Robbing AA b*tards!

[jogger1976]

I had to call the AA the other day to make a slight change to my breakdown policy (changing the vehicle specific option to an any car option as I sometimes car share with other colleagues or borrow other cars).
I was expecting a possible small administration charge, as is the norm.What I wasn't expecting was to be asked to pay £60 sodding quid for the privilege, or I wouldn't be covered if I was in another car.
To compound my bad mood I also received my renewal(I'm a Gold Member and have been with them for 6 years)for the princely sum of £230. WTF! I've since been harassed almost daily by reps trying to convince me "what a good deal you've got , Sir" and try to sell me extended products that I have no need or interest in. When I queried the high price I was told in not so many words that existing customers essentially subsidise the cheap introductory deals and that I wouldn't qualify for the lower deals.

Anyone had a similar experience with the AA, or can recommend a breakdown service that aren't a bunch of robbers, as I'm fked if I'm giving them anymore of my money?

[Dog Star]

ADAC.

€115 for me and the OH, any car/truck, no 11 year st, all europe. And they send the AA when you're in the UK.

The AA are just a financial services organisation now, with breakdown on the side.

[2stis]

They are all pretty similar in their operation these days, so you'll have to give them some more of your money at some point, just not this year perhaps! You'll need to switch to RAC, and then next year when they try to fleece you for a renewal you'll need to move back to AA. Repeat ad infinitum. There seems to be little benefit for any loyalty in insurance products as they fight to win new customers harder.

[noell35]

I think there's a good section on money saving expert on breakdown cover. Not been on there for a while though.

[kinabalu]

2nd vote for ADAC, £95 for both of us, 2 cars, all over Europe, if breakdown in UK they use the AA.......simples!!

[anonymous-user]

Try Autoaid - IIRC it was about £36 to cover myself and the wife in any car that we happen to be in, driver or passenger , and I think it includes all the usual things like homestart , recovery to destination , recovery of vehicle to any location etc..

I've had to call them out 3 times in the course of being a member for a few years - recently when our Volvo expired when on holiday , within 2 hours the car was on a flatbed to be delivered back to our house in Scotland , a few weeks previously they recovered my kit car from 2 miles away when the alternator packed up , and the first ever day I took cover out with them years ago I had to call them out when my 2nd MX5 overheated on the motorway near Leeds just after I bought it, and they recovered it and myself 250 miles home.

So long as they don't alter their policy etc.. I would never choose to switch to a different breakdown service.

[Ozzie Osmond]

I have a "vigorous conversation" with the AA every year at renewal time.

Seems to me that AA breakdown cover is uncompetitively expensive unless you use it to cover the driving of multiple cars. I buy their full range of services (including recovery and home start) and it works out at about £55 per car per year.

[Skyedriver]

I thought the AA covered the driver, not the car, so if you are in someone elses car you are covered.

Anyway in defence of the AA, I have called them out 3 or 4 times in the last few years and their service has been exemplary.

[Gavin0478]

Green Flag, but I have a caravan so they include towing to destination and back.

[jamei303]

Start Rescue, was £18 iirc.

[akirk]

Look at bank accounts which often come with this free of charge...

e.g.
https://www.lloydsbank.com/current-accounts.asp?#a...

Lloyds Silver account:
£120 p/a
AA Breakdown Cover and UK Roadside Assistance, whether you’re in your own vehicle or someone else’s.

Lloyds Platinum account:
£204 p/a
AA Breakdown Cover and UK Roadside Assistance, whether you’re in your own vehicle or someone else’s. The cover includes Relay and Home Start.

and you get travel insurance & mobile phone insurance etc. as well - often cheaper than buying directly from all of them, plus often don't have the same callout restrictions...

[Ozzie Osmond]

Ozzie Osmond said:

...driving of multiple cars. I buy their full range of services (including recovery and home start) and it works out at about £55 per car per year.

To clarify, that's £55 per car owned in the household and with each person being covered while in ANY car in UK.

[Granfondo]

RBS platinum account gives lots of cover.

[jogger1976]

Skyedriver said:

I thought the AA covered the driver, not the car, so if you are in someone elses car you are covered.

Anyway in defence of the AA, I have called them out 3 or 4 times in the last few years and their service has been exemplary.

Apparently there are two options.Vehicle specific, which I had, and a general policy. They don't really explain this particularly clearly when you take out the policy. Probably so they can rob you of £60 sodding quid each time you change vehicle!

Just to say I totally agree with you regarding the patrolmen; they are excellent and highly professional. It's just the whole new business model they've adopted since being taken over by a bunch of US venture capitalist vultures that pisses me off. One of the blokes said they binned nearly 4000 staff.

[colin_p]

akirk said:

Look at bank accounts which often come with this free of charge...

e.g.
https://www.lloydsbank.com/current-accounts.asp?#a...

Lloyds Silver account:
£120 p/a
AA Breakdown Cover and UK Roadside Assistance, whether you’re in your own vehicle or someone else’s.

Lloyds Platinum account:
£204 p/a
AA Breakdown Cover and UK Roadside Assistance, whether you’re in your own vehicle or someone else’s. The cover includes Relay and Home Start.

and you get travel insurance & mobile phone insurance etc. as well - often cheaper than buying directly from all of them, plus often don't have the same callout restrictions...

The problem with the cover that comes with a packaged bank account is next to useless i.e. no home start, no recovery to a chosen destination only to the nearest garage. To make the cover useful you have to pay extra which makes it very expensive.

[akirk]

colin_p said:

akirk said:

Look at bank accounts which often come with this free of charge...

e.g.
https://www.lloydsbank.com/current-accounts.asp?#a...

Lloyds Silver account:
£120 p/a
AA Breakdown Cover and UK Roadside Assistance, whether you’re in your own vehicle or someone else’s.

Lloyds Platinum account:
£204 p/a
AA Breakdown Cover and UK Roadside Assistance, whether you’re in your own vehicle or someone else’s. The cover includes Relay and Home Start.

and you get travel insurance & mobile phone insurance etc. as well - often cheaper than buying directly from all of them, plus often don't have the same callout restrictions...

The problem with the cover that comes with a packaged bank account is next to useless i.e. no home start, no recovery to a chosen destination only to the nearest garage. To make the cover useful you have to pay extra which makes it very expensive.

unless of course you actually read the details I pasted from the Lloyds website Silver account gives you a lower AA coverage, Platinum account gives you home start and relay...

other accounts offering even more or less benefits may also be available...

[rxe]

colin_p said:

The problem with the cover that comes with a packaged bank account is next to useless i.e. no home start, no recovery to a chosen destination only to the nearest garage. To make the cover useful you have to pay extra which makes it very expensive.

Self insure for the least likely problems.

What you need is cover to drag your sorry arse off the roadside when you break down or have a blow out. If my car only gets recovered to a garage, fine, I'll get a cab and the train, then deal with the car on the phone. Home start? I'll just get a cab. Actually, I'd just choose another Alfa from the fleet. As soon as you're off the roadside, you're fine. Uber to the rescue.

[akirk]

rxe said:

Self insure for the least likely problems.

What you need is cover to drag your sorry arse off the roadside when you break down or have a blow out. If my car only gets recovered to a garage, fine, I'll get a cab and the train, then deal with the car on the phone. Home start? I'll just get a cab. Actually, I'd just choose another Alfa from the fleet. As soon as you're off the roadside, you're fine. Uber to the rescue.

cab?
train?
Uber?

clearly you don't live in the countryside

choose another Alfa from the fleet?

at least you are a proper petrolhead!

[Xtriple129]

Yes indeed, vigorous conversations yearly are becoming rather tedious. I have been with the AA for about 16 years, with all the bells and whistles, family, home start, relay the lot.

Every year they try it on and then reduce it so that the increase (there's always an increase) becomes acceptable. Last year, I was so angry I refused to renew and they ultimately made the deal so appealing my mercenary side said 'yes'. Shall not renew with them again unless they change their policy.

[rxe]

akirk said:

cab?
train?
Uber?

clearly you don't live in the countryside

choose another Alfa from the fleet?

at least you are a proper petrolhead!

I've honestly never been in a part of the country where cabs don't exist. OK, Uber is a bit urban, but are there really bits of the country where there are no cabs? OK, Scotland. If you live in Scotland get full recovery. :-)