AA insurance is NOT the AA !!

jane1977

Some time ago I bought car insurance with the AA. However when I had a crash they put me onto a company called Premier Claims and told me that THEY were my insurer. I had no idea of this when I bought the policy (I may even have bought it through MSE, can't remember). When I wrote letters of complaint to the AA about how long my claim was taking they just said 'we're not your insurer, go talk to Premier' and washed their hands of it !! I'd never heard of Premier Claims and would never have insured with them if I'd realised.

On the AA website they talk about 'AA car insurance', 'our customers' and say 'call us anytime' ! but it's all a massive smokescreen - is this ok or am I missing something??

Lynxe

THe T+Cs state "The underwriter of your car insurance policy will be chosen from our panel of insurers."

As far as I knew (and I admittedly don't know a lot), I believed that AA worked more of a broker than an actual insurance company.

Torry_Quine

jane1977 wrote: »

Some time ago I bought car insurance with the AA. However when I had a crash they put me onto a company called Premier Claims and told me that THEY were my insurer. I had no idea of this when I bought the policy (I may even have bought it through MSE, can't remember). When I wrote letters of complaint to the AA about how long my claim was taking they just said 'we're not your insurer, go talk to Premier' and washed their hands of it !! I'd never heard of Premier Claims and would never have insured with them if I'd realised.

On the AA website they talk about 'AA car insurance', 'our customers' and say 'call us anytime' ! but it's all a massive smokescreen - is this ok or am I missing something??

AA insurance is a broker though and as such your insurance can be with many different companies. It will have said on the policy when you took it out.

jane1977

I just don't think it makes that clear enough when you buy. And it doesn't indicate that it is a broker, I only found that out much later. I bought AA insurance because I thought I had the weight of a reputable company behind me - I was wrong

Lynxe

jane1977 wrote: »

I just don't think it makes that clear enough when you buy. And it doesn't indicate that it is a broker, I only found that out much later. I bought AA insurance because I thought I had the weight of a reputable company behind me - I was wrong

Without trying to raise an argument, I found that out from the front splash page, clearly written without having to click anything to get to it

Lynxe

Also on the very first page for getting a quote-

Is the AA an insurance broker?
Yes, we search a panel of leading insurers to find you our best quote. All of our quotes offer the same range of policy features.

Torry_Quine

Lynxe wrote: »

Also on the very first page for getting a quote-

Is the AA an insurance broker?
Yes, we search a panel of leading insurers to find you our best quote. All of our quotes offer the same range of policy features.

That's what I did too. It's very clear.

Lynxe

Equally, I've just got a quote for my own car insurance, which clearly states on the quote page;

Policy underwritten by:
ABC Insurance (AA)

Unfortunately, I think it's simply a case of checking your quote and documentation more carefully. A life lesson.

jane1977

Seriously I can't be the only person who takes the words "Company x car insurance" and reasonably assumes the car insurance is from Company x without hunting the page for their get out clauses! It talks about the 'underwriter' of your insurance (regret no quick link to the glossary page). If they're a broker, they should say so clearly at the top of the page somewhere. It is designed so people think it is the AA - they would get considerably fewer customers if were a bit more transparent which is presumably why they are not

Lynxe

jane1977 wrote: »

Seriously I can't be the only person who takes the words "Company x car insurance" and reasonably assumes the car insurance is from Company x without hunting the page for their get out clauses! It talks about the 'underwriter' of your insurance (regret no quick link to the glossary page). If they're a broker, they should say so clearly at the top of the page somewhere. It is designed so people think it is the AA - they would get considerably fewer customers if were a bit more transparent which is presumably why they are not

This is exactly the problem. You assumed.

You will have been reminded when you were sent your documents to read all of them carefully and to be sure that you understand it. Given that I noticed three very clear times on three separate pages that my insurance was not directly with the AA (NOT hunted, clearly written), I should imagine it was also clear on the documentation you were sent. The fact that it may be on AA letter headed paper bears no relevance to what is written on the document.

Sally_A

..additionally, many people think that M&S, Post Office (or whatever they're called now) and other high street names who offer insurance must be good. Usually these are budget products, badged up to look fancy.

Always look for the underlying insurer, and avoid like the plague any that are based outside of the UK.