AA renewal

[Deleted User]

I've been a member of the AA for 12 years and have gold membership.

At renewal last year (October 2014) I amended my membership to vehicle membership, as opposed to personal membership, which reduced my renewal from £69.40 to £39.99 for roadside cover only.

I have just received my renewal notice for October 2015. On the same basis (ie vehicle membership for roadside cover only), the renewal figure is back up to £63.23. That's over 50% rise from £39.99.

Should I query this? It does seem an excessive rise.

Any advise would be gratefully received.

victor2

It's commonplace with all types of insurance and/or annual policy type businesses. The provider knows that many people just accept automatic renewal and pay way over the odds for it without a question. Look online at the AA website and get a quote for the same cover. Then phone them up and tell them you can get it from their own website for less than their renewal quote. Look at alternative identical cover as well, so that you know what you can get it for elsewhere.
Stuff the gold membership, to them it just means sucker who will pay more for less.

[Deleted User]

The AA website is quoting £35 for vehicle membership with roadside cover only, plus 15 months cover for the price of 12 months, which brings it to under £30 for a year. Said to be an introductory offer, though. I will phone tomorrow and see if I can get mine down. Would happily accept last year's £39.99 plus 2% inflation.

DUTR

Deleted_User wrote: »

The AA website is quoting £35 for vehicle membership with roadside cover only, plus 15 months cover for the price of 12 months, which brings it to under £30 for a year. Said to be an introductory offer, though. I will phone tomorrow and see if I can get mine down. Would happily accept last year's £39.99 plus 2% inflation.

Out of curiosity, how many times over those years have you had to use them?
The last time I was in any road recovery service was over 15 years ago , I guess if I pay per use I will be saving money over the years.

[Deleted User]

Funnily enough, first callout since joining was this year (April 2015). Flat battery. Don't grudge paying the premium for peace of mind. It's the 50% rise from last year for same cover which gets me.

victor2

Deleted_User wrote: »

The AA website is quoting £35 for vehicle membership with roadside cover only, plus 15 months cover for the price of 12 months, which brings it to under £30 for a year. Said to be an introductory offer, though. I will phone tomorrow and see if I can get mine down. Would happily accept last year's £39.99 plus 2% inflation.

Had a similar experience with another of the big breakdown companies this year. They wanted £99 to renew our cover. Their own website quoted £69 for exactly the same cover. I phoned them up and they said they could price match any other online like-for-like quote. Well, it is from your own website said I (more or less!). They did briefly mutter something about online discounted rates, but still did the deal over the phone. I could have saved a little bit more by going to one of their competitors and using cashback, but it wouldn't have made much difference and wasn't worth my trouble to be honest. I did decline their kind offer to put me on automatic renewal though.

Do arm yourself with a price from elsewhere and be prepared to leave them if they insist the price you've seen is introductory only - not the 15 months for the price of 12, as that is clear, and it can help to be seen to give a little. I see nothing wrong with saying "I'll take my business elsewhere then, and maybe come back next year as a new customer." Did that for many years with our car insurance, flip-flopping between two companies.

[Deleted User]

Thanks, victor2, that is very helpful. I will do as you suggest. Funnily enough, the day after I got my AA renewal letter this week, I received a mailshot from GreenFlag offering to beat an RAC or AA renewal quote by 50% less (for equivalent UK vehicle cover on vehicles less than 10 years old). Don't know how they know that my AA renewal is coming up for renewal (may just be a coincidence). They also seem to know that I have vehicle cover (not personal cover). Spooky.
Wondering if anyone has any experience of GreenFlag breakdown cover and is it any good?

victor2

Greenflag was the one I was referring to in my other post.:)
They are owned by Directline, which may be why they know a bit more about you than you think...
Only used them once and that was a good few years back. Took their nominated breakdown provider a bit over an hour to arrive, but he did text me to say he was delayed. Car was not going to be fixed at the roadside and it was trailered home. As it was a weekend and I had home cover, the guy said to call Greenflag again on the Monday when I'd sorted out a garage to work on it and they'd take it there. I did & they did!

ToriP

I joined at the side of the road when I broke down. It was expensive.

tim9966

I've always found the AA will knock the price down when you phone up to say you will be forced to leave due to the price rise.

I renewed a few weeks ago and a 2 minute phone call to them (choose the option saying you are thinking of leaving) gave me £40 off the price. They didn't even try to say I should pay the full price.

[Deleted User]

Thanks tim9966! I'm almost looking forward to phoning them tomorrow to see how low I can get it. I'd prefer to stay with AA (less hassle than moving plus they're the big name in breakdown cover) but prepared to go elsewhere if need be. Quite fine about paying last year's amount ( which wasn't an "introductory offer") plus inflation at a generous (?) 2% or so.