Recommend to potential buyers: yes

Full review
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I have never had much luck with cars and through no fault of my own I have been unable to accrue any no claims bonus. I have had 2 Cars stolen and 3 accidents (non whilst I was driving and 2 of them the car was parked up). It has therefore become a nightmare trying to get cheap fully comprehensive insurance.

Until now. My insurance was due for renewal in July and as I have done in previous years I searched the net for the cheapest quote and where I can pay by monthly direct debit. In most cases this meant an up front payment of two months premiums. This usually was about £300, not an amount to be sneezed at.

I also needed to renew my breakdown cover as the years free cover given when I bought my car was due to run out. That when I visited the AA website and found I could get an online quote for insurance too.

The online facilities were great. Unlike other sites where you have to input all the details of your car, make, model, engine size etc, here you typed in your car registration number and all the fields were populated. You then just had to confirm the details were correct. Also when it came to previous claims most other companies wanted information for the last 5 years here it was only the last 3 years. I don’t know about you but I can’t remember the exact date my car was stolen in 1999.

Although the quote I received was not quite the cheapest it did have the best payment plan. The only quote that beat the overall cost was Tesco’s, but again this meant making a hefty first payment. With the AA I was able to make the first payment of £86 by debit card and then set up 10 payments by direct debit of £84.16 a month, plus the next payment would not be taken until the second month.

Since taking out my insurance I have since bought another car. When I rang AA to change the car details they could not have been more helpful. Again all I needed to supply was my new registration number and they confirmed the details were correct. I was given a new quote, which was £300 less than the original. The adviser stated that my month payments could be reduced to reflect this or I could continue to pay the same amount each month and shorten the time for payments. I went with the second option. My new policy was received the next day.

Unfortunately or should that be fortunately, I am unable to comment on their handling of claims as I have not had need to use this service, and hope I never will.

All in all I am very happy with the service I have received from the AA. Their staff were friendly and efficient and even though it is a call centre you contact, it didn’t take long to get put through to the right person to deal with enquires.

More details
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Competitiveness of APR Excellent
Comprehensiveness of range of products Excellent
Product package Excellent
Efficiency of service Excellent
Value for money Excellent
Online - Content/organization of site Excellent
Online - Reliability/speed of site Good
Online - Ease of applying for products Excellent
Online - Pre-purchase information Good