OneAndOneIs2

I bought my car from new (It's only a Corsa..) four years ago. It got me free AA breakdown cover. It's new, so it hasn't needed it so far.

That cover ran out after 3 years, so I started paying for it. The first year, I got a "New member" discount.

This year, they sent me a renewal notice with a "staying with us" discount of 25% - this would only cost me 108UKP for the year!

And that's not bad, to be honest - the nearest competitor, the RAC, is more expensive than this.

However, it's something of a tradition to hunt around until you find a cheaper quote for the same cover, and then ask if your existing organisation can match it - especially if you haven't actually called them out lately, and therefore have cost them nothing.

Rather than the old-hat method of phoning everybody, I did it online, of course. And I found somebody who could beat the AA's prices.

The AA.

The discounted renewal was 108, and yet the AA's website would get me the same cover for only 100. All I had to do was let my membership lapse, and apply anew.

So I phoned them up and told them that I could get the exact same cover cheaper off the web (Every word being, you'll note, a sparkling little gem of truth.. as far as it goes ;o) and asked if they might be able to do anything about their offer.

So the nice lady in the call center had a word with her manager (Or, I suspect, push a button on her computer) and was able to offer me a further discount down to just 80 pounds.

I took it. Not a bad result, all things considered :o)