AA Membership
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Once you have decided the AA is the right provider for you, buying it is straightforward — but the structure has changed. There is no longer a simple ladder of four named tiers to pick from.
The First Decision: Person Or Car
Everything starts here. Personal cover follows you as an individual, so whatever vehicle you are travelling in — as driver or as passenger — is covered. It is sold as single, joint or family. Vehicle cover attaches to one named car and covers it whoever is driving.
The rule of thumb: if several people drive one car, cover the car. If you drive several cars, cover yourself. Get this wrong and the provider has no obligation to attend — a family policy bought as personal cover for one parent does not help when a son or daughter breaks down in the same car.
The Second Decision: The Add-Ons
Roadside assistance is included as standard at every level. Everything else is bolted on:
- At Home — without it you are not covered on your own drive, or within a quarter of a mile of it. This is the exclusion that catches most people out.
- National Recovery — the car, you and your passengers taken anywhere on the UK mainland if it cannot be fixed. Without it you get a tow to a local garage of their choosing.
- Onward Travel — a hire car, a hotel or alternative transport so the journey continues.
- Parts and Garage Cover, Tyre Cover and Key Cover — each priced separately.
The Questions You Will Be Asked
If you are unsure what you need, the AA has a guided route that asks questions along these lines:
- Would you need help if you broke down at home?
- Would you want to be taken to the nearest garage, or to a location anywhere in the UK?
- If your vehicle could not be fixed, would you want to continue your journey?
- If your vehicle needed to go to a garage, would you want help with the bill?
The wording is not exact — it changes — but that is the shape of it. It is a decent process, because it asks about your circumstances rather than pushing a tier.
Then The Quote
Once the package is built and your vehicle details are in, you get a final price you can accept online. One long-standing criticism still applies: you see a single price for the package you have assembled, not a comparison showing what dropping one option would save. If you want to test that, you have to go back and rebuild it.
Two things worth doing before you pay. Check whether you already have cover through a packaged bank account, your car insurance, a warranty or a lease — duplication here is extremely common. And note that the price you are shown is a new-customer price; put a reminder in your calendar a month before renewal, because the automatic renewal quote will not be the same number.
Electric and hybrid vehicles cost no more to cover than petrol or diesel, and there is no separate EV product to buy.