Also, you can get your recovery insurance cheaper at the same time as your car insurance. You have to check carefully that you get what you think you are paying for (eg no recovery call-out within a few miles of your front door, etc). Also they use Green Flag usually, rather than the AA or RAC.
The scandal with the RAC happened about 15 years ago when they first sold out to Aviva. The RAC recovery service was owned by the Royal Automobile Club, which is a gentlemen's club based in St James's or some such place. When the sale was agreed, for millions and millions of £, it was divvied out among the members of the Club (about 200 of them), and the subscribers got nothing, not even a share in the company, not even a discount for re-joining next year. The Duke of Kent was the boss (apart from being the Master Mason of England - at one time he was a notorious road-hog, according to the tabloid press). The RAC (the nobby members) own a fabulous country club near the racecourse at Epsom.