Admiral Car Insurance - Change of Address

firechap

Admiral Insurance! We have just moved 2 miles from our existing house near a township to new house in a village with a lower crime rate. I notified Admiral who told me that the new area was a higher rate on their tables. A £55 fee to pay or I could cancel for a fee. I did a couple of identical quotes on Admirals own website for my car at my old address and new address. Guess what, the new address is £200 cheaper. I called Admiral back and got the complete stock of standard answers from the help desk along with another offer to cancel for a fee, but no explanation as to why I should pay more for a move to what should be a cheaper area. Next year I'll saving lots with Admiral because I won't be renewing with them. Anybody else had this experience?

InsideInsurance

Firstly, the fee will include their administration charge which could well be the lions share. If you ask them they will tell you the split between the admin and additional premium.

There are a few possible explanations but you really should ask them and log a complaint presumably along the lines that you think they are exploiting the fact you are locked to them.

Some insurer rating engines lock the rates to the date you get the quote you buy on so any mid term amendments are rated on the same basis and you dont get hit by the fact that your car model may be involved in a spate of thefts which drives up the premium and you then get hit by that when you call just to say you've changed job. So if its a new postcode or an area that has improved recently this may be to your detriment.

On the flipside if they dont stick to the same rates then you can be hit not only by the change of address but any changes to their ratings of your car or anything other aspect. If this is the case then you'd see that the old premium was less than your new business quote at the old address and if you annualised the new premium it'd be about the new business quote. This assumes you bought this year to get the new customer discount etc and didnt just renew