Adam says his brother thought he had car insurance through AAA, but discovered when he was pulled over that the company had dropped him without notifying him. Then he got stuck with two $600 tickets in the same day for driving without insurance.

Adam writes:

Recently my brother, Curtis, had quite a rough day at the hands of AAA auto insurance. As a member of its auto club as well as receiving insurance from them for over three years, he came to trust their services, and the peace of mind he received he found very valuable. Moreover, he was planning on being an insurance customer of AAA for years to come.

In a move to temporarily reduce expenses, he recently canceled his club membership. For some reason AAA decided that he was no longer insurable, now that he was no longer towable. They decided to cancel his auto insurance, without notifying him in any way.

Shortly thereafter he is stopped in a routine traffic violation, where he is surprised to learn he has a now invalid auto insurance card on hand. As is the law in Michigan, he is ticketed for not having insurance; all told $600. A hefty sum for someone who absolutely believed a moment ago he was insured.

What happens later, this same day? A second traffic stop and a second ticket for a grand total of $1200. (On a side note, what kind of heartless officer sees that first ticket from earlier today, and decides to give another?)

Now to be fair, Curtis is billed monthly and in hindsight he did miss a bill. But I think most can agree that it can be hard to know when a bill will arrive, and to react quickly if it doesn’t. Curtis has also recently completed moving to a new apartment, which adds even more confusion. I think that AAA is in the wrong for canceling Curtis’ insurance, and even more so for not telling him.

Do you know who at AAA we can contact for some help here? No one in the normal customer service path can/will help him, and I think this is appropriate for escalation.

Has anyone lost their insurance without knowing it? Any ideas on how to fight these tickets or get AAA to accept Curtis back into its fickle arms?

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