AA membership

[fred]

I'm no great believer in this since it was privatised However I understand in America one can use someone elses membership ( with their permision)for a tow. Is this the same in the U.K.?

[alan_m]

I think it depends on the policy. You either get cover for the car or you get cover for the person. With the latter it covers the insured whilst driving or as a passenger.

To use someone else's policy they must have personal cover and they must also be a passenger or driver of the car that is broken down.

I guess the personal cover is lot more expensive.

[JNugent]

I don't think so (and I've been a member since 1972 in an unbroken line).

It is always the *member* who is covered; never the car.

A member may be driving any old vehicle, even one belonging to someone else, but he/she is still covered.

As is mentioned somewhere back in the thread. The member doesn't have to be the driver to get AA service for the vehicle. Obviously, Relay and Home Start are ptional extras.

[Theo]

They sell both kinds:

Cover for one person: £107.50 pa Cover for two people at the same address: £135 pa Family cover: £209.65 pa Vehicle cover: £85 pa

Which makes senses depends on how many people and how many cars you have. Eg a couple with 2 cars it's better to get the 'two people' cover, but if you have one car it's better to get the 'one car' cover.

These prices are just for base cover without home start, onward travel etc. They're all utterly ridiculous and even worse at renewal time: fully comp for two people from Auto Aid is about £60, and RAC Essentials is £33 with a £40 excess if you break down.

Theo

[JNugent]

I don't recognise those prices. We pay well under £200 for the two of us (inc Home Start and Relay). And we have three the use of vehicles but haven't been asked about the number or reg. marks of those. In the last ten years, I only remember needing AA assistance once (during the pandemic, when one of our cars was left on a neighbour's drive from March to December and the battery went flat and I couldn't open the car with the electronic ignition key).

We never paid more when we had two cars than when we had one.

Ooh no... our <£200 sub pays for those as well! I let my wife do all the talking with the AA.

[alan_m]

I have driver only and named car + national rescue for £23/annum although it is a one time £40 extra (excess) if I call them out for the first time. So, £23 if I don't call them out and £63 if I need a rescue. I regularly do 250 mile journeys so the cover is just piece of mind. This is with Rescue My Car. Price may depend on type and age of car and read the T&C carefully - it's not the service if you repeatedly call out this type of service as they will not necessarily come out a second time for the same fault.

A friend had a renewal quote from RAC during the summer. The price had gone up by around 40% to over £160. He rang up to negotiate but they refused to budge on the price. All they would offer was an extra two months for the same price. In the end he went elsewhere and got near identical cover with his car insurance company for nearly £100 cheaper. Missing from his new supplier were things he didn't want/need like home start.