House insurance query - £40 increase due to wrong house number?

Werdnal

I did an insurance comparison site check for my mum-in-law this week, and came up with a good policy for £124.99, with the Post Office. Checked and double checked all the info, including the fact that her bungalow is NSC - being Cornish Unit, but the policy does cover that type of construction.

Went down there today to check the price was OK, and as she gets a little muddled when dealing with this type of thing on the phone, I made the call to take the policy out for her. Went through all the details on the phone, with a very helpful advisor, and then suddenly realised I had made the quotation details out as house number 27 (MIL's previous house number), instead of 42, where she currently lives. The advisor said no problem, we will change that to get everything correct. No other details whatsoever on the cover, policy etc were changed, but advisor them came back to say that due to the change of house number, the quote had regenerated the premium to £167.19! I queried why, and she couldn't answer, but MIL was keen to proceed as her cover runs out on Monday, so I had no option but to pay it. It is still quite a saving on her £254.00 renewal offered by her existing insurer, but as no 27 is directly opposite and exactly the same bungalow, in layout and constuction, same age etc - and probably even the same postcode as its in a small cul-de-sac of retirement bungalows, I was very annoyed at the £42 jump in price, just for correcting the number.

Its bugged me all day, so I've just gone back into the comparison site, and taken out another quotation, giving all the same details, but this time with the correct 42, instead of 27. Low and behold, 3rd quotation on the list that came back was Post Office at £124.99! How the hell can they justify the increase, when according to this quote today, cover for the correct bungalow is available at the original price?

I am going to ring them tomorrow, and demand that they reduce the price back to the original quote, or I will cancel and take out cover elsewhere.

Any suggestions or advice on why this additional price applies please?

huckster

When you phone a company to take up a policy, based on an internet quote, you will get the internet price if you don't make any changes. But as soon as you make changes, the pricing that was set for the internet purchase changes. The person you spoke to should have realised the changing the house number would not have changed the premium if the whole postcode was the same and arranged to overide the premium to the original amount.

The Insurers are not obliged to change the premium back to the original amount, as you did phone them and did not use the internet to make the purchase. They could argue that you should only get the phone up price and not the internet price.

Werdnal

But I used the internet price quotation reference and she called up all the same info, including the price. It was only when she read it back to me and I suddenly noticed the house number was wrong (pleased that I did), and she changed it, did the price suddenly jump up.

So as I got the same price, when I did another comparison site quote today, with the correct house number, should they honour it? I am still going to ring and threaten to cancel as it is extortionate to charge that much for such a trivial change, which has nothing whatsoever to do with increased risk or costs to them!

PS I have just been on the Post Office Postcode checker and 27 and 42 definately have exactly the same postcode!

Quentin

Werdnal wrote: »

I am still going to ring and threaten to cancel as it is extortionate to charge that much for such a trivial change, which has nothing whatsoever to do with increased risk or costs to them!

If there is no charge for cancelling, then why not just cancel the policy (which you bought over the phone), and start again, this time using the web?

Werdnal

Thanks for replies.

Just to update, I rang them this morning, and explained the situation exactly as per my OP above. First the advisor said that it was correct that any "change" to the policy terms would invoke an increase to the premium. I corrected her that all the terms were the same, it was only the house number that had changed. She then replied, that a different house incurs different risk - to which I replied that the bungalows are identical, same construction, date of build size, shape, number of rooms, even postcode - they are actually directly opposite each other, so there is infact no change of risk either.

I suggested I would cancel and start again, to which she replied that there was a £35 admin fee for cancelling a policy AFTER it starts - had her on that one as start date is actually tomorrow! I also told her that under consumer law, there is a right to cancel any purchase of goods or services within 14 days, and there should infact be no charge (suspected I was on dodgy ground here but worth a try). She said that sorry, that was their policy!

I then asked to speak to someone higher - supervisor/manager etc. She stated that the explanation would be the same regardless of who I spoke to. I stuck to my guns and said I wanted the hear that same explanation from someone in authority please. She put me on hold, and spoke to her line manager. She then came back and asked me to confirm the quotation reference for the 2nd quote I had obtained last night - confirming the same price of £124.99 would apply to the correct house number.

After what seemed like an age on hold, she came back and said that having spoken to her Manager, they would honour the lower price, and refund the difference to my mum-in-law's card.

Result! Thank you Post Office Insurance for seeing the injustice of this situation and accepting the lower premium!