So I sold my Saab 900, bought a Honda Accord. The Honda has the same power, but is a little slower. It’s harder to steal as it has an alarm and immobiliser. It’s a safer car than the Saab and it is cheaper to repair after an accident. It has a smaller engine and a lower insurance group. Despite all this it has cost me an extra £75 for the remaining 8 months of my policy. So, I am paying £445 per year to insure a bog standard family saloon on insurance group 8 which will be driven less than 4,000 miles per year.
Meanwhile I pay £5 less to insure my Fiat Coupe (insurance group 20) with Direct Line.
Why is it whenever you phone your insurers to change anything it always results in an increase in your premiums? Not once have I received a reduction.
AA Insurance also have a nice little scam going with the monthly installments. They take 10 installments per year, in arrears, with a 2 month gap between renewal date and the date they start taking your money. Why do they do this? So that if, like me, you then want to cancel part way through the year it will cost you a small fortune.
I quoted the car on their website as though I was a new customer and got an annual price of less than £300. Ergo, AA Insurance give better deals to their new customers than to their existing customers. I hate this business practice. Loyal existing customers who also subscribe to full AA cover including HomeStart should get the best deals.
I’ve just been stung by this ‘scam’ too.
The AA can consider themselves 1 member less at breakdown renewal time too. Aswell as joining a long line of other companies i will never use again.
i have just been ripped of by the aa ,they should ashamed of them selves i have been a loyal customer for many years will not reinsure with them again.
I can’t stand AA, I’ve heard too many stories like this about people getting totally boned. I’m gonna look into another insurance company just out of principal.
Jessica
It’s horrible to watch business standards degrading. One of the reasons for it is the advertising pitch that cheaper = better. If we are gullible enough to accept that as true, then the suppliers give us ‘low’ prices by means of some sort of crookedness elsewhere. Look at the deliberately confusing price structure for mobile phones, for example. It’s known as chaos pricing and it’s done with the intention of preventing the ordinary person being able to make a straightforward comparison.
Just to let you know, the AA really don’t deserve to still be in business; our vehicles have been insured with the AA for several years. We’ve just found a saving on my Passat of £160; my husband called out of courtesy to advise the AA that we wouldn’t be reinsuring with them (an opportunity – one thinks – for them to match our quote) but they weren’t interested – they didn’t even ask how much we were saving or attempt to keep our business. Overlords, you need to know this.