AA Car insurance Deception

JimiTime

My Car insurance is up for renewel soon. I obviously applied for a quote a few years back from the AA, as I recieved a letter from them this morning about my insurance coming up for renewel. It said:

AA wrote:

I'm Delighted to announce that the AA will *GUARANTEE TO BEAT(Accentuation theirs) your current car insurance renewal premium!

This means not only will you recieve an exclusive AA car insurance policy with extensive benefits such as AA lifetime No Claims Discount Protection, you are also *GURANTEED(Again, accentuation theirs) to save money too.


*The AA quotation and your renewal quotation must be based on equivalent cover and benefits........

So I thought, it'll do no harm to give them a shout. I qoted the reference and got suspicious when they never even asked what my current renewal quote was. They just jetted through and start quoting me. €150 more than my renewal quote I might add. So I said, well my renewal is X amount, it is 3rd party fire and theft and has 24 hour breakdown assistance. That is all I'm looking for. So could you get me a quote that beats this, based on this criteria. But no, they offer this no claims protection, so my quote is not equivalent. I thought, 'You deceptive feckers.' Rather than them get my quote and what it covers, then try beat it; they instead base it all on whatever they want to their end.

At the end of the day, its no biggie, but I found this nothing short of dishonest. You could likely read into the letter that this is what they meant, but no doubt they know what they're doing.

You guys reckon its deceptive, or breaking any advertising guidelines? Or do you reckon I am just a moron?:)

dahamsta

Motor Insurers In Deceptive Pratices Shocker!

Saved €150 this year by ringing FBD and shouting web-based quotes at them. Every bloody year it's the same.

JimiTime

dahamsta wrote: »

Motor Insurers In Deceptive Pratices Shocker!

Saved €150 this year by ringing FBD and shouting web-based quotes at them. Every bloody year it's the same.

Yeah, I know its not that shocking, but tbh, I never seen one that was just so bare faced. As a matter or principal, if this is against any standard etc, I'd like to report it to a relevant body.

Nody

JimiTime wrote: »

Yeah, I know its not that shocking, but tbh, I never seen one that was just so bare faced. As a matter or principal, if this is against any standard etc, I'd like to report it to a relevant body.

This is the exact same thing done by stores for ages (has to be exactly same product model, not spec etc.); they even exclude internet qoutes usually so how would it suddenly be illegal for car insurance qoutes?

dudara

Moved to Motors

dudara

Barr

AA are just brokers - their quotes only come from whicever Insurance company comes in cheapest for your needs.

January

Barr wrote: »

AA are just brokers - their quotes only come from whicever Insurance company comes in cheapest for your needs.

Not true, they do have an offer on at the moment. My advice? Ring back and before letting them quote tell them what your current policy offers and how much it is and can they match it. Tell them you received that specific letter.

any_names_left?

I had the exact same situation, however, I wasn't going to just roll over and let them away with it.

I threatened to report them to the Advertising Standards Authority, and lo and behold, they came back and beat my lowest received quote by €20. Not a lot, but at least it was better than nothing.

Oh, and then I wrote to the ASAI anyway! Maybe you could consider doing the same?? The more people that challenge the AA over their false claims the better!

(I presume you got about 4 letters from the AA urging you to take them up on their guarantee? I did...)