Aa home emergency care - is it worth it ?

misterjingles · 3 September 2011 at 7:18PM

My Wife is trying to talk me into taking out the AA home emergency policy , the one John Cleese advertises on the telly . At £5.99 a month , is this a good deal ??

eilidh_s · 3 September 2011 at 9:33PM

I have an RBS Royalties account which automatically covers you for £500 of home emergency assistance. I have just had a flood in my home from a faulty toilet and I am back living with my parents until it dries out but I didn't even think about calling them. Managed to deal with the flood by myself, got the water and the electric off, had some major hysterics and then all my friends rallied around and helped me clear up. I now just have to go home every few hours and empty the bucket behind the dehumidfier. Anyway, my point is check and see what your home insurance covers, then your bank account etc and see if it's worth it.

I was tempted by the policy myself but then I looked into it and weighed it up with the excess on my house insurance and what actually constitutes an emergency as far as they are concerned and decided not to bother. If yo have a well maintained home and are on top of any small niggles and problems then you shouldn't need it and if you do have an emergency then your home insurance should cover it because it will probably be something major.

iamcornholio · 3 September 2011 at 10:39PM

These policies are notoriously lacking in clarity in terms of what you are and are not covered for, and have many "get out clauses".

So check and compare the different schemes thoroughly.

I know that for the ones which have a cost limit for certain types of repair, you tend to find that their contractor magically manages to exceed the limit and you can end up paying the contractor hundreds of pounds because the policy only pays up to a certain amount - and you meet the rest out of your own pocket

qz835t · 8 September 2011 at 12:15PM

misterjingles wrote: »

My Wife is trying to talk me into taking out the AA home emergency policy , the one John Cleese advertises on the telly . At £5.99 a month , is this a good deal ??

A leaking toilet recently caused a major flood in my home (around 1000 gallons of water). My friend (who is NOT a plumber) discovered the leak & turned off the water at the main stopcock. I have Direct Line Home Emergency 250 cover but when she contacted DL on my behalf they asked her if there was another toilet in the property & if there was drinking water TO the property. Because she replied yes to these questions – undoubtedly in a considerable state of panic – DL refused to come out & are refusing to cover the repairs under the policy because they say it is “no longer an emergency”.
I am astounded at this & despite repeatedly trying to explain to them that once the water is turned off there is no drinking water IN the property and any number of additional toilets are of little use when there is no water...

poppasmurf_bewdley · 8 September 2011 at 12:20PM

I used to have one of these 'Helpline" policies which came with our content insurance some years ago. When we had a flood, I rang them and all they were interested in was getting my credit card details.

Aa home emergency care - is it worth it ?

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free