Having held an AA membership for just under a year, I recently had occasion to call them out for the first time. I wasn’t at all pleased with the experience, so decided to vote with my feet and look into signing up with one of their competitors.
When I mentioned this to a colleague, he recommended Auto Aid. Like the AA, the RAC and Green Flag, they provide breakdown cover for £37 per year, which is quite reasonable. They don’t operate their own recovery fleet, but instead send out a local garage to pick up your car. You then pay the cost of the recovery on your credit card and claim this back from Auto Aid. A year’s membership costs £37, which covers yourself and your spouse and includes recovery to and from anywhere in the UK, even if you break down on your doorstep.
I hadn’t heard of Auto Aid before my colleague mentioned it, but renowned financial expert Martin Lewis has good things to say about Auto Aid on his Money Saving Expert website so I decided to give it a go.
Their website is basic but tells you everything you need to know. I filled in the online application and received a call back the next day to confirm that I wanted to go ahead and to take my payment. Five minutes later, I was covered, and for a fraction of what the AA would have charged me for renewal.
Hopefully I won’t need to call them out any time soon, but if I do I’ll be sure to report back. I’d be very surprised if they did any worse than the AA though, given my recent experience!
Don’t bother joining if you don’t carry a spare tyre, as is the case with most cars built since 2007!
Hi Slimph – good catch! I hadn’t noticed that in their T&Cs but it’s definitely there. Luckily my car does carry a spare but I appreciate a lot of modern cars don’t.
spare tyre issue discussed at http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=382667&page=6 – doesn’t seem to matter in real life!
Thanks, that’s good to know :)