Being charged for change of address - what a liberty

arkhan42

I have recently moved house, and have changed by address today for my car insurance with Hastings Direct, they charged me £25.00 admin fee for change of address and an additional £18.00 as they say the premium has altered due to post code change. What a rip off. I argued the fact with them and said they must make a fortune with all the people changing details with them on a regular basis. I had no joy they just said it was in their T & C's. I wondered if anyone had come across this before??

molerat

Just about every insurer does it now.

foggytown

arkhan42 wrote: »

I have recently moved house, and have changed by address today for my car insurance with Hastings Direct, they charged me £25.00 admin fee for change of address and an additional £18.00 as they say the premium has altered due to post code change. What a rip off. I argued the fact with them and said they must make a fortune with all the people changing details with them on a regular basis. I had no joy they just said it was in their T & C's. I wondered if anyone had come across this before??

Oh, the "admin" charge is pretty standard stuff, I'm afraid. Another little earner which has as much justification as the fees banks charge to automatically send you a computer letter if you go overdrawn. The additional charge for the change of post code, otoh, has some valifity. Would you rather insure for theft, vandalism, etc. for a car in Manchester or one in Worthing?

MoneySavingUser

The funny thing is that sometimes when changing to a 'safer' area they put the premium up!

Woby_Tide

arkhan42 wrote: »

I had no joy they just said it was in their T & C's. I wondered if anyone had come across this before??

Anyone who read the T&C's before signing up to the policy would have done I imagine

lisyloo

The funny thing is that sometimes when changing to a 'safer' area they put the premium up!

The reason is that some "nicer" areas get a lot more breakins and thefts as they have nicer cars. So your nicer area can be high risk.

I feel an admin fee is quite justified IF it was excluded from the original premium.
I call this the "ryanair" model. i.e. rock bottom prices without services included, so when you want extra you have to pay.
I think morally this is actually fairer, because those who change houses, partners etc. have to pay rather than those people with more "stable" circumstances.

Why should others carry the cost and subside someone else if they want to move?

Ok, but £25 is too much I hear you say.

Well we've been through this many times before but for customer services you need buildings, telephones, printers, paper, toilets, kitchens, training, pensions, sick pay, computer software, data protection act procedures, employees lability insurance, security procedures, back up procedures, hardware etc. etc.
£25 seems quite reasonable to me.

Can they do this? Yes they can.

Anyone here want to volunteer to work for free? No didn't think so.

BTW - I do not work in insurance (but know a bit about computers and the costs assocaited with data protection, security, backups etc.)

arkhan42

Thanks for the reply, I have moved to what I consider a 'safer' area, but the still got an additional charge, and as for the T & C's, am afraid I think life is too short to read the T & C's for everything I buy, maybe in my next life!!

dunstonh

What a rip off.

no its not. The old way was.

I wondered if anyone had come across this before??

its very common.

You still have insurers doing it the old way of pricing it in to the premium so everyone pays the cost but nowadays most only charge those when they make the change. A much fairer system.

The FSA is against cross subsidising and likes charges to be explicit.

MoneySavingUser

Thanks lisyloo - all good points

My father lived in the countryside and payed £x - he moved to a busy city and it went up - he moved back to the countryside (same place where it was cheaper a year earlier) and it went up £100 - but as you said 'ryanair' model so I understand better now

lisyloo

he moved back to the countryside (same place where it was cheaper a year earlier) and it went up £100

It's possible that the risks have genuinely changed.
This can happen.
For example when car security got better (imobilisers etc.) it became older cars that were targetted because they were easier to steal.
There are changes over time in the types of crime perpetrated.
Remember when people used to nick car radios? Well they aren't worth anything now, but people might break in for a mobile phone or sat nav, so times have changed.

It's also possible that insurance prices generally went up and he got caught in that.
Recently car isurance has increased across the board.
This is because of the higher price of claims due to more personal injury claims now we have "no win no fee" lawyers and also because insurers have been making losses and they need to change that.
So it's possible that the increase was not just related to the move, but because premiums had moved upwards in the interim period and he was rated on the new prices.

lisyloo

arkhan42 wrote: »

Thanks for the reply, I have moved to what I consider a 'safer' area, but the still got an additional charge, and as for the T & C's, am afraid I think life is too short to read the T & C's for everything I buy, maybe in my next life!!

Well you could be wrong about the risk of the area.
Insurers will have actual statistics to go on and won't be just guessing. they would have to be able to justify it. What you "think", I'm sorry does not count for much against statistical analysis.

If you don't want to put unfront effort into researching the contracts you take out, then don't expect sympathy here, when things don't go your way.

I don't expect people to read entire policies, but checking out charges is something that seems reasonable if that is a concern for you.
If you don't want to bother then it's your choice, but I don't think you can expect everything to go your way or suit your circumstances or get sympathy.