Beware Autoaid Automatic Renewals

normalpeopleworryme

I did the same - auto renewal happened - I did get emails in advance that mentioned the "old car" fee - even though my car isn't that old, but as a busy single foster carer, who works full time and has had great service from autoaid in the past, and who has thought previous renwal prices where good value I didn't pay it the full attention I should have.

I then noticed the additional fee on one of my "life admin" days, so emailed them to query it, and ask to cancel my policy (as was within the cooling off period. 

Here is their response:

"The older vehicle coverage was not added to your policy for renewal but was already a part of the policy which you had in place. As we now charge to cover vehicles aged 16 years and older we present all customers who have older vehicle cover with the opportunity to remove the coverage and the subsequent premium charged before the renewal date, which is why 28 days notice is given and the hyperlink to remove the cover alongside the price as you can see below.

unfortunately, we cannot now remove the older vehicle cover after the renewal has gone ahead and should you wish to cancel this then I am afraid that fees would apply due to the costs incurred for us to renew and subsequently cancel the policy. The 14 day period applies to the insurer and they would refund the full premium but as administrators we are permitted to apply our £15 charge to that refund due to our costs.

Should you wish to cancel the policy then the refund due back would be £61.54" 

I fear they have lost the personal touch and value which attracted me to the comapny in the first place (thanks to a MSE post).  As a previous poster noted - "If only there was a consumer focused website that could bring that to peoples attention.  Maybe one that recommended Autoaid a few years back when it was less than £40"...

diesel_dog

A shameless bump up for this thread.

As I've just had my renewal come through with key cover at just over £100. I've not shopped around at the moment but has anyone jumped ship and where to. I liked the good old days when it was less than half the price, but then I would say that wouldn't I? 

CliveOfIndia

I was with Auto Aid for years, but like many others finally changed when they were no longer competitive.

I switched to GEM, as they were a reasonable price for me and the other half to have cover in any car, plus they don't charge extra if you have an older car.  I've only had to use them once and I had no issues.

Like all of these things, it depends on what you need (older car, any driver, vehicle or personal cover, that kind of thing).

I'm certainly not going to claim that GEM are any better or any worse than others - just that for my personal requirements they offered the best price, and seem to be OK so far.

Bigwheels1111

I was just looking at Emergency Assist, A 36 month deal for £58.

Anyone used them ?.

tedted

that's not gem

CountDrakma

Pleased someone else brought this up. Elderly family member had a cheeky auto-renew email with all the unwanted costly add-ons. They didn’t intend to renew so I helped them deal with it.
With a week remaining on their current policy I clicked on their email link which took me to an unbelievably basic log in page then another page where I clicked on a ‘do not renew’ box. I clicked this and a pop up appeared quickly saying that the policy “has lapsed” - ie not will lapse. 

This pop up then disappeared before I could take a print or screenshot of it. Had to recheck that their current policy end date had not been changed. I did it all again for good measure. No other confirmation or email received that I  instructed a non-renewal. So I now need to keep a close eye for them to make sure their policy doesn’t auto renew with all the extra costs.

Another thing - although I had to log in I couldn’t find a “log out” link on their website so I just had to close it down for them. Why no log out link?
Out of curiosity I downloaded the App, provided member info then all it gave me was a page with links to customer services and breakdown reporting. No pages to check/view/edit policy info etc.
Frankly AutoAid’s comms, website and app just give the impression of a quite amateurish outfit. They may regularly be up there as the cheapest on MSE but I do I wonder what they’re like in a real breakdown situation?

elstevester

I've just had this. Got the renewal email. We no longer need the policy, so went to the portal and clicked the Do Not Renew. Got the pop-up confirmation. One month later, policy has auto-renewed with all extras. I called them and they say 'Do Not Renew' was not invoked and they refuse to waive the cancellation fee. So, policy cancelled and I'm going to have to use their complaints procedure - I am not optimistic that I'll get the cancellation fee back. They may be cheap, but I'd recommend avoiding them.