I’m an AA customer coming to the end of the second year of my membership. I pay just under £15 a month for breakdown cover. I have received a letter saying that the cost of my cover will be going up to £29 – double the current amount – in January. It is also upgrading my membership to a silver membership.

The letter goes on to say that I don’t need to do anything as the new membership will kick in on my auto-renewal in January. I won’t be renewing – I just wanted to warn other readers to check their AA renewal letters closely.
MH by email.

The AA told us that it didn’t think this was a story and that “the level of price increase just reflects the removal of the one-off discount that you enjoyed last year”.

We would beg to differ. In our view this is price gouging – £348 a year for breakdown cover, really? This pricing model is much more likely to affect the elderly, who are less likely to switch, or anyone who fails to keep a close eye on their bills.

As we have said before, never accept an AA increase – if you phone up and threaten to leave they will, in our experience, drop it back to the previous price. Or better still, just keep switching provider each year. LV’s cover is a good alternative.

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