Norwich Union Direct

samuela66

Hi All,

Just called the above to cancel my home insurance policy, as I am selling my house and moving in with a friend, I was kindly told there was an admin charge of £40, and it was in the policy booklet, as I have never claimed in all the years I have been with them I am fuming, she said would I like to pay it over the phone I said No i'd send a cheque and would never recommend them ever to anyone..................

sam

tom188

Its very standard industry practice. You are with a discount insurance broker, they give you a cheap quote, but charge for non standard services such as cancellation.

All companies will make this charge, it will just depend whether they express it explicitly (as was the case here) or implicitly through an increased policy loading.

jennifernil

Are you paying monthly? Or have you already paid the full year? If you have already paid I would not be sending them any more money!

lisyloo

as I have never claimed in all the years I have been with them I am fuming

Just out of interest.
Who do you think should pay for the extra admin caused by you cancelling early?

Other policyholders?
Shareholders?
anonymous benefactor?

Would you pay more for a company that didn't charge extra for these services or do you simply hunt down the cheapest prices without looking at their charging structure?

It's not a criticism, I'm just trying to understadn where you're coming from.

samuela66

lisyloo wrote: »

Just out of interest.
Who do you think should pay for the extra admin caused by you cancelling early?

Other policyholders?
Shareholders?
anonymous benefactor?

Would you pay more for a company that didn't charge extra for these services or do you simply hunt down the cheapest prices without looking at their charging structure?

It's not a criticism, I'm just trying to understadn where you're coming from.

I think the cost is a little extreme for the advisor to press a button on a keyboard and a computer generated letter to be sent to me, thats all

Sam

samuela66

jennifernil wrote: »

Are you paying monthly? Or have you already paid the full year? If you have already paid I would not be sending them any more money!

Paying monthly, the advisor asked if I had a debit card on me to pay the charge I have said I will send a cheque!

dunstonh

I think the cost is a little extreme for the advisor to press a button on a keyboard and a computer generated letter to be sent to me, thats all

That member of staff costs what, £10k a year? Their supervisor costs around £15k a year? The computer system costs tens of millions (if not hundreds) to set-up, maintain and keep up to date. The premium is based on you paying for a 12 month period. You are breaking the contract and that not only involves the cost but the loss of premium affecting the budgeting for future premiums requiring acturies to work out what they can afford to offer. Also include the human resources to support the staff that answer the phones along with all other misc costs.
So, pressing a button in isolation may not cost much but you need to factor in everything involved. I also doubt they use an adviser to do that work. An adviser would cost a minimum of £30k a year. Its more likely to be a telephone call centre.

jennifernil

If you cancel their car insurance they charge a fee of £52.50. Although it is in the policy booklet they do not mention it when they give you a quote.

And I agree with samuela66, the cost of cancelling is way too much. It is more like a penalty than an admin charge.

lisyloo

I think the cost is a little extreme for the advisor to press a button on a keyboard and a computer generated letter to be sent to me, thats all

I would agree with dunstonh that you have to factor in that cost of IT systems etc.
I don't happen to agree with you because I work in IT and know what those type of systems cost (tens if not hundreds of thousands).

In your statement above you have completely ignored the costs of running a call center, providing computer hardware, software and the IT staff to operate them.

I personally think £40 is quite reasonable and think they'd be able to justify it quite easily in court if anyone took it that far.

If they were charging 3 figures then I would be inclined to agree with you, but low 2 figure sums are justifiyable IMO.

diesel9181

break something before you cancel then claim, you will feel so much better bout the charge. ok not ethical but what the hey!!

craigboy

diesel9181 wrote: »

break something before you cancel then claim, you will feel so much better bout the charge. ok not ethical but what the hey!!

see, my posts hopefully now show not everyone is honest.