Car insurance, outdated address?

[singlemindedly]

I'm about to move next weekend, and I phoned my car insurance provider to change my address - they want to charge me £20 to make that change!

So I asked them not to. If I don't update it (the insurance runs for another 9 months), are there legal implications if there's a problem? I mean what if people forget to change their insurance addresses?

Thanks
Susanne

[Martian Gentleman]

Hello,
Insurance rates differ from one location to another depending upon the statistical risk for each region, thereby you may be liable for a lower premium in a lower risk area or a higher if the area is historical worse for claims. I doubt that the company would issue a refund in the former case but suspect that in the latter case they may reduce the value of any claim on the basis that you are underinsured by virtue of not informing them. Not advising them may be a violation of their terms and conditions.

So, maybe you could write to them and advise them of the change and tell them that you do not think a charge of £20.00 is acceptable for being either a fair or a reasonable reflection of their costs. You might get the charge halved but at any rate, you will have notified them.

best regards,

M.G.

[darich]

if you don't inform them then they'll simply say your policy is void should you try to make a claim.
Where you live has a massive bearing on the cost of insurance and having the wrong address could be seen as a kind of fraud.
£20 to change isn't unreasonable especially since there is 75% of the policy remaining.
If you're dead against paying the £20 then one option is to cancel the policy and start another with a new company. However that'll cost more than £20 because they'll charge you a percentage of the policy for canceling early.

Another option is to cancel the purchase of your new property.:rolleyes:

You'll need to stump up I'm afraid - especially since they now know you're moving - you can't claim to have "forgotten".

It's the cheapest option by quite a distance!

[C_Ronaldo]

Why does it cost £20 though, it will take what less than 5 mins to change the address on the system,

[darich]

Do you know that's all they do?
do they need to re print documents?
do they have to inform a company (if they're a broker or agent they do)
do they need to move your file from one location to another if they're stored by post code?

You're right - it'll take a few minutes to change the address on the system but there may be other changes required too.

[Conor]

Not only that, the underwriters make a charge too.