Car insurance hike for moving 1 street

TheStretchedElf

My daughter has moved house, just onto the next street. It is the same area, same type of houses, a one way street like the other street was, same on road parking, etc.

Her car insurance has increased by £200! :eek:

Is there any argument to be made that this rise isn't representative of any real increase in risk? Is there anything at all she can do?

Thank you in advance

forgotmyname

Cancel the policy. Pay all the admin fee's and cancellation charges and go elsewhere. Although that may cost more than the £200 its increased by.

Whats the admin fee £75?

The next street over may have a higher claim rate. Or the insurance are taking advantage of a captive customer.

hcb42

next street, different postcode?

a few streets from here and I could be in three different counties...different risks..

jackyann

When I moved house, I was astonished at the hike in insurance as I was in a quieter neighbourhood, lower crime rate etc.etc. so I asked them. I had moved to a narrow street, with a lot of cars parked on it, so there were a lot of bumps!

TheStretchedElf

hcb42 wrote: »

next street, different postcode?

a few streets from here and I could be in three different counties...different risks..

I'm not really sure what you mean by that. She has moved to the next street, as in parallel, and it's identical to the previous one. The question is is the hike justified? Do they even need to justify it, legally, or can they do as they like?

da_rule

You could try complaining to the company. Go on a comparison site and see what quotes you can get so you have some ammunition. Also, contact the financial ombudsman (http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/motor-insurance.html), while they usually deal with complaints regarding terms not being explained during the sales process they may be able to deal with this sort of complaint.

The post code query relates to the route of the code (the first set of letters/numbers). Where I used to live the street was SP12 XXX, the street opposite was SP13 XXX.

InsideInsurance

TheStretchedElf wrote: »

I'm not really sure what you mean by that. She has moved to the next street, as in parallel, and it's identical to the previous one. The question is is the hike justified? Do they even need to justify it, legally, or can they do as they like?

As long as they arent pricing on an illegal "ism" then they can charge almost what they want.

There will be an admin fee in that cost which could be as much as £75. Likewise some insurers will rerate on the basis of the rates when you took the policy out whereas others will rate on the rates as per the day you do the mid term adjustment. In the case of those that do the later you may well be hit with the fact their rates in general have gone up since you bought the policy.

Out of curiosity, what was her old postcode and her new?

With 1.7 active uk postcodes, insurers dont know what each street is like in the whole of the uk, they much more simply analyse the claims experience at the level they segment at (may be postcode unit or postcode sector) and price accordingly.

Whilst you say she has only moved one street, you can get much worse. The road between Redhill and Reigate in Surrey you only need to move one house and you switch between a RH1 and a RH2 postcode which will not only result in a big swing in insurance premiums but the RH2 house will be worth 20% more despite being identical to its neighbour

TheStretchedElf

da_rule wrote: »

You could try complaining to the company. Go on a comparison site and see what quotes you can get so you have some ammunition. Also, contact the financial ombudsman, while they usually deal with complaints regarding terms not being explained during the sales process they may be able to deal with this sort of complaint.

The post code query relates to the route of the code (the first set of letters/numbers). Where I used to live the street was SP12 XXX, the street opposite was SP13 XXX.

That's odd because I'm pretty sure her postcode has only changed by one of the latter letters, as in WN1 XXX to WN1 XXY.

magpiecottage

InsideInsurance wrote: »

The road between Redhill and Reigate in Surrey you only need to move one house and you switch between a RH1 and a RH2 postcode which will not only result in a big swing in insurance premiums but the RH2 house will be worth 20% more despite being identical to its neighbour

I know a road where one house has an SO (Southampton) postcode and the next is PO (Portsmouth).

I suppose which house is worth more depends on which team you support.:T