Excessive cancellation fee for Auto Aid Renewal that starts 3/1/25

where_are_we

I made a mistake last night renewing Auto Aid breakdown cover starting 3/1/25 paying £63.43 by credit card. They now charge an additional £10 for a spouse to be added which I decided to not accept because Spouse never drives without myself in the vehicle so we would be covered anyway. We never drive other vehicles, so I then found out that it would be cheaper to go with Auto Aid`s sister company Auto National which covers the vehicle not the person at a cost of £52.02. I rang up Auto Aid to find out if there would be a cancellation charge and was told it would cost  £15 plus £9 admin fees. I admit that I should have thought things through before paying for renewal but a £24 penalty seems excessive for a policy that doesn`t start for 2 weeks.

Mildly_Miffed

£24 doesn't seem ridiculous, really - my mother just got charged £49 cancellation fee for a locksmith who wasn't even due to attend for another half hour.

The issue here is that it's a very large proportion of the premium... but that's also exactly WHY it's £24 cancellation - because at an annual premium of £5-60, they're making a loss the first time anybody calls them out, so they maximise revenue through things like cancellation fees.

Surely the easy answer here is to shrug and remember for next year, because paying £24 to save £11 is pointless, so you might as well let this policy run for the year.

cw8825

Surely having yourself covered is better than the vehicle anyway

jimjames

Mildly_Miffed said:

£24 doesn't seem ridiculous, really - my mother just got charged £49 cancellation fee for a locksmith who wasn't even due to attend for another half hour.

Although in that instance presumably they had booked them to come and then changed their mind last minute. If someone is part way through their journey to a job then it's not unreasonable to expect them to be paid for that wasted time. Admin fee to cancel something that hasn't started yet should be minimal.

Arunmor

Just put it down to experience and don't make the same mistake again.  We all get caught out every now and again whether by inattention, tiredness or even worse after a few sherries.