AA Breakdown repair cover

[Deleted User]

Just had a letter from AA about this. Seems OK at first. £35 for the next 6 months and they cover cost of repairs.

BUT it seems,

1. Must be as a result of breakdown and calling the AA (fair enough) but must prevent vehicle from continuing journey. Does that mean if they temporarily get your vehicle going again you cant claim? I wonder how far they could push this.

2. Failure of parts due to wear and tear is excluded. Not being funny but if I take starter motor out of my car and leave it on my mantlepiece it'll never wear out - if I use it in my car it might at some point! Seems too much of a get out clause here....

Anyone got any experience of this?

pompeyrich

My lad had the gear selctor linkage replaced on both his Corsa Cs under this cover. this linkage is a common fault on the Corsa C and both times they replaced it under the warranty, minus the excess, so have to say we are happy so far.

As with all warranty type policies, the wear and tear vs sudden failure issue is likely to be a problem, for example, did the alternator bearings fail without warning or was it due to the age and therefore wear and tear type scenarios are difficult to prove either way I suppose.

Londoner_1

I have this cover and claimed twice in 3 years (both were alternators). Yes the car has to breakdown, however I get the feeling that the aa person did not spend more time looking at faults knowing you have the BRC cover.

I don't have experience of claiming for other parts.

spikescot2005

Have made 2 claims so far under my cover with both being refused saying the fault was already there before the breakdown. On both occasions the garage stated to the AA that the faults on both occasions had developed and i wouldn't have know about it until i broke down.

AA still refused to payout so now have the FSA looking into it.

JimmyTheWig

We've had the policy for just over a year, I think. Have claimed twice. One time for a windscreen wiper motor. The other time for, um, eek, at this minute I can't remember!

But both times I've paid the garage and the AA have paid me back.

Both times I've called the AA out because of the problem. Both times they've said they can't fix it and it needs the garage. They've noted what the problem was.
Both times the car has been drivable and I've driven to the garage.

I think the wear and tear is to cover things that you would expect to need replacing. I.e. you can't get new tyres, brake pads, petrol out of them.

[Deleted User]

Trouble is sometimes these sort of things depend on how good the actual insurer is. If they want to play hardball then you can guarantee they'll find someway to disallow a claim.

Remember the days of Network Q and the supposed no quibble warranty? I remember I had a car where they had to take the whole gearbox apart but then tried to get out of it saying that 'brackets' werent covered (apparently some bracket or something had snapped off inside gearbox).

JimmyTheWig

Absolutely, Paul. But the AA's reputation is at stake here, too.
I was wary to start with, but have had no problems.

Presumably you've read that they only pay up to £500 per claim, and no more than 4 claims in a year?

[Deleted User]

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

Absolutely, Paul. But the AA's reputation is at stake here, too.
I was wary to start with, but have had no problems.

Presumably you've read that they only pay up to £500 per claim, and no more than 4 claims in a year?

Seen that yes. Just put off a little with some of the T+Cs.