Admin fee for changing vehicle?? Is this legal?

Carnivalgirl

I am in dispute with my previous insurer as I fail to understand why they are saying I owe them money.

Basically I changed my vehicle 2 months before the policy expired, they said they would take the additional amount over the last 2 payments which went out as normal. (In the meantime I dediced not to renew with them and am now with another company). They then sent me a letter saying I owe them £54 which I queried, they first said (during telephone calls) that I'd missed a payment, then they said I'd been paying in arrears so I owed them a month, when I proved them wrong in both cases and asked them to send a breakdown of the payment schedule in writing they have finally detailed the amount outstanding as "Admin Fee".

Is it legal to charge someone an admin fee over and above the additional amount charged to the policy to cover for the change of vehicle? Surely if I had changed my address they wouldn't try and charge me this fee?:mad:

huckster

Yes they charge admin fees which are totally legal. These should be noted in the policy documents orginally sent to you. These will state that x amount will be charged if you make any changes to the Insurance contract.

Meepster

What does it say in the terms and conditions? Many companies now charge an admin fee for changes to the policy (change of address, change of vehicle, adding/removing someone to/from the policy etc etc)

dunstonh

Is it legal to charge someone an admin fee over and above the additional amount charged to the policy to cover for the change of vehicle?

Yes. The FOS publications show the they reject complaints on admin charges where the charge is published in the T&C. We know from those publications that fees up to £50 are acceptable. We dont know if higher is or is not because nothing above that figure has been published.

Surely if I had changed my address they wouldn't try and charge me this fee?

yes they would. That is what an admin fee is for. Its for mid term admin.

Admin charges are more common now with companies that aim to reduce their premium on quote comparison sites. By shifting mid term admin to explicit charges, they can lower their premiums a bit and move them further to the top of the quote sites.

[Deleted User]

Carnivalgirl wrote: »

Surely if I had changed my address they wouldn't try and charge me this fee?:mad:

Yes they would, and there would be a change in your premium too (sometimes meaning a refund, or sometimes meaning paying £100's more for insurance). Any change you make mid term means an admin fee with your insurers. Meant to cover costs of changing details with DVLA, new docs ect but I am sure that there is also a tidy profit to be had from this! The insurer I work for charges £26 just to send you new documents or to fax a certificate of insurance to the dealership!