Green Flag Price gouging - Warning

wildcath_20 · 16 February at 6:45PM

Hi

I was recently looking for breakdown cover as my RAC cover was coming to an end and we wanted to compare prices. I had a quick look at Green flag and it came out at just over £60 for the year. This wasn't a bad price and against some of the others it appeared to be the cheapest (excluding the offers with cashback)

Anyway I didn't buy it straight away as I still had a couple of weeks left. Cut to two weeks later when I start looking online and go back to Green flag to find the price has risen to £80 which was a jump so I continued to look around thinking I must have seen a price on offer. I tried again the next day and now it was £90 which was even more shocking. I got chatting to a online agent who said if I phone them they might be able to retrieve my £60 quote but sure enough they couldn't and the best price they could get was the £80.

I ended up finding some breakdown else where as it was going to run out so I needed to buy something, especially as they all have a period of 24/48 hours where they wont recover you.

anyway the next day - Monday - out of curiosity I looked at the price for Green flag and sure enough up came a quote of just over £60.

So the only thing I can think of is that the massively inflate the quotes over the weekend/later in the week so before you buy check the prices early in the week and check multiple times to ensure you are actually getting a decent price or avoid them

I know many companies change their prices sometimes but I have never seen it to this degree/value before!

Car_54 · 16 February at 6:55PM

It's well documented that motor (and probably other) insurance premiums rise as you get closer to the start/renewal date. There's no obvious reason for breakdown insurance to be different.

Arunmor · 16 February at 10:21PM

Did you clear your cookies?

wildcath_20 · 17 February at 4:04PM

Yes I did clear my cookies and it still showed the higher price at the weekend. It made no difference how long in advance I tried to buy it. It appeared the weekend or certain days inflated the cost. I tried it on the Monday for the next days cover and it came down to £60.