Address change rip off

whiskeytoothpaste

Swiftcover: No charge to amend details online.
I move from a rough area, where my car is kept on the road (a week ago my wingmirror knocked off by a drunk).
I move to a nice, quiet area where my car is kept on my driveway (off of a private car park)- Swiftcover want £45 extra. I query it- I want to see the information they have based their premium increase on.- I ask them where I can find their 'statistics that they use to assess risk'- they say it's 'commercially sensitive' and cannot be shared.
therefore my options are to spend more money now, or spend more money canceling. Does anyone think it will be worth persuing through the ombudsman. I am feeling angry as there is no obvious justification for this, and I consider it oppressive and extortionate. Neddless to say I will not use them again. (10th year tesco boycott)- I mean it.

DCFC79

It may seem nice quiet area to you but maybe just maybe theres been past instances of incidents which makes it not such a quiet area,

have you aksed if the £45 is just for changing your details or is it due to the postcode as well

your bit of a dormant poster, the last reply to your first post lablled the post as spam,

whiskeytoothpaste

I find this hard to swallow as I'm personally doing nothing different. Mainly- I'd like to see the information that they use to ascertain their risk assessment. The 'spam' comment appears to be someones inability to understand the issue discussed in my last post. Who and what you choose to believe is your business.

dunstonh

The poll is unworkable. I have had a reduction in cost with both address change and a car change. Its pretty obvious to know that they could both occur. Change of name wouldnt likely make any difference unless a change of status occurred at the same time.

Postcode is a major price adjuster.

Catslovelycats

i had to pay more to change my address on various things when i moved
i think we're a captive audience

olly300

I moved from a "nice" area with garages and plenty of luxury cars to a normal area where all cars where parked on the road and my insurance premium went down. I got a refund from the insurance company. I subsequently moved again to an area that had a mixture of luxury cars and others parked on the road/parking spaces then finally to where I am now.

I knew I was moving that year so when looking at quotes I phoned and asked them how much their admin charges where and chose the insurance company that would charge me the least in admin charges.

In my case I wasn't charged at all for each of my moves and in fact the only time they did charge me an admin charge was when I had to up the mileage on my car.

Likewise when I knew I was likely to change my car that year I asked all my top 3 quotes what their admin charge was for changing cars and chose the second one.

In short car insurance companies openly state they charge you admin fees. There is nothing stopping you phoning them and asking what the fees are before you take out a policy with them.

dunstonh

I knew I was moving that year so when looking at quotes I phoned and asked them how much their admin charges where and chose the insurance company that would charge me the least in admin charges.

In my case I wasn't charged at all for each of my moves and in fact the only time they did charge me an admin charge was when I had to up the mileage on my car.

Now that's clever planning. You chose to buy the type of pricing that matched your requirements over the coming years.

You have thought like a broker/adviser. If you bypass an adviser/broker to DIY then you have to act like a broker/adviser yourself and take the options available into account rather than just focus on the insurance premium only, which is what far too many people do.

Thats why I dont have an issue with it as if I know I had a number of changes coming up I would factor that into my choice of provider as to whether to go with one that charges a higher premium but no admin charge or lower premium but admin charges. The choice is there for you to make and if you dont do your research (or dont use a broker/adviser to do it for you) then you only have yourself to blame if you pick the wrong option.

Evilm

I had one where the admin fee was wiped out by the reduction in premium for the new area. So.. kind of!

vaio

easy answer is run dummy quotes for both addresses.

If the results differ from what they are saying now then complain and follow through to the FOS if they don't play ball as charging you where they wouldn’t charge a new customer breaches the “treat your customers fairly” ethos

whiskeytoothpaste

What does the initialization stand for?
I'll run dummy quotes.

noh

Google gives this
http://www.carinsuranceexplained.com/car_insurance_explained/insurance_postcode_risk.htm

It may not be exacly the rating system your insurance company uses but it may give an indication whether your new address is higher or lower risk than your previous one.