I’ve been personal covered with Autoaid for the last 3 or so years. I’ve never actually had to call them out. Today, they emailed to say that my cover expires in just over a month, and that they would auto-renew, unless I went to their site to opt out. Bit annoying, as I’m fairly certain I opted out of auto-renewal last year.
Anyway, on thinking about renewal, last year they closely questioned me about how old my daily was ( MX5 on a SORN ). The daily, Yaris, was 15 years old ( 2006 ), and it seemed that they would want more money if older.
I’ve been over to their site today, and what with all the marketing, it seems somewhat light on detail.
If you’ve renewed recently have you been asked how old your various cars are ?
Also, it seems to me that they just cover you to the nearest garage, rather than get your car back to your home ?
Any advice on either of these, or alternatives at not AA/RAC prices ?
Get it through a premium bank account, if you make use of the other perks you can save quite a bit. Nationwide Flexplus gets you AA European breakdown with homestart and onward travel for whoever is named on the bank account (so the person and their travelling companions are covered, instead of a specific vehicle), Worldwide travel insurance for the family including North America and winter sports, and mobile phone cover for the whole family (excess is quite high on that though, I think £50?).
The account costs £156 per year, doesn’t matter if it’s a single or joint account. Decent breakdown cover on its own will be about half that, for one person. You don’t have to pay wages into it or make your bills come out of it, you can just use it for the insurances (as I do). Other banks and accounts are available that are similar.
I decided not to renew with autoaid this year because 15+ year old cars take you to £74.99 from £59.99.
No problem with autoaid, except that with topcashback discount, new customer discount, etc I saved a few quid, well about £20 with the AA and we are both covered as is the motorbike.
Worth just checking it out. You can always return to Autoaid next year at £74.99.
I would second the use of the breakdown cover which comes which my Nationwide account, have used it a couple of times and had great service.
Included with the account is phone cover, valuables cover and holiday insurance.
For my daily driver I use Start Rescue as its a which Best Buy.
My MX NB is on a multi car policy with my TR4 which is on club insurance through A-Plan on classic insurance and comes with breakdown.
When in a friends car who broke down recently we needed the 3-words app. to get the breakdown to the right place, it was Green Flag through Lloyds bank and took two hours !!!
TR4… Nice. between my brother and I, over many years it was like a reading list of Triumphs. Heralds, Vitesse’s, GT6’s for him. Herald, Vitesse, TR4, TR5, TR6 for me.
That Start Rescue looks interesting. And they seem to get very good reviews.
I was considering moving from RAC to AA this month, but after haggling them down quite a lot (pointing out my extremely low current mileage across both cars) and also being offered an extra three months free “loyalty reward” I stayed with them.
Thanks all. I steer clear of premium bank accounts, as most of what they offer I’m unlikely to use.
I shall look further into Start Rescue. They seem to receive good reviews, and the price for their 2-star personal cover, seems much the same as my renewal for Autoaid… £74 - £75. For that, looks like they include national recovery. ( not interested in Home Start option.).
In 2011 both Green Flag and AA refused to cover my then 15 year old Vextra. RAC was not bothered provided the car was regularly serviced, and at the time they were competitive.
Five years later RAC recovered it and us home almost 200 miles after the cam-belt tensioner spring failed very prematurely. Yesterday after jacking up the price 30% they needed to do me a deal to keep my custom.
Always haggle when one feels the deal is unfair, and always check what’s being offered.
The Rip-off Britain program this morning included a case with how the RAC dealt with one customer - educational, but buried in the program.
Not said outright, but reading between the lines, in essence; don’t admit the damage to the car preventing you driving it was your fault (self-induced), argue about it later if necessary.
I called AutoAid because I didn’t understand why I hadn’t paid extra for having an older car before, they renewed it at the lower price and told me to ignore it. Didn’t even have to ask.
Hi,
I was with autoaid a while ago, they always try to renew, like other members I was paying much less than £79.99, infact it went to £59.99 one year and after a call it dropped back to £30 odd.
That said I am no longer with them I am insured with Grove and Dean and they throw in breakdown cover as part of the policy on a classix (1997 mk1), it was just under £200 and I got £60 back via topcashback TopCashback Official Site: UK's Highest Paying Cashback Site
My issue with AA is their renewal pricing policy. Always crazy pricing and you need to haggle … not against that as such, but I’d prefer to just get a sensible renewal from the start. Last year I changed to auto aid, as I have a 5 year old Golf, 40 year old kit car and the new MX5. From memory I paid £79 but that was higher because of the kit.
