Car Insurance Address change (extortionate increase on premium)

Monies

Hi all, I've very recently changed address and obviously informed my car insurance (Green) company. I expected an increase because the new car park is no longer gated and guarded (military base). It is now parked on a residential car park. However I did not expect my premium to increase to £597 for the 61 days that are left on my policy. I disputed this cost and they said that the extra cost was due to the fact that I now live in an area with a higher amount of claims. After more questioning on my part they dropped a "commission charge of £135". Surely £462 is still ridiculous? I haven't moved to Kabul or Basra! The area in which I live is not exactly crime ridden either.

I wanted to know if this is standard procedure or am I being severly ripped off, is there anything that can be done? Thanks for any help in advance.

Valli

You're unclear in your post.

How much did you pay when you took out this policy? (is the £562 an additional premium or is that your new total annual premium?)
Did you pay in installments?
How much MORE do the insurance company want now?
Is the amount they want purely to cover your vehicle for where you now live or is there, in addition to the increase, an admin charge?

(I won't tell you how little I pay;))

NorthernOne

I had this same problem. Was with my last insurer for 10 years with over 15 years no claims, my policy was due to expire in 10 days and I moved and they said for those extra 10 days at my new address I would need to pay another £150!!! they also re quoted my renewal at an extra £600 !!!!!!......very disappointed as the area I moved to was nicer! Voted with my feet and moved to another insurer for a premium less than their additional renewal amount.

Bottom line is some insurers don't want to quote or cover vehicles in certain areas and it doesn't matter who you are they will deliberately over price so you go elsewhere.

Monies

Ok some more info: I've been driving for 10 months (22 years old), so obviously I have no "no claims bonus" although, so far, I haven't made a claim. My original annual cost was £1560, that's paying monthly installments of £130.

They now want an extra £462 which they say goes towards the annual cost of my insurance although I only have 61 days left on the policy. The admin charge is £32 I was told there were no other hidden charges but somehow they managed to knock £135 off of the original £597 they wanted. So apparently the remainder is purely the cost of insuring my vehicle.

Valli

it does seem really steep, that; the admin charge of £32 is par for the course.

- as for the increase I will wait for someone with a tad more experience to come along and advise if, and how, you can argue for a reduction.

In the meantime, if I were you, I would be looking for a new plocy for when this one expires. Remeber to retain PROOF of your NCD when you get it!

Apols for typos.

agrinnall

An extra £462 for two months at your new address, on top of the £260 you have already paid for that period suggests an annual premium (before NCD) of around £4300. Without knowing what car you have and where you now live it's impossible to say whether that's reasonable (by insurance company standards) or not. You could investigate the cost to cancel and take out a policy with another company, it might work out cheaper, although that could mean a wait of another year before you get any no claims.

Monies

I drive a 1.4 petrol VW Polo, 02 plate (probably not even worth half of £4300). I don't want to give out my address however I'm in a decent area of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. Insurance with 1 years no claims at this address is around £900 (cheapest) so I think I will end up losing out in the long run. I didn't want to do anymore searches as I read on this site that a site such as Go Compare will flag up false entires, not sure if this is true or not.

dunstonh

Your problem seems to be a stacking up of risks and these collectively an push the premium up more. In very very simple (and technically incorrect but easier to understand) if you scored each risk in points and then added up the points, the rate of increase in premium would speed up the more risk points you have.

The credit crunch/recession has seen a retrenchment in risk with firms not willing to take on risks at the low premiums they did in the good years. Part of the normal cycle that occurs from time to time.

vaio

agrinnall wrote: »

An extra £462 for two months at your new address, on top of the £260 you have already paid for that period suggests an annual premium (before NCD) of around £4300. Without knowing what car you have and where you now live it's impossible to say whether that's reasonable (by insurance company standards) or not. You could investigate the cost to cancel and take out a policy with another company, it might work out cheaper, although that could mean a wait of another year before you get any no claims.

The suspicion has to be that the insurers are taking advantage of captive customers.

If I was the OP I think I'd be doing dummy quotes to see if an extra £300/£230 month is a realistic increase for the change of address and if it's not then go down the complaint/FOS route

Same applies to NorthernOne

Just_Some_Guy

An annual premium of £4300 is not unbelievable if your current insurer blackballs your new postcode, often as a result of large and iffy claims nearby. If the insurer has some evidence backing up its massive increase then there is very little you can do about this besides pleading for a reduction, ponying up the extra and going elsewhere at renewal.

Newcastle isn't too bad for this - the whole of Manchester is basically blacklisted for car insurance thanks to dodgy claims - but there are known hotspots in Tyneside and if you've moved closer to one of these then you can expect to pay through the nose for insurance.

david39

If you look up your old postcode on

http://www.motorcarinsuranceuk.co.uk/post-code-ratings.php

you can see in what risk category the insurance company will be placing it.

Compare it with the risk factor for your new postcode and see if there is a difference.

That will guide you as to whether you have significantly increased the risk by moving.