Aviva car insurance (norwich union) £18 admin charge to change address!yes EIGHTEEN £

flyingscotno1

taffy056 wrote: »

Most companies don't charge them, I changed address recently with about 20 different companies, none charged a penny, its basically a rip off by these companies that do charge, I can understand a company that has got do work external from the computer like sky or BT et al to get your services running.

We're talking about insurance however! Insurers seem to all charge something (my memory was £12 with Direct Line) when I changed my car. It is something to remember anyway.

the182guy

No fee when I changed mine recently (Zurich through broker Lloyd Latchford). In fact I actually got a £20 refund :money:

whatmichaelsays

This is nothing like fruitless, misguided crusade against bank charges which were ultimately deemed to be lawful. This is simply about businesses reacting to the demands that we the public make.

The reality is that the public's insatiable desire to have everything "as cheaply as possible" means that companies are constantly having to look at bringing in ancillary charges or removing "free" services in order to make their headline price seem more competitive. There's big kudos in coming out on top in a Confused or Gocompare search and if you can do that by stripping out services, increasing excesses or generally cutting costs, then firms will do it.

We have seen it most overtly in the airline industry and we are seeing it creeping in to other industries (more and more firms are charging surcharges for credit cards for instance). Where a company may have changed an address for free in the past, the pressure to bring the headline price down to the bare bottom means that those services get removed from the standard package. Very few people will want to change an address so the negative impact of introducing a charge is minimal.

Insurance is a competitive, cut-throat industry and the margins have been shrunk dramatically. Five-ten years ago, insurers made little profit from a customer in Y1, making it up in Y2. Today, with many of us changing insurer every year (not forgetting the Quidco kick-back), firms are having to change that business model to make as much as possible in Y1 whilst still keeping the headline price low. Ancillary charges is one way of doing just that.

At the end of the day, businesses are simply reacting to consumer demand and at the moments, our demands are almost entirely price driven.

dzug1

nonnatus wrote: »

I also fell into that trap. 11 months into my policy, just moved house, EVERY SINGLE OTHER supplier etc has changed my address on their records for free but SHEILAS WHEELS charged me £26 for the change!!!

How do they justify it?? I will certainly be changing insurer next month and will read the policy more carefully this time...

Do they actually have to 'justify' every single thing? Or even anything at all?

Watch out for a cancellation fee next month:D

property.advert

There is no customer loyalty and customer service has gone out of the window as everyone in only concerned about price, not performance. Hey, these days it is as daft as how much cashback you can get !

A._Badger

There's a special place in hell reserved for insurance companies.

kai666

A._Badger wrote: »

There's a special place in hell reserved for insurance companies.

Why's that then?

A._Badger

kai666 wrote: »

Why's that then?

Because they deserve it. Richly.

kai666

A._Badger wrote: »

Because they deserve it. Richly.

Until you actually need to claim

A._Badger

kai666 wrote: »

Until you actually need to claim

On the contrary. In my experience and that of many I have known, it is precisely when you try to claim that you begin to see what utter unprincipled scoundrels many insurance companies are - writhing and wriggling like snakes to get out of the deal they led you to believe you had.

Insurance companies are nothing more than bookmakers with pretensions. They are betting you won't make a claim. You are betting that you will.

Of the two, I suspect bookmakers are the more honourable.