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Have had to call out autoaid twice now. Both times I was kept informed. If engineer hadn't come by estimated time someone rang and gave me an update. much better call out time than AA. All the mechanics that came were very efficient and communicated well. Very pleased with the service
Been with them about 4 years with 2 cars (One car now) for myself and my wife - UK and Home Start cover. Fortunately never had to use them. Today the passenger side power window was fully down and wouldn't go up. We were meant to be driving from Scotland to Birmingham Airport the next day and through Storm Eowyn, with up to 90mph winds and rain expected in Scotland. After 15 minutes on the phone they said it wasn't a breakdown, nor an emergency and so we weren't covered. They advised us to take it to a local garage. I told them that was unacceptable, and that their 'exclusion' wasn't stated in their list of exclusions on the policy. We won't be using them again.
Renewed a policy for my car that was over 15 year old when Autoaid do not provide cover for vehicles older than 15 years. When I looked at the terms and conditions, realising that they were renewing a policy that didn't cover my car I cancelled the policy. This was less than 24 hours after the policy had renewed. They then send a letter cancelling the policy but withholding a whopping 33% of the cost of the policy. I complained to the underwriters, Right Choice Insurance Brokers Ltd and received a lengthy rambling, factually incorrect letter upholding their decision not to refund the entire cost of the policy. I have escalated the matter to the Ombudsman and I will update on the outcome
My wife and I were travelling on M25 just going on to M1 on Blunts Lane when my rear drivers side tyre burst.
Got onto hard shoulder only to find tyre ripped open.
Thank god it had a hard shoulder and wasn’t a stupid smart motorway.
Called recovery they were great said they would sort recovery 5 minutes later garage phoned said on our way within half hour he was there picked up my car took me to services changed the wheel over nice chap polite and was very attentive to our safety on the motorway.
During this time auto aid rang me 3 times to make sure we were ok and safe.
So great to see a company actually do it and do it well.
People are quick to moan in this day and age but a thank you is also required in life.
So thanks for your help and recovery company we’re great
Thanks
Martin Amanda
I bought a breakdown cover policy with AutoAid this afternoon after recommendations by Martin Lewis. Within an hour, I had cancelled the policy and was £24 worse off. I'll try to explain my circumstances in the hope that anyone with similar circumstances doesn't make the same mistake.
We are a 2 car household. We needed to buy breakdown cover for 2 cars. Going onto AutoAid's website I discovered that there are 2 types of policy - Vehicle based cover and Personal based cover. A vehicle based policy covers the vehicle regardless of who is present, and a personal based policy covers a specified person regardless of the vehicle. Person based policies seem to be more expensive. We only needed cover for the 2 vehicles, so we decided to go for a Vehicle based policy.
The initial website page offers separate options for each type of policy. We selected Vehicle based. I completed all the info - it even asks whether I want to add a vehicle after adding mine, plus my partner's details, which I did. Great so far.
After hitting "Next" you get a list of quotes. We selected one which we thought looked the most attractive. £63.64 seemed reasonable for both vehicles. I selected it and duly paid.
I then downloaded the policy documents which is when I noticed that my partner's vehicle reg num wasn't present. I rang the AutoAid helpdesk. An unhelpful agent told me that I'd bought Personal cover and that it would cost £15 to cancel, plus I wouldn't be refunded a £9 "insurer fee". I wasn't aware of the costs until I went back and read the policy documents I'd downloaded AFTER buying the policy.
My advice is:
1) Understand the difference between Personal based and Vehicle based policies.
2) Be careful on the AutoAid website - you may think you're buying one type when you're actually buying the other type (I was told by the unhelpful agent that AutoAid only do Personal based policies and I needed to get a policy with their sister company "AutoNational" if I wanted Vehicle based cover).
3) Don't assume that just because you can cancel in the 14-day cooling off period that it won't cost you anything.
4) Read Trustpilot reviews before buying. I wish I had. There is a common complaint about cancelling the auto renewal and being charged the £15 "admin fee" plus the £9 "insurer fee". The whole cancellation fee within cooling off period just sounds to me a bit too much like a nice money earner for AutoAid which really stretches the "Treat Customers Fairly" drive from the FCA.
Date of experience: December 09, 2024
Unbelievable service! This was recommended by Martin Lewis as the cheapest quote and it did not disappoint. For anyone dubious of opting out of using bug companies because of the price, try these guys, you won’t be disappointed:-)
Date of experience: December 04, 2024
AutoAid used to be a great company, cost effective and reliable. That was a few years ago. Since then they have reverted to scam tactics by auto-renewing policies without authorisation and subsequently renewing the policies without sending the renewal quote price documents prior to renewal Trying to cancel the policy when you see the extortionate rise in premium at date of renewal then triggers a £15 cancellation charge and £9 admin fee even if you try to cancel on the day the policy renews. They have become scam merchants avoid ta all costs!
Date of experience: December 02, 2024
Trustpilot, please implement a set of MINUS stars!
I begrudge giving 1 star!
Another vote for AutoAid RIP_OFF Auto renew policy and procedure. It's probably legal but morally wrong.
I had the same issues last year but gave up - I wish I hadn't.
Today I have been charged the admin fee + cancellation fee for clicking a button. The call handler was difficult to understand, spoke too fast, and was less than helpful although if I had to deal with grumpy people all day wanting to cancel from this RIP-OFF company so might I.
I asked three times on the call for them to stop auto-renewing.
My other grievance is that the Auto Renew email is SO ambiguous—they do not clearly state that the 'REF' is a Policy Number so it goes into Junk.
He said this was my fault. I argued their emails are not titled clearly.
I asked several times on the call why 'Document Number starting RCAB' is in fact (their words), a REFERENCE No. No explanation given.
A 'WO' number on the email is a policy number (!) but on their Website, the Login Form pre-fills the box with RCAU... or 27. Nothing makes sense.
Whoever wrote the website or marketing needs to test their systems with secret shopper users although I suspect the whole membership/renewal process is designed to confuse and lead members to give up trying to cancel.
The policy prices increase year on year whether you claim or not.
Just please do not use them - and if you do DON'T auto renew.
AutoAid - DO Better, be fairer, be clearer.
Date of experience: December 02, 2024
Nightmare. 11hours to make a 3 hour max journey. Two stars because we did actually arrive home eventually!
And although they knew when we made the original call that we had a pet with us, when recovery vehicle arrived, two hours later, we were told our pet could not travel with us in the recovery vehicle and had to stay in our broken down vehicle on the flatbed.He dehydrates easily and it was one of the few hot days we had this summer, with motorway traffic crawling, I really expected him to have died by the time we stopped.
Had I left him in a locked car on a car park, I could have been prosecuted!
I would have stayed with him in the broken down vehicle but this also wasn’t allowed!
Yes, it is in the small print. However, when they ring evey 20 minutes to ask if you are ok, every person I spoke to said we should have been told in the original call too. We weren’t. If we had have been told, we had two hours wait to make alternative arrangements for him and definitely would have.
I asked on those calls who was responsible if he died on the way home and was told he’s your pet and you’re responsible for him!
So I traveled back in tears, worried sick about him. Thankfully he survived.
They totally weren’t interested from a humane point of view and we won’t be going with them again
Date of experience: September 06, 2024
I never had to use the breakdown cover for a call out, but the annual policy auto-renews (which was not made clear) with £9 charge for the privilege of auto-renewing. Then when you cancel, they hit you with another £9 fee and a £15 cancellation charge. Auto-aid claim they sent a renewal reminder to my email a month before it renewed, but I did not receive this (and was unable to check junk email folder as they automatically delete after a month). Please read the small print if taking out a policy.
Date of experience: November 22, 2024
My car overheated on our way to IKEA. We pulled into the car park and phoned AutoAid. Someone was with us within an hour. He told me my water pump had corroded and that he would call the tow truck. This arrived quickly. The driver was amazing. He loaded my car and drove it to our home. He was very friendly and efficient. From the time of my initial call, to being back at home, was no more than 2.5 hours max.
Date of experience: November 16, 2024
Excellent price
Excellent service
Beats competition by a mile.
Date of experience: November 11, 2024
Broke down 3 hours from home, policy says nationwide recovery to your destination of choice.
They tried to fob me off with local garages.
Managed to agree to recovery as policy states at an additional £25 payment.
This happened at 10am, I was told 2hr wait. I rang up after 2, was then told a further hour. Same again another hour, this has continued to 4.15pm where I'm still sat waiting.
In-between these calls I was hung up on, lied to about crashes - so sat on my phone checking local updates (got nowt else to do). So called them out on the above on the live chat & finally managed to get the recovery companies phone number which the previously wouldn't issue. To find out I'll be waiting a further 45mins.
One of those companies that are quick to take your money but don't show up with the good! Avoid, stick to aa/greenflag
Update, latest time frame provided has me at a 6 & a half hour wait.
Date of experience: November 06, 2024
It is not until you have a breakdown that you have the chance to really be in a position to truly rate your breakdown provider. So when our Skoda broke down with a failed clutch on the inside lane of a fast section of the A46 and with 70 miles still to go on our journey it was AutoAid who rescued us from what was a hazardous situation and one that was going to get worse as the light faded. After 40 minutes we had two recovery vehicles attend, one to protect us and our vehicle from oncoming traffic and one to load us up for phase one of our return home. Whilst we were dropped off at a motorway service area another recovery team arrived to complete our recovery o home. Auto Aid checking our progress every 20 minutes until they knew we were safely onto our final recovery stage. Absolutely superb service from AutoAid and the recovery teams who came to our rescue, namely Hinton Recovery and Caldecott Recovery.
Date of experience: November 03, 2024
I never sign up for auto renew with any company.
I was with Autoaid last year (to October 26 2024). The first I knew that I had signed up for another year was when I received a text congratulating me on signing up with them for another year. I contacted Autoaid. They said I didn't receive a reminder about renewal because i had given them a mistyped email address and therefore I would be charged £24.00 (£15.00 cancellation fee and £9.00 for standing charge). Why did they not text me 3 weeks before renewal like most trustworthy companies do and I could have contacted them and avoided the problem? I think they are treating cancellations as a revenue stream. The person I spoke to was pretty unhelpful. I wonder what would happen If I did have a breakdown?
I will not deal with this company again, and suggest you don't either.
Date of experience: October 26, 2024
Absolute rip off. Auto renewed without me making a positive selection last year. Called one day after they had auto renewed within the 14 day cool off period. They said they would charge me £9.00 plus £15.00 = £24 to cancel. I guess somewhere in their T&Cs it might say this, but it's sharp practice in my opinion. Tina was quite passive aggressive throughout the call. In the end it was cheaper to just stay with them another year , get them to remove auto renew and go somewhere else next year. Very poor operation and i dread to think how poor they will be if we breakdown. Go elsewhere like I intend to.
Date of experience: October 25, 2024
Not national recovery! If you're >25 miles from home, it covers hire car or bus ticket. So, not a lot of use these days. AVOID !!! Autoaid is cheap for a reason, and that reason is it doesn't cover national recovery.
It used to, but the cover has been reduced to keep the premium down. Sharp practice to not make that clear on their website. FCA to notified.
Date of experience: October 22, 2024
Just got my renewal invite, tried to log in only to be told I my membership expired in November 2021. Not impressed. What would have happened had we broken down??????
Date of experience: October 21, 2024
YOU HAVE TOLD ME I AM NOT A MEMBER SINCE 2021 BUT I USED YOUR BREAKDOWN SERVICE THIS SUMMER AND JUST HAD A RENEWAL INVITE
Date of experience: October 17, 2024
The cancelation process of monthly policies is a joke. You can select the don't auto renew option within the app and it confirms that the cancelation has gone through. However it does not cancel, you need to call and cancel over the phone. Now I was told on the phone that the documents stated this on signing up which is fair. However the app should not tell you that it's confirmed and the policy has been canceled. I would avoid any company that gives incorrect information & hides the cancelation policy within the small print. Sadly a bad experience with this company, unprofessional staff on the phone when it came to cancelation as well. Laughed off my concern when trying to get an explanation over the phone as to why the app told me it was canceled.
Date of experience: October 17, 2024
Tina explained that she could set my cover up while I was on the phone and this she did.
Date of experience: August 24, 2024
I've been with Autoaid a few years but never needed to call them out and therefore cannot comment on that aspect. When renewing this month however, I noticed an additional charge of £10 for my spouse (who doesn't drive anyway), which I requested be removed and the premium was reduced accordingly.
What Autoaid have done however is debited my account with both amounts when I only authorised the lower amount (auto renewal was disabled).
Not good enough I'm afraid and now I have the hassle of getting them to refund the £73 that was not authorised in the first place.
Edit - when I got to speak to a helpful person at RCIB (Autoaid) and explained the issue, a prompt refund was issued and on the basis that their customer service was ok, have amended my rating. I can't give five stars because I haven't had cause to call them out yet.
Date of experience: September 20, 2024
You never really know how good any sort of insurance is until something goes wrong and you have to rely on it. Today I broke down two hours from home. AutoAid were easy to deal with and got me and my car home comfortably and in a reasonable timeframe. A huge thanks to AutoAid and the lovely men from Cotswold Vehicle Recovery and EUROTOW of Gloucester who came to my rescue.
Date of experience: September 22, 2024
We joined AutoAid in April 2024 after eventually deciding that the AA was a massive rip-off;£49.99/month, Auto Aid was £58/year! Yesterday we called them out for the first time to a flat battery. The phone call was answered promptly and the mechanic was in touch quickly. Problem sorted quickly and efficiently, service was as good as the AA and far cheaper!
Date of experience: September 20, 2024
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