MSE News: The devil is in the details: Insurers charge huge fees for simple changes

Comping.Again

Hi,

I recently changed the numberplate on both my cars, switching a private plate from one to the other and restoring the original plate on the other. The cars are insured with the AA and Swinton respectively. I called my local Swinton office and made the change, they advised me without asking that they could waive any admin fees.

The AA, however, insisted on charging a £25 admin fee. I raised a complaint, advised them that just because they could charge a fee doesn't mean they should; told them about Swinton making the change for free, and was advised there was nothing they could do about it as it was a term in my policy. They did however act upon a side comment I had made about waiting 15 minutes for my call to be answered. They subsequently refunded me £15 for the time wasted on the call.

So if nothing else, do complain about everything bad that they did as you might give them a reason to refund some money.

Will

haythorp

You just saved me £55 . Policy has gone up to £83 per year (contents only) and due to move in approx 1 month so REALLY didn't fancy paying the admin fees. Switching to More Than who are fee free.:T:T:T:T:T:T:T

dacouch

haythorp wrote: »

You just saved me £55 . Policy has gone up to £83 per year (contents only) and due to move in approx 1 month so REALLY didn't fancy paying the admin fees. Switching to More Than who are fee free.:T:T:T:T:T:T:T

If only everyone was as sensible as you to read the terms and conditions people would not be surprised by administration fees.

In addition if everyone voted with their feet, the Insurers that charge the fees would increase their premiums to reflect the loss of income to make it fairer for the companies such as More Than who don't charge a fee

hipstaman

So the fact that we are sold "cheap" insurance through comparison sites somehow makes it ok to charge high and extortionate fees for admin? This industry is just like banks - they set the fees to whatever they want and hope that people won't mind/complain/notice etc. You could find many ways to justify this extorsionate fee but you don't see any other industry do this. The change whatever it might be is a very quick process and doesn't reflect the high charge at all. Employees in call centres are there no matter if you call or don't so this "symbolic" charge is simply a money making scheme. No matter what anybody else says.

Insurance cost is superficially inflated and is disproportionate to reality. Yes yes different areas of country have varying levels of crime etc etc. but the stats are rough and most of the time are not even representative of reality. The bottom line is that insurance cost we pay is overpriced from the beginning.

Yes you pay for the peace of mind but you do still pay money essentially for nothing. Most of the time and most of us end up cycling through the year without making a claim (touch wood). So you think it is really fair that you pay £800+(in my case) for a year and then get asked to cough up an extra £20-30 quid to change the details (which incidentally is out of your control if you move house etc.) and worse still be asked to pay £35-£50 to cancel insurance????? No I dont f*$king think it is fair at all. It is a complete rip off especially so that they seem to willingly cancel the fee if one complains.

They would be seen less of a "monster" if the charges (if at all) were more like £1-£5.

rudekid48

Did it take from June 2015 until now to finish typing that or couldn't you be bothered to start a new thread? :rotfl:

dunstonh

So the fact that we are sold "cheap" insurance through comparison sites somehow makes it ok to charge high and extortionate fees for admin?

yes. Although not sure why you think charges like £25 are high/extortionate.

You could find many ways to justify this extorsionate fee but you don't see any other industry do this.

yes you do.

The change whatever it might be is a very quick process and doesn't reflect the high charge at all.

And in your expert opinion, how much should it cost?

Employees in call centres are there no matter if you call or don't so this "symbolic" charge is simply a money making scheme.

That is just silly. They have to employ x number of people daily to take admin calls that would not be required if there was no admin tasks.

So you think it is really fair that you pay £800+(in my case) for a year and then get asked to cough up an extra £20-30 quid to change the details (which incidentally is out of your control if you move house etc.)

How is you moving house out of your control?

They would be seen less of a "monster" if the charges (if at all) were more like £1-£5.

You seem to lack a reality of the value of money.

hipstaman

@rudekid48 laughing at your own joke you must be hilarious af

Quentin

Try and ignore it.

Mse does seem to attract this kind of poster that bullies newbies.

You get a newbie badge, but if the response was his attempt at being "especially nice" to a newbie, you wouldn't like to see his normal attitude!

rudekid48

Lighten up folks, if you get upset by a post like that then maybe you should log off and go for a lie down...

hipstaman

dunstonh are you sure you are a financial advisor?

1. £25 for somebody to edit a record on a computer, overwrite and save it. Ummm, yes I believe that is extortionate. I bet you'd have a different attitude if you were to call your ISP and ask them to change the details and they would charge you this much for doing so.

2. Name other industries that do this?

3. I find your tone very patronising. It doesnt take an expert to know this basic stuff. This change should either be free or of nominal charge as mentioned previously but not higher than £5.

4. What is silly is your lack of basic understanding in how businesses should operate. You don't see EE/O2/Three etc. charge you for making changes to your details and certainly when calling their telephone support call centre. So why should insurance call centre be any different? A lot of people have accepted it and go along with it, either hoping they won't have to change anything during the annual policy or just complain about charges. Some of course choose to not bother and those are the people insurance cowboys hope to make an extra money on. It is like Ryanair used to charge for inflight loo fee....ridiculous and unnecessary.

5. How is moving a house in somebodies control? unless you bought a house then the chances of you moving out are slim but for students and the likes who move a lot it is a nightmare and usually due to reasons out of their control.

6. Well so much for the expert if you seem to think that charging £25 for a minor change in personal details is in any way a "real value"

This all would have been a different story if insurance as such wasn't a legal requirement. Only because this was made a legal requirement by our government, people have no choice but to buy it and insurance companies know this. That's why they put their own prices on everything knowing that most people will just get angry, fiddle their thumbs and pay up. Same as with parking companies on private land - same story here.

You need a reality check