AA Breakdown Cover Blog Information

So how can an organisation that is associated with delivering car breakdown cover suddenly be able to fix your home boiler or plumbing. Well that is message the new adverts on TV with John Cleese, aim to give confidence too, of course in his own comic way.

The AA hopes to simplify a complicated market of home emergencies where sometimes there is a lack of trust in the tradesmen involved. The AA has entered the market of home emergency response with simple plans to give assurance with the confidence of the AA behind the service.

Pricing is also an important feature with AA quoting their service is cheaper than it’s main rivals, quoted within the AA launches AA Emergency Response news piece. The news often focuses what is happening on our roads during this cold snap, but there is also many boiler breakdowns and similar in the home too, a market the AA is trying to tap into.

If there service is anything as good as the AA breakdown cover offers, then there is likely to be a huge take up, especially as the support mechanism is already there within their call centres.

The AA not only offer breakdown cover and insurance services, but also members benefits which could mean saving money on other services and products.

Here are some benefits starting with 20% off airport parking with Holiday Extras, then you can get up to 60% off car windscreens that are not claimed through car insurance and 5% off certain hotels throughout the UK, you can even get savings on your next bottle of wine supplied by Virgin wine.

The AA have also started a loyalty scheme for those who have have had AA breakdown cover or insurance for over a year, unfortunately you have to login to see what benefits you can get. So unless you have already got AA membership, you will not know what benefits you would get by joining, not sure if this is good marketing.

In a world where breakdown cover is so so competitive, extra member benefits may help covert some more sales.

One of the main mistakes consumers make when choosing breakdown cover is to always go for the cheapest option, without thinking about their real requirements and the risks involved. In short, if you breakdown the AA will attend as normal, but if the fault cannot be fixed at the roadside, they will assist you and you car to the nearest garage.

There are other options, by upgrading to a breakdown recovery policy, of which the AA calls “Relay”, so if your vehicle can not be fixed, they will transport the vehicle and a certain amount of passengers back home, or anywhere you want the car to go within the UK mainland. So you could for example asked to be taken to where you were driving to, where you can get your vehicle fixed in your time at a place you choose.

The Relay option is sold with “Roadside” and at the time of writing the price quoted is around £69 for both which includes an online 44% off and together this package is called “Rescue”. It is true that most cars are fixed by the roadside, but if you drive away form home a lot, or have inherent issues with your car that may not be fixed, or you just want piece of mind, then you may find the Rescue package matches your requirements.

We all know that breakdown cover is a form of motoring insurance that in recent years has become so competitive in price, it almost seems an automatic choce to have it. But when it comes to normal car insurance, this year has seen some of the biggest insurance premuims rises according to the AA British Insurance Index.

Figures show that on average, premiums have risen around 18% compared to the same time last year. Reasons for this appears to be the increase in claims for small perosonal injury claims and an increase in insurance fraud with is claimed to be costing the insurance industry £2billion a year. The AA British Insurance index has been around since 1994 another service added to compliment its original AA Breakdown Cover services.
There is a hope that the first quarter of 2010 will be static as this a busy time for renewals especillay as new March registrations has insurance comapnies competing for business, but last year saw a rise in this period for the first time.

Yes it is all over the national press, even in Spain where it was seen first. Buy AA breakdown cover from £35 and get a £20 voucher to spend in Boots. It seems as if it is aimed at the holiday maker, so in reality is probably too late.

This is not a bad offer if you had intended buying the products that Boots sell and makes your basic roadside policy the equivalent of £15 a year, from the largest breakdown cover organisation in the UK. But it seems it is only available using the phone number on the Press advert.

Go online and the roadside offer is £30 or the equivalent of 36.5% off the AA regular price throughout. There was a time difference of viewing the offers, so it os possible the Boots offer is now finished, but even so seems a short offer.

The AA is offering a very competitive deal on the basic roadside package. The basic package is called roadside and offers the minimum level of cover but this still covers the whole of mainland UK and every hour of every day.
The current AA online price is £29 a year, which is cheaper that what is being advertised on TV and the national press. Obviously if you ring or decide to buy from one of these salesmen outside of large supermarkets or motorway services, you will probably buy at the higher price.

Clearly the best deal is online at the moment and must compete head on with Green and Flag and the RAC.

This is the first time we have seen this, but currently if you already have an AA membership and you invite a friend who takes out an AA breakdown cover policy, you both could receive £15 in Marks And Spencer’s vouchers. Not bad to get you through this credit crunch time, especially when they currently have basic roadside assistance policies from £29 if you buy online. This of course is was only available at time of writing and you should check to see if the offer has expired.

What we are not sure about though is if you still get the online price for roadside assistance as the process requires an existing member to aid filling in the online form with their membership number. If you could get the online discount also, that would mean you could buy a breakdown cover policy for £29 and get £30 worth of vouchers back, between the new member and the existing one.

Not sure how they intend to make money doing this, but you have got to admit, it seems a great deal.