AA insurance, or the AA, is quite a household name in the UK, especially when it comes to award-winning breakdown cover. In this complete guide to AA insurance UK, we will break down the features of its main policies, explain the AA insurance login process, list contact numbers and take an all important look at customer reviews. Read on to get started.
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AA Insurance: from then to now
Since its launch in 1905, the Automobile Association, or AA Insurance as it is better known, has gone on a long journey. From a small group focused on road safety to a multi-million pound insurance provider, let’s take a look at the growth of the AA.
The history of AA Insurance
AA Insurance was started by a small group of motorist enthusiasts in 1905. Originally not an insurance company, its initial purpose was to warn motorists of new police speed traps. The group of founders used to cycle around Britain’s roads to help drivers stay safe on the roads and avoid police penalties.
You can thank the AA for our road signs! As part of keeping drivers safe, the original members erected thousands of danger and warning signs on the sides of our roads. The company actually managed all the UK’s road signage operations until the early 1930s when local authorities took over.
The AA offered its first motor insurance policy in 1907 and the rest, as they say, is history. Its membership soon soared and it expanded its offering to include a range of different insurance policies in the UK.
Timeline
- 1905 - Motorists’ Mutual Association is formed. Later that year, the name is changed to Automobile Association (AA).
- 1907 - The insurer starts to offer its first motor insurance policies to the public.
- 1929 - AA formsan aviation section and helpsAmy Johnson plan her world record breaking flight to Cape Town.
- 1934 - The company hasover 100,000 members, meaning roughly every 1 in 3 cars in the UK is insured by AA insurance.
- 1950 - AA hits the one million member mark.
- 1965 - It supplies policies tomore than 3.5 million members.
- 1998 - It has nine million members.
- 2005 - The company launches it’s famous ‘You’ve got a friend’ adverts.
- 2006 - The AA branches out into new insurance policies: motorcycle, chereised car, per and business insurance.
- 2007 - It launches its fuel assist system.
- 2008 - The AA charitable trust is created.
- 2010 - The company launches its AA Home Emergency Response policy.
- 2014 - AA becomes a public company and is listed on the London Stock exchange as AA plc.
The AA today
Today, AA Insurance is a public company that offers motor insurance, breakdown cover, home insurance, travel insurance and business insurance. It has also expanded its operations far beyond insurance, with driving lessons through AA driving school, loans, savings account, financial advice, and route mapping with the well-known AA route planner.
In 2017, the company had 3,335,000 members and reported a total revenue of £940 million.
AA Charitable Trust
The AA still works to stay true to its roots: helping drivers stay safe on Britain’s roads. In 2008, its charity - The AA Charitable Trust for Road Safety and The Environment - was registered with the aim to:
- Educate all road users (drivers, cyclists…) in road safety
- Campaign on issues of road safety
- Promote eco-friendly driving
Every year, the AA Charitable Trust launches a new initiative to help achieve these goals. You may remember some of them - one of the most famous was the Think Bikes! campaign that aimed to make drivers more aware of cyclists on the roads.
If you have any ideas for future initiatives, you can send your thoughts to the AA Charitable Trust using the following email address:
AA Insurance UK: what policies does it offer?
Probably the most important part of choosing an insurance provider is seeing what features its policies include. Let’s break down what the AA’s car, breakdown, home and travel insurance policies look like, as well as the benefits of being an AA member. AA Insurance UK also offers insurance for businesses, but we are going to focus on its personal insurance policies here.
Car insurance
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AA Insurance offers a range of motor insurance, including car insurance and motorbike insurance. Let’s have a little look at what car insurance it offers.
Like most insurers, you can get two types of car insurance from the AA: comprehensive car insurance and third party, fire and theft cover. The comprehensive policy includes an uninsured driver promise (meaning you will keep your no claims discount and won’t have to pay any excess if you are involved in an accident with an uninsured driver and it’s not your fault), and a courtesy car as standard, which is not typical of all insurers.
Starting from only £15, you can also add the famous AA breakdown cover on to your policy.
AA breakdown cover
AA’s breakdown cover provides you with 24 hour roadside assistance every day of the year to make sure you are never left stranded. If your vehicle breaks down, an AA mechanic will come to you and either fix your car at the roadside or take you and your car to the nearest garage.
You can buy this as either personal cover, meaning you as the driver are covered no matter what car you are driving, or as vehicle cover, which means the actual vehicle is covered no matter who is driving it.
We have just covered the very basic details of both AA car insurance and breakdown cover. You can find out much more, including detailed policy and price information, in our guide to AA car insurance (coming soon).
Home insurance
The home insurance policy provided by AA Insurance comes with two different coverage levels:
- Home insurance: this is the AA’s basic level of cover. Despite being basic, it still includes a good range of features, such as unlimited buildings insurance for homes worth up to £1 million and accidental damage cover for non-portable gas and electrical items (e.g. your TV and oven). Accidental damage cover is not typically included in the basic home insurance policy offered by other providers so credit where credit is due to the AA for this.
- Home insurance plus: as the ‘plus’ suggests, this is the more comprehensive level offered. It contains a greater range of features than the basic level and higher claim limits e.g. unlimited contents cover as well as unlimited buildings cover, and coverage for valuables worth up to £5,000 away from home. It also includes home emergency response cover which is only an optional add-on with the basic level.
As well as a typical home insurance policy, the AA also offers stand alone content cover and buildings insurance, as well as holiday home insurance. Find out more about all of these policies and read customer and professional reviews in our complete guide to AA home insurance.
Travel insurance
The AA also sells travel insurance policies. Its annual multi-trip policy provides cover for an unlimited amount of holidays during the year, for a maximum of 62 days per trip. Its single trip policy will cover you for one holiday of a maximum of 186 days. Both policies come in three different levels of cover: bronze, silver and gold. We have reviewed these levels in much more detail in Selectra’s AA travel insurance guide.
For specific holidays, you can add specialised cover onto these policies, e.g winter sports cover for a ski trip or golf cover if you are travelling the seas to play a bit of golf.
What does AA membership cover?
Being an AA member comes with quite a few tasty benefits. Who doesn’t want discounts on restaurants, cinema tickets, airport parking (which can cost a fortune!) and car-related products, such as MOTs and new tyres?
To be an official AA member and get these great benefits, you need to take out AA breakdown cover. If you only have an AA Insurance policy, you will just be an AA customer, not a member. Considering breakdown cover is incredibly handy and the AA’s has been consistently rated one of the best in the UK - not to mention all the benefits it brings to the table - it sure seems worthwhile becoming an AA member.
AA Insurance login
If you have breakdown cover, home insurance or car insurance with AA Insurance, you can access all of your policy documents, check your details and keep up to date with renewals through your online AA account. This makes keeping on top of your policy really easy; you don’t need to go rummaging through your stack of ‘important’ papers to find what you need.
Making things even better, the AA Insurance login process is super simple. Follow these steps to log in to your AA Insurance account:
Go to the AA Insurance ‘My account’ webpage.
- You can do this by typing ‘AA insurance account login’ into your search engine. Click on “Log in - The AA” and you will arrive on the login page.
- You can also access the page by clicking the AA Insurance login button below.
In the Email box, type in the email address you used to register your account.
In the Password box, type in the password you set up when you registered your account.
Click the yellow Log in button and that’s it: you will now be in your account.
I’ve forgotten my password, how do I log in?
Don’t panic if you can’t remember the password to your account. If this happens, simply click the “Forgot your password?” link that is underneath the password box on the login page.
You will be taken to a new page where you can reset your password. In the box labeled Email Address, type in the email address you use to log in to your account. Then click the yellow Email me button. AA Insurance will send instructions on how to reset your password to your email address. Follow the steps outlined in the email and you will have a new password and access to your account once again.
Register for an AA account
If this is the first time you want to log in to your account, you will need to set up an account before you can actually log in. You can only set up an account if you are the main policy holder or a joint member on a breakdown plan. Let’s have a look at how to register an AA Insurance account.
On the same AA Insurance login page mentioned above, there is a button with Register written inside. Click this button.
You will arrive on a new page where you need to fill out your personal details, list your email address (this will be the email address you used to take out your policy and the one you later use to log in to your account), home postcode and your AA membership or policy number.
You will also need to set up an account password. This password must be at least eight characters long, contain a mix of upper and lowercase letters, and at least one number. When you have done this, click the Next button located at the bottom of the page.
AA Insurance will then send an authentication email to the email address you listed. Go to this email and click the link provided. You will then be taken to a page where you should log in to your account by typing in the email address and password you just set up.
You will then be taken to an ‘almost there page’ where you need to enter your AA Insurance policy or membership number. It’s really important that you type this correctly as this is how the system will link your account to your policy. If you get the number wrong, the registration process will not work. If it is correct, your account will now be set up and you can log in.
If you have just bought your AA Insurance policy, it’s wise to wait 24 hours before registering your account. If you do so before this, your details might not yet be in the system.
The AA app
If you have AA breakdown cover, you can manage parts of your policy through the AA membership and breakdown reporting app, aka the AA app. This app lets you:
- Report a breakdown for super fast recovery.
- Plan your route with real-time information on traffic jams (like google maps).
- See and use all your member benefits.
- Keep up to date on your car admin - by simply entering your number plate into the app, you will receive automatic reminders of MOTs and when you need to pay your road tax (yippee!).
The AA app is available for iPhones through the App store and for Android devices via the Google play store. In general, customers seem to find the app easy to use, fast and really useful. It has a 4.8/5 rating on the Appstore and 4.45/5 on Google play.
I used the app for a breakdown for the first time yesterday and was amazed at how simple and quick it was. The app pinpointed my location exactly, so I didn’t need to worry about getting the address wrong. AA app user
Something to bring to attention however is that, following a recent update, existing customers have complained that they cannot log in to the Android version of the app. On the Google store, AA Insurance has advised customers who are having this problem to re-register for an app account. This is a bit of a pain if you already have an account, especially since you are most likely to rely on this app during an emergency situation, but give it a go if you suddenly find you cannot log in.
How do I get an AA Insurance quote?
If you’re interested in taking out an AA Insurance policy, getting a quote for what the policy would cost you can be the deciding factor. Luckily, it’s super easy to get a quote from AA Insurance for all the policies on offer. In fact, you can do it all online in just a few minutes.
To get a quote, simply head to the AA website. When you are on the website’s main page, you will see a row of products (Breakdown, Vehicle, Money, Home, Travel) across the top of the screen. Select the product you would like to get a quote for, e.g Vehicle.
An additional menu will appear with a list of more specific products. For example, if you click Vehicle, then Car insurance, Motorbike insurance, Van insurance and Caravan insurance will appear. Choose the type of insurance you are interested in. You will be taken to a new page that features a yellow button with Get a quote written inside. Click this and follow all the instructions to get your personal quote.
In some cases, the online quote system might not be available. If this is the case, or you would simply prefer to speak to someone directly, call the appropriate number from the table below to get your AA Insurance quote.
| Type of insurance | AA number to get a quote | Operating hours |
|---|---|---|
| Car insurance | 0800 316 2456 | Mon-Fri: 8am-8pm Sat: 9am-5pm |
| Home insurance | 0800 197 6169 | Mon-Fri: 8am-8pm Sat: 9am-5pm |
| Travel insurance | 0808 169 1195 | Mon-Fri: 8am-8pm Sat: 9am-5pm Sun: 9am-4pm |
Contact AA Insurance
AA Insurance has specific contact details for each type of insurance policy. If you are an existing customer and would like to make a claim or have questions related to your policy, head to the relevant Selectra guide to find the right AA Insurance contact numbers.
Naturally, there are other reasons why you might want to get in touch with the AA. Whether you are a customer or not, let’s have a little look at the AA insurance cintact details you could need.
- For general questions, email: [email protected]
- For questions about data protection, email: [email protected]
- To stop receiving marketing messages, email: [email protected]
- To request large print, audio or braille version of documents, email: [email protected]
- If you need tailored vehicle assistance due to disability, call: 0800 26 20 50 (this number is free to all AA members)
If you are sending an email about data protection or to opt out of marketing messages, make sure you include the first initial of your name, your surname, the first line of your home address and your postcode. This is so customer service can find you on the system promptly and respond to you correctly. If you wish to stop receiving marketing messages, ensure you specify what kind of marketing you no longer want to receive e.g. for a specific campaign or email marketing.
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Make a complaint
Had an unpleasant experience with AA Insurance? You can place an official complaint over the phone, via email or by sending a letter. The AA will treat all complaints equally, no matter which route it receives it through, so choose the method that suits you best. Just make sure you include your membership or policy number in your email or letter, and have it to hand if you choose to call. If you are following up on a previous complaint, you will need to have your complaint case number.
Here are the AA contact details you may need:
- Call: 0344 209 0556 (Mon-Fri: 9am-5pm)
- Email: [email protected]
Send a letter to:
Member Relations
The Automobile Association
Lambert house
Stockport Road
Cheadle
Chesire
SK8 2DY
AA Insurance will aim to respond to you by the end of the next working day. If they miss this deadline, they will write to you within 5 working days to tell you one of the following:
- How they have resolved your problem.
- When they will get back to you if they have not yet resolved the issue.
- How to contact the person or team who is in charge of your case.
If you are not happy with how the AA has dealt with your complaint, you can escalate it to the Financial Ombudsman.
AA Insurance reviews, complaints & Selectra’s verdict
A good way of comparing an insurance company to other providers is by looking at reviews and complaints data. Here we are going to look at AA Insurance reviews and complaints handling in relation to AA as a whole. You can find more specific reviews of AA home, travel or car insurance, as well as accurate price comparisons, in our individual AA home insurance, AA car insurance and AA travel insurance guides.
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Find out if The AA can save your money on your car insurace
AA insurance reviews
What do current and past customers think of AA Insurance? While not the be all or end all, customer reviews can give you a bit of further insight into a company, but remember to always take them with a pinch of salt: what bothers one person might not be an issue for you.
AA Insurance rates very poorly on Trustpilot with just 1/5 stars. Out of 257 reviews, 90% gave the company a ‘bad’ rating (which is the worst available). A number of customers complained about inefficient customer service.
Have now spent almost 3 hours over 2 days on hold….First call one hour and 15 mins, no answer. Second call 1 hour and 2 mins no answer, third call 31 mins still no answer. Requested a call back online, no call back. AA customer
The principal issue however, centered on drastic price rises when existing customers went to renew their policies.
Like many previous reviewers I too received a renewal quote with an increase of over £100 despite having 13 yrs of no claims bonus. AA customer
This was also a sentiment shared by reviewers on reviews.io.
Increased my husbands car insurance from £356 to £1370 after he made two no fault claims. 7 years no claims bonus. AA customer
Despite these negative reviews, AA Insurance does come out better on reviews.io than Trustpilot with an overall score of 3.58/5. Out of 619 reviews, 64% would recommend the AA to a friend. Positive reviews here praised good communication and fast response for breakdown cover.
Found a nice shiny screw in one of my rear car tyres. Called the AA out from my app and Simon came all the way from Buxton to High Lane in 30 mins. Friendly and helpful. I was able to drive away using my spare to the nearest garage in Great Moor. Definitely exceptional customer service. AA customer
All in all, it seems that customers are happy with their AA policies and, in most cases, the customer service and experience they receive. However, when it comes to renewing your policy, AA insurance will raise the price exorbitantly.
If you ring to address this, we are fairly certain AA will quote you a lower price to keep your service, but be aware of automatic renewal. If you don’t keep an eye on your renewal dates and don’t bother to check prices, you could see your AA insurance policy reach an eye-watering price.
Complaints handling
From the AA’s own data, we can see if it is efficient at handling the complaints it receives compared to other companies, and also learn the main reason why customers issue complaints in the first place.
From February to July 2019, AA Insurance received 4.4 complaints for every 1,000 policies in force. Compared to other providers, this appears to be quite a lot for a 6 month period. From July to December 2018, LV, Covea and AXA received less than 2 complaints for every 1,000 policies, and Allianz received 2.46.
Despite receiving a greater ratio of complaints over 6 months, AA Insurance seems to be just as efficient as others at dealing with them. itresolved a total of 14,060, an industry-leading figure. It solved 39.36% within 3 days, which is on the higher end of the scale when compared to the performance of other providers, and closed 54.15% within 8 weeks. This is less than some providers but could simply be because it solved a significant amount more within 3 days.
Out of all the complaints it received in this time, AA insuIance resolved just over 93%. This puts the AA in the middle of the pack when it comes to complaint handling efficiency.
Like most providers, the principal reasons for complaints were general administration issues and poor customer service.
Selectra’s verdict
Here at Selectra, we think AA Insurance offers good solid policies for decent prices (at least before you renew!). Its breakdown cover in particular is highly rated and the AA app’s accurate locator means assistance reaches you fast when you need it. We also like that it awards its members with little benefits, although it would be nice if these were extended to all customers.
What we really don’t like is that the company does not appear to reward long-serving customers, but rather drastically raises the price of premiums when it comes to renewing policies. This is sneaky and can catch out customers who have set up auto-renewal, or just accept the renewal figure AA insurance quotes them.
|
|
|
|---|---|
| Offers good policies with decent benefits even in the basic level of cover. | Prices rise significantly for renewals. |
| The AA app works well and is really useful for AA members. | Appears to receive a greater number of customer complaints than a notable number of other providers. |
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Data and information correct as of August 2019.
All material on this page and the selectra.co.uk website is for information purposes only and does not constitute any form of financial advice. Selectra.co.uk is not responsible for any consequences that might arise from your use of the information provided.
Other providers are available and the best deal for you will depend on your individual circumstances. Please do your own research and seek professional advice if necessary (moneyadviceservice.org.uk offers free, independent advice on all financial issues).
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