Changing Car-Insurance Policy Address

siber

Hi everyone!

Just thought I'd add this tip I discovered today.

I recently moved house, from an M27 (Swinton) postcode to an M3 (Salford) postcode. Therefore, I had to call my car insurance company (Churchill) to change the address on my policy.

However, before I did this, I got a quote from Churchill's website using my current policy details and the new address. The quote for a year was £22.05 more expensive than the premium I'd already paid. Then I called the Customer Service number and asked to change my address for the remaining 8 months of my policy term. I was quoted a £57.75 adjustment fee.

At this point I referred to the online quote I'd received for the new address and asked why insuring for a year at the new address was £22 more expensive, while nearly £58 more expensive for only 8 months. To her credit, the operator stated that this didn't make sense, and an admin fee could not make up the £36 difference. She then gave me another (freephone) number to call.

After waiting on hold for a bit, I explained the situation to another operator, who then worked through the entire quote again, and recalculated my adjustment fee. This then worked out to be £12.60 for the 8 months which I paid quite happily, seeing as it was under £14.50 (which would have been 8 months worth of £22/yr).

If you're in this situation and have to change the address on your policy documents, visit your provider’s website, get a completely new quote and then challenge them on the phone over the adjustment charges/refund they make. If they're charging you more per unit time than a fresh policy would cost at the new address, make them justify it!

olly300

Useful.

I just changed mine and it cost me nothing. I have ecarinsurance by the way so all address changes are done on line.

Astaroth

I have to say that if I was ecarinsurance I would be a little worried about their online amendments.... I updated my misses driving licence on there the other day as she has now passed her test but it made no premium difference (which was rather surprising). Testing it I then decided to do a quote on the policy to add a temporary additional vehicle with a much higher group and expensive vehicle and again it came back with no premium to pay.

raskazz

This could well work for direct providers, however if your insurance is through an intermediary the premium that is calculated as the best new business quote may well be with a different insurer than the one your policy is actually with - so if you do use this method, make sure you're not comparing apples and oranges.

siber

Yes, to echo raskazz, my insurance provider was Churchill, so I had to use the Churchill website to quote on my new address...

So if you change address, what have you got to lose (apart from quarter of an hour on hold!)?