have a habit of specialising in certain "risks" or areas. But, when we subsequently asked Churchill for a quote directly, we obtained an even lower price.
It gave us a quote for £335.19 with legal protection, £318.20 without. It had the same excesses as the AA and the RAC but added a free 24 hour accident recovery service on top. Those opting to pay by monthly installments would be charged 10% on top of this premium and didn't require a deposit.
This goes to show it's always worth ringing round - and if in doubt go to the insurer direct. It saved us a massive £144.26 (for insurance with legal protection) on this quote - despite the fact that all the quotes we were given all ultimately came from the same provider.
RAC quote factfile
Contact: 0800 015 4319
Callers are first given a one-minute recorded message about the RAC and the services it provides; who its partners are and how it may share your information with carefully selected partners. This is followed by a longish and complicated legal statement you have to listen to before you can obtain a quote.
Our first attempt to obtain a quote was scuppered because the system could not recognise the postcode given. The operator refused to carry on with the call.
On calling a second time, the operator, still having trouble recognising the Manchester postcode, decided to proceed with the quote manually inputting the address instead.
Callers then face a questionnaire of around 30 questions, one of which was: "Are you a smoker?" When enquiring the relevance of the question, the response was: "Because the requirements of all 18 of RAC Insure's panel are different."
In total, it took us 25 minutes to obtain a quote, which brings into question the RAC's claim that it will give callers a quote in under 10 minutes.
Best RAC quote: £391.
Insurer: Churchill.
Excesses: Fire £100, Windscreen £50, Accidental damage £200. Initial quote was for £479.45 but this was on the basis of a zero excess for accidental damage.
Monthly instalments: The price rose to £421.29 with an 8% service charge, paid in 10 instalments.
Extras: Promised to match a cheaper quote if it included accidental damage excess.
Time taken: 25 minutes
AA quote factfile
Contact: 0870 606 0483
The call was far more breezy than the RAC. There were no recorded corporate blurbs or legal warnings at the outset of the call. The AA operator ran through a series of quick questions and later read out a legal paragraph similar to the RAC's.
However, once the quote was given, the operator tried to lure us into into accepting it immediately by saying: "Prices change and can't be guaranteed." We understood this to mean that if we went off and tried to obtain quotes elsewhere, we might come back and find that the price had now gone up.
Best AA quote: £375.
Insurer: Churchill.
Excesses: Fire and theft £100, Windscreen £50, Accidental damage £200.
Monthly instalments: The price rose to a total of £420.96, including a deposit and 11 monthly instalments.
Extras: Free AA roadside assistance (if paying monthly) to combat the interest paid on the cover.
Time taken: Under 10 minutes
