Car Breakdown Discussion

theshed

All policies are going up at the moment. So shop around and haggle.
I can't vouch for the accuracy but I did read that a lot of the increases are due to Electric Cars.
Insurance companies are more eager to write them off due to battery issues and breakdowns are more expensive as they often need a complete lift.  

teecee90

The increase in my case is because they have charged an extra £10 for spouse cover (previously included for free) and an extra £21.90 for vehicles over 16 years old (I have a 2003 motorbike that was previously included at no extra cost). 

It seems that the spouse charge is still free if you sign up as a new customer via the MSE link, but existing customers are now being charged these extras. I'm inclined to let it lapse and then take out a new cover via the MSE link. 

Sealate

Only read back a few pages.  I have had cover via QDOS for about 7 years and just got my renewal quote.  Stayed the same at around £34 odds for full national and at home cover.  They use other recovery firms.  Amazing price - yes/no?  On actually reading the documentation, I discovered a couple of shocks.  No spare WHEEL equals no attendance.  Most cars nowadays do not have one.  Tough.  Car gone into limp mode - again no attendance as long as the car can move. Accident or negligence - they decide - not our problem. Pothole damage is an accident. No wonder they can charge so little. Two things here - read your documents and learn how to reset your limp mode. I do not recommend this company any longer and will not be renewing with them.

p_rim

teecee90 said:

Has anyone else's Autoaid premium been hiked this year? Mine has gone up from £63.64 to £95.54

Last Years premium	£  63.64
This Years premium	£  63.64
Spouse Premium	£  10.00
16 yr+ Vehicle premium	£  21.90	*Optional:
Total Payable	£  95.54

Yep, just had mine and it's the same - checked last year, and no spouse premium, and no additional cost for 16+ year old car (we have 32 year old MX5 in our fleet).
I have emailed them expressing dissasfaction, and also pointing to the MSE link which is only £57.28 and includes spouse free.

Was also looking at AutoAid for the kids, but they both have older cars (11 & 13 years old), and now AutoAid want you to pay £25 to the recovery agent directly (for each call-out) for cars over 10 years old!!
Rip off.

The other top listed recovery service on MSE is Eversure - seems far cheaper, though only cover cars up to 15 years old (though wih no excess) - so good for the kids, but no good for Wife and me if driving the MX5!

Chamberhousenick

Hi, feeling a bit sick!  I’ve been with the RAC for about 30 years and it never occurred to me to challenge the premium.  I cover one car for myself and my wife and we have the top level of cover, including onward travel which covers car hire costs etc.  This year they took £411 from my account for this - UK only - and limiting it to 7 call-outs.  After 40 mins on the phone this came down to £172.  I’ve accepted it for this year, but put in a complaint about how I’ve been treated as a loyal customer.  To be honest I feel like a mug - I trusted them (why?) to charge an honest price.  They clearly price in the haggling discounts they give so I have been effectively subsidising those discounts for years.  Unless they come back with a major offer following my complaint I’ll draw a line under it and leave them.  Anyway - thanks to MSE for pushing me in the right direction in the end!

JeffChorlton

I have been using Autoaid for some years now with no problems, but recently I have had a couple of bad experiences:-

1.  Autoaid's default is to set auto renewal in place on their breakdown policies. I didnt want to renew this year as we were taking the car off the road for a while, and I didnt realise that the policy would  automatically renew until the money was taken from my credit card. I contacted Autoaid immediately to cancel and obtain a refund, but they would only give me £49 back out of £74 paid, so a cancellation charge of £25. This represents a third of the policy premium and is not in the spirit of the 14 day cooling off period. I complained but they wouldnt budge.

2. The other problem occurred when my wife broke down in our car about 5 miles from home. She called Autoaid and their recovery rep arrived about 45 minutes later - all fine so far. He diagnosed a failed starter motor which he couldnt fix at roadside and meant we would have to be towed to a garage of our choosing. The tow truck didnt arrive for another 2 hours, and the driver then just bump started the car and left my wife to negotiate rush hour traffic to get to the garage! If she had stalled, not only would she have been in a breakdown situation again, but she would have caused a serious congestion on a main arterial road.

kaizoku

p_rim said:

teecee90 said:

Has anyone else's Autoaid premium been hiked this year? Mine has gone up from £63.64 to £95.54

Last Years premium	£  63.64
This Years premium	£  63.64
Spouse Premium	£  10.00
16 yr+ Vehicle premium	£  21.90	*Optional:
Total Payable	£  95.54

Yep, just had mine and it's the same - checked last year, and no spouse premium, and no additional cost for 16+ year old car (we have 32 year old MX5 in our fleet).
I have emailed them expressing dissasfaction, and also pointing to the MSE link which is only £57.28 and includes spouse free.

Was also looking at AutoAid for the kids, but they both have older cars (11 & 13 years old), and now AutoAid want you to pay £25 to the recovery agent directly (for each call-out) for cars over 10 years old!!
Rip off.

The other top listed recovery service on MSE is Eversure - seems far cheaper, though only cover cars up to 15 years old (though wih no excess) - so good for the kids, but no good for Wife and me if driving the MX5!

Not sure if Autoaid are being sneaky with their "16 yr+ premium", as my car isn't that old, and I was being charged that for my renewal (been with them for 3/4 years now).
A quick call to them, and they said this premium can be removed by logging on to the account on a computer (not possible on the app apparently)

theshed

Car age is irrelevant in my opinion anyway. Can't remember last time I called them out for My 2001 Mondeo. Wife had had to call RAC several times fir her much newer KA.

tiptoe_mouse

kaizoku said:

p_rim said:

teecee90 said:

Has anyone else's Autoaid premium been hiked this year? Mine has gone up from £63.64 to £95.54

Last Years premium	£  63.64
This Years premium	£  63.64
Spouse Premium	£  10.00
16 yr+ Vehicle premium	£  21.90	*Optional:
Total Payable	£  95.54

Yep, just had mine and it's the same - checked last year, and no spouse premium, and no additional cost for 16+ year old car (we have 32 year old MX5 in our fleet).
I have emailed them expressing dissasfaction, and also pointing to the MSE link which is only £57.28 and includes spouse free.

Was also looking at AutoAid for the kids, but they both have older cars (11 & 13 years old), and now AutoAid want you to pay £25 to the recovery agent directly (for each call-out) for cars over 10 years old!!
Rip off.

The other top listed recovery service on MSE is Eversure - seems far cheaper, though only cover cars up to 15 years old (though wih no excess) - so good for the kids, but no good for Wife and me if driving the MX5!

Not sure if Autoaid are being sneaky with their "16 yr+ premium", as my car isn't that old, and I was being charged that for my renewal (been with them for 3/4 years now).
A quick call to them, and they said this premium can be removed by logging on to the account on a computer (not possible on the app apparently)

I had the same experience at renewal. I logged into the website, but couldn't see how to remove the 16yr+ vehicle premium. So I gave them a ring, and the person I spoke to explained that I needed to click the "Renew" button, and then I'd be able to remove the additional premium. This I did, as well as choosing to add key cover. All sorted, I thought.

I later noticed that the premium that had been taken from my credit card did not reflect the changes. On ringing up today, I have been informed that they have no record on their system of my doing this, or even of the phone call I made to them. They also informed me that I don't have key cover. They claim that they cannot remove the extra charge "due to how long I have been on cover" (less than 2 weeks, as it happens). They did say I could add key cover now by paying the premium for that. I asked about cancelling the breakdown cover entirely, but was told that they would deduct a £15 charge from the refund.

When I asked to speak to a manager, I was told he was not available as he had had to go home. I am promised a call back tomorrow once they have spoken to him, but they cannot say what time he will be in.

This is all a great shame, as I was previously happy with the cover, and when I needed to call them out for a breakdown I had excellent service.

AlecE

Does anyone know if the MSE discount on AutoAid (£57.28) is time limited at all please?  My breakdown doesn't need renewing until July but that's a good price so considering locking it in now (I considered buying then cancelling if a better deal elsewhere came up but they deduct £15 even if you cancel before the cover starts!).

Kind regards, Alec