£25 to change my address on my car insurance

dacouch

A banks computer sends an automated letter out, an Insurance company have to employ a certain amount of staff to handle adjustments such as change of addresses, provide them with computers, software to run it, support staff, postage etc etc etc

You cannot reclaim administration charges from an Insurer

bob_a_builder

You cannot reclaim administration charges from an Insurer

I expect you can find similar statements referring to banks on forum posts from a few years ago.

dacouch

They are different, the challenge to on bank charges hinges on the penalty element bank charges which is against the principles of contracty law. With an administration fee for adjusting your policy you have requested the Insurer to carry out work on your behalf eg change your address.

The regulator (FSA) spent a lot of time on administration fees and the basic rules are that the administration fees must be spelt out to customers when they are provided a quotation so they can see how big or small they are for the Insurer they are chosing and thus change their mind if they are not happy with the fees. They also stipulate they are fair, they have stipulated the maximum fee to be £50 (I think) for an adjustment..

They also require any fees that have been charged to be clear in any documentation given to the client

The administration charges vary from nil to £50 from Insurer to Insurer so its worth checking the size of any potential fees when you take a policy out as its worth taking into account when purchasing insurance

dollywops

I had this in June with Admiral. DS is a student at Birmingham and although his car spends more time in Watford that at Birmingham, Admiral insisted on using his Birmingham address. When he came home in June for the summer, I advised Admiral of his change of address. There was a reduction in the premium, but also an administration charge. When I queried this, they withdrew the charge.

Mazzarati2000

Diamond charge £15 for a change of registration ( same vehicle, address etc ).

dwsjarcmcd

This is down to the commoditised nature of insurance products which are primarily bought on price alone. This means that to remain competative within comparison sites, insurers need to strip out as many of these costs as possible from their premiums.

You could argue that it's also fair because if you don't change address/name/registration number you are not paying for it within your premium, although personally I do feel it would be better if all of these small administration charges were included in the original price.

Having said that, I changed my registration number with Zurich and wasn't charged, however, maybe this was because I use a broker who seems to have done the work rather than the insurer.

David