Admin Charge with Tesco Car Insurance

Gambler

My girfriend had had a new car so phoned up Tesco on Saturday to chnage the car details. The guy said it would mean an increase of premium of £35.

When the paperwork came through yesterday the £35 included a £15 'admin charge' yet this was not stated on the phone, otherwise I would have challenged it.

Is this normal practice for insuarance companies?

Seems a bit much when you pay thousands in insurance over the years and never claiming.

She has phoned up to clarify but thwe operator said she would just log a complaint.

dunstonh

It is standard with car insurance to have this charge. Remember you are in effect breaking the contract and asking them to make a revision. This covers the admin involved.

JennyB

I had a similar thing with Tesco's car insurance except I only changed my address with them as I moved half way across the small town where I live. They charged me £15 admin fee which I thought was bad as it's going to take them like 5 minutes to change my details and to mail out a new policy. They must make a lot of money out of people by charging that fee.

But get this, when they sent out my new policy I found that they had actually limited my annual mileage and increased my policy excess without telling me! If I hadn't checked I'd have had no idea. I made an official complaint and of course never heard anything else about it.

Wig

How long had she been with them?

I was with Tesco fo 5 years or so

I changed the car to another with the same premium (same online quote for both cars) they did it with no charge.

Subsequently I switched to Nationwide (to save about 25 quid in premium) Did the same thing with Nationwide they wanted to charge 25 ish, (again same online quote for both cars) asked them to explain the charge they said extra premium and admin fee. I asked why extra premium when the cars returned the same quote online, Gave me the run around and I blew every reason they came up with into smoke with logic. They were saying things like "it's a newer car, it's worth more...." and I would reply ...BUT IT"S THE SAME PREMIUM FOR BOTH CARS....then we went on an arguement she would say "but it's taken into account". I reply.."no its not, its the same premium", she "yes it is taken into account" I reply "ok it's taken into account but it makes no difference because the premium is the SAME" she "it does make a difference".......Thick as !!!!!! these people are.

I asked her to drop the admin fee she refused, saying we can't do that, I replied, "I'm sure you can do that, and if you can't you can put me through to someone who can authorise it" she said "no we can't"

I Did not proceed, decided to do some maths. I worked out that if I cancelled the policy the 1 month charge would be about 11 pounds saving me 15 pounds.

I also looked at a quote for Tesco they had an offer of 15 or 20 pounds for new policies so I would be actually about 5 pounds up if I cancelled and moved the car to Tesco.

Phoned back Nationwide, immediately asked to speak to a supervisor, because... "I don't want to talk about the problem with you and then have to ask for a supervisor anyway, so I just want to be put through to a supervisor now, if it's all the same with you"

This time a guy said "we don't have supervisors, how can I help you?"

Ok told the guy we want to swap the car, the premiums are the same for both cars but you want to charge 11 pounds premium and 15 pound fee...he says "yes"... I say well I don't find that acceptable, I want you to charge no extra premium because the premiums are the same...and I want you to drop the 15 pound fee........."We can't do that, we're not allowed to" ..... I say "well if you don't do it you will lose this customer today, because I'm here to tell you I will save money by cancelling the policy and moving back to Tesco. He eventually said he would drop the admin fee, I said fine, but that still leaves the extra premium charge for a car with the same premium, he asked me to confirm that I was referring to a quote done online today (I was) and then he said he would also drop the premium charge.

And that was that, so much for "we're not allowed to do that" I got the transfer free of charge, just like I did with Tesco insurance the year before.

Now that your gf has already paid the charge I doubt she has any chance of getting her money back.

Wig

Gambler wrote:

The guy said it would mean an increase of premium of £35.

On my first call to Nationwide (I actually made three calls guy-girl-guy)
That's exactly what Nationwide told me initially making no mention of 15 admin, I asked what the 25 was he said premium increase. I allready knew the premiums were the same, I said "what all of it?" he said. It includes an admin fee...asked what amount he was evasive and said it doesn't say it just says 25 "the computer says no" :rolleyes:

On the second call, I made her spell out exactly what the charge was for.

Gambler

Wig wrote:

"......Thick as !!!!!! these people are.

QUOTE]


Top post, couldn't agree more !!

I work hard for a living so I can look after my family and I don't mind paying for good service. I personally have not had a claim in over 10 years and because I drive a hot hatch I have probably paid £6K in insurance premiums in that time. So I don't take kindly to companies tryiing to take the P with admin charges for this and admin charges for that.

When we bought the car last week the car salesman was trying to sell me GAP insurance - to cover me when my car insurance don't pay the full purchase price.
I politely declined and stated that I understand that cars depreciate over time.

What insurance will they dream up next !

Astaroth

The insurance companies have always charged an admin fee but before the FSA ICOB rules came out they didnt have to seperate it out from the additional premium... so before feb last year your letter would have simply said £35 premium increase.

impy78

Wig wrote:

Thick as !!!!!! these people are.

Could we please stay away from these stupid generalisations, as whilst there are some people who work in insurance call centres who do have marginally less intelligence than a comatose amoeba, there are some of us who not only have a brain and the ability to use it, but who also have the common sense to be able to see the sense in what customers are saying.

But if we're all thick as !!!!, then I may as well just retaliate with, if you had to sit there listening to poeple wanting to insure a "blue car I don't know what make it is, but it's blue" all day or people who talk to you like you've just crawled out from under a brick, even though they are the ones who are less eloquent than a labotomy patient, then you might lose interest in helping people too.

Insurance companies have stupid policies designed to make as much money out of joe public, no one is going to deny that. Please do not assume that:

a) We all agree with this, as some of us go out of our way to make things as easy and cheap as possible, because we find these fees a little dubious morally;

b) That because we all have the same job that we are cut from the same cloth. I'm assuming that you don't go round saying this about other groups of people, say people with different colour skin to you, or people from certain places;

c) Have the common sense to realise that if you do call someone and start venting at them for no reason they are 99.9% less likely to help you, and if you treat them like crap, they will do the same to you. Only you're not charging them any money.

d) Read your bloody documents within the 14 day withdrawal period, and if you don't like the terms and conditions, then don't keep the policy! And don't say "nobody reads their policy documents", because it is is on the list of "moronic and untruthful things that customers say", which also includes:

"My (insert family member) was in hospital" (when they haven't paid, and the policy is cancelling)

"But everyone has driving convictions these days" (when their premium goes up)

"Why should I have to tell you about my claims history?" (when they've lied about their huge load of claims)

"But an Audi TT isn't a sporty model"

"I haven't modified my BMW, I've put an M bodykit on it - I can't see what difference it makes!"


So please think of the plebs we have to put up with every day, and consider that there are stupid people in every profession and all walks of life before you utter such utter b0llocks again.

Thanks

Gingham_Ribbon

Okay, and maybe we could get back to the question raised in the original post, please?

ArchieB_2

Fair point. Maybe we should think about why many call centre staff are low paid and poorly motivated. Price, price, price is all the vast majority of people are interested in which directly affects the staff and service Insurance companies provide. Anybody for offshoring??