Swinton Insurance- charge to change number plate?

disney_cjd

I have never had insurance via a broker before. Always used compare tools etc and never had issues. Went with Swinton and they just stung me for £25 to change the number plate.

Was never charged by other companies when I did this before.

Is this normal? I wasn't changing the car. The underlying insurance company had no charge - just Swinton.

You do not even get the new docs posted. All on line.

agrinnall

So who do you think should pay for the admin work that has to be done? If you don't pay it separately then the premium will be bumped up to allow for non-chargeable events taking place during the life of the policy.

Iceweasel

Yup - that's Swinton - they do lots of things like that.

Useless if you have a Cherished Numberplate and wish to put it on retention prior to changing car - that can incur several charges. :mad:

Same charge if you change address - even a couple of miles within the same postal region - and no new docs sent.

You obviously didn't read all the small print in the T&Cs.

Most brokers will charge and some but not all insurance companies.

I'm not with then any more - surprise, surprise.

disney_cjd

Makes it worse we cannot access our docs online as their is a problem with MySwinton which they cannot fix! So we have insurance docs we cannot view.

Triffic.... All this bull about service from local stores is horlicks. Online companies offer way better service and costs!

disney_cjd

agrinnall wrote: »

So who do you think should pay for the admin work that has to be done? If you don't pay it separately then the premium will be bumped up to allow for non-chargeable events taking place during the life of the policy.

The insurance company didn't charge, they altered one line on a computer screen. Sometimes I would like to think of a customer getting service......

rudekid48

disney_cjd wrote: »

The insurance company didn't charge, they altered one line on a computer screen. Sometimes I would like to think of a customer getting service......

So who do you think pays for the system that you used to update your records with?

disney_cjd

£300 an hour? For that the queen!

dannyrst

I had to pay to update my numberplate on my insurance policy with Aviva.

I didn't have to pay to update my numberplate on my insurance policy with Admiral.

It's a small amount in the grand scheme of things.

poppasmurf_bewdley

rudekid48 wrote: »

So who do you think pays for the system that you used to update your records with?

If it's the brokers system, then the commission they make on the sale of each policy pays for it.

And if it's the insurance company's system, then the fee you pay for the policy pays for it.

I cannot believe that my daughter thought that Hastings Direct charging her, I think, £25 for renewing her insurance policy this year was a fair charge. They certainly wouldn't have got that money off me!

rudekid48

poppasmurf_bewdley wrote: »

If it's the brokers system, then the commission they make on the sale of each policy pays for it.

And if it's the insurance company's system, then the fee you pay for the policy pays for it.

I cannot believe that my daughter thought that Hastings Direct charging her, I think, £25 for renewing her insurance policy this year was a fair charge. They certainly wouldn't have got that money off me!

The commission that brokers earn these days for car insurance does not amount to much at all. You're living in cloud cuckoo land if you think that anyone makes an immediate profit from selling a policy. A lot of brokers are forced to price the policy at a loss to get near the top of the comparison sites (who charge a hefty fee to them when you buy). The only way that they can actually make any money is from extras that people buy, interest on instalments and charging explicit fees to those that choose to make changes to their policy. The alternative is that all of us pay higher premiums to subsidise those that choose to make changes.
Thanks to the comparison sites, insurance is now bought on price rather than quality and premiums can be artificially low.
I don't think I've ever made any changes to a policy so I'm quite happy not to have to subsidise those that do.

Iceweasel

rudekid48 wrote: »

I don't think I've ever made any changes to a policy so I'm quite happy not to have to subsidise those that do.

You don't give us a length of time for that achievement, but it means that you've not moved house or changed your car, except perhaps on the exact date that your policy came up for renewal.

In the last 20 years or so I can recall making several changes to my policies.

I moved house once and have had 6 cars and 4 vans in that time.

Only Swinton charged me - 3 times in the last year I was with them :mad: - so I cried enough and moved away.

Perhaps I've subsidised you.