Which insurance companies should you avoid?

Rhiannon_of_Woolamai

I think it would be helpful if people who have claimed on their insurance policies post messages if they've either had a great experience, or a terrible one.There is no point saving money on insurance, if they then don't pay out! Cheap insurance is not the same as good value insurance.

My experience is that the AA are rubbish. They came out the cheapest quote, but when the car was stolen and we tried to claim they were unbelievable.
1. Wanted loads and loads of paperwork including driving licenses to be sent off, and we had to contact every insurer we'd ever had to prove our no claims,etc
2. We found the car - it wasn't badly damaged - just the lock had been broken, but the AA decided it was a "write off"
3. we were without any car for 3 months (they decided that we weren't eligible for their courtesy car as my partner is Australian!!)
4. It took 3 months to sort the claim out - they were really horrible on the phone and called my partner a liar as he hadn't declared he was Australian (he'd applied online, it hadn't been an option to select, and we weren't aware that it was such a big deal for them!!)
5. They offered us after about 3 months £300! The car wasn't a write off, it was worth at least £1,000. By this time of course we'd lost the no claims, and were just desperate for it all to be over. We wished we'd never claimed in the first place.

My advice is avoid the AA at all costs.