Rip off admin charges.........

plasmahal

I have recently moved house but only a few miles from my old address. I duly informed my CAR insurance companies of the change of address. One company decided to charge an extra £40 for insurance but on top of that they charged me £25 for changing my address details.....:mad: :mad:

It took me a 2 minute phone call to change the details and they changed the details on the computer there and then.

How can they justify charging a £25 admin fee for 30 seconds work on a computer ?????

A blatant rip off.

raskazz

plasmahal wrote: »

I have recently moved house but only a few miles from my old address. I duly informed my CAR insurance companies of the change of address. One company decided to charge an extra £40 for insurance but on top of that they charged me £25 for changing my address details.....:mad: :mad:

It took me a 2 minute phone call to change the details and they changed the details on the computer there and then.

How can they justify charging a £25 admin fee for 30 seconds work on a computer ?????

A blatant rip off.

Unfortunately, whilst it may take 30 seconds work, the insurer incurs significant costs to provide the service. Off the top of my head:

Advisor's wages.
Manager/supervisor's wages.
Buildings and utilities.
IT hardware, software and support staff.
Telephony, call recording.
Quality assurance staff.
Printing equipment and postage.
Underwriting support.
Training.
Human resources.
Admin assistants.

£25 is by no means out of the ordinary.

dunstonh

Seems quite fair as well as stripping these out of the premium, as has happened in recent years, means that only those making changes pay for them and not everyone else. This has brought the cost of insurance down.

derrick

raskazz wrote: »

Unfortunately, whilst it may take 30 seconds work, the insurer incurs significant costs to provide the service. Off the top of my head:

Advisor's wages.
Manager/supervisor's wages.
Buildings and utilities.
IT hardware, software and support staff.
Telephony, call recording.
Quality assurance staff.
Printing equipment and postage.
Underwriting support.
Training.
Human resources.
Admin assistants.

£25 is by no means out of the ordinary.

They would still be paying those even if the OP had not altered anything!

lisyloo

They would still be paying those even if the OP had not altered anything!

Don't be silly.
If everyone stopped making calls to make amendments and cancellations, they could probably make a whole department redundant and sell or stop renting part of an office.

Of course they would still have SOME admin costs e.g. setting up policies and the costs for these would probably be included in the initial premium.

If people don't like the terms and conditions they why take the policy in the first place?
Do your research up front, find a policy that suits your requirements and stop complaining.

derrick

lisyloo wrote: »

Don't be silly.
If everyone stopped making calls to make amendments and cancellations, they could probably make a whole department redundant and sell or stop renting part of an office.

Of course they would still have SOME admin costs e.g. setting up policies and the costs for these would probably be included in the initial premium.

If people don't like the terms and conditions they why take the policy in the first place?
Do your research up front, find a policy that suits your requirements and stop complaining.

Probably? where is your proof?

T&Cs/research will do no good if you change address, as it will not be foreseen, and even if it was, you need the correct address on the certificate for the address you are living at, so you would HAVE to do an amendment!

lisyloo

Probably? where is your proof?

I don't have any proof and I don't really need any because these charges are entirely legal and if people don't pay them then they risk getting county court judgements, bad credit ratings and baliffs at the door or an attachments of earnings that will really hack off their employer.

It's pretty obvious that if people call up then there are services that are DIRECTLY attricbutable to that call that needs to be provided to support THAT telephone call and actions required.
We also all know that when you employ someone there are a whole host of costs included e.g. electricity, employers NI, pension scheme, sick pay scheme etc that are DIRECTLY attributable to employing that person.

T&Cs/research will do no good if you change address, as it will not be foreseen

I dispute the fact that you have to forsee everything with precision to cater for it.

I personally cater for death, sickness, accident and redundancy in my financial planning despite not being able to forsee these incidents precisely.
I want to be covered IF these happened.
There is no reason why you can't read the policy and find out what happens IF you need to change something.

so you would HAVE to do an amendment!

I agree.
Why can't you check out the policy to see what happens IF you need to make an amendement.
I do, so it's perfectly possible.
If it's not acceptable to you don't take the policy, get one that is acceptable to you IF you need to make changes.

Poppycat

Lloyds car insurance didnt charge me anything for moving house, and only a small charge for changing car recently and that was from a 1.3 with 3rd part fire and theft to a 1.6 fully comp abet until Nov 2007 from Jul 07 when insurance runs out

I found Green flag charged me though they said it was because of a larger engine but car is far more modern than older car and haven't used them once in 2 years of using them.

iceicebaby

Just expanding on Lisyloo's post

In your policy documents when you take a policy out there will be a breakdown of admin charges that are charged for doing any amendments. if you do not like these charges and do not want to be bound by them then excercise your right to cancel under the 14 day cooling off period.

Simple really

Labman_2

iceicebaby wrote: »

Just expanding on Lisyloo's post

In your policy documents when you take a policy out there will be a breakdown of admin charges that are charged for doing any amendments. if you do not like these charges and do not want to be bound by them then excercise your right to cancel under the 14 day cooling off period.

Simple really

...or perhaps you could do some research & actually read the T&C's before you commit & therefore save yourself a bit of hassle?

raskazz

derrick wrote: »

Probably? where is your proof?

Well I can categorically state that we can delete 'probably', without the need for proof. Anyone who thinks that insurers do not face significant costs in providing policy cancellation/amendment services is at best naive or at worst ignorant of simple business realities.

derrick wrote: »

T&Cs/research will do no good if you change address, as it will not be foreseen, and even if it was, you need the correct address on the certificate for the address you are living at, so you would HAVE to do an amendment!

Administration fees are clearly specified in insurers' KeyFacts documents. As others have rightly pointed out, the policyholder has a 14 day cooling-off period from receipt of those documents to cancel if they disagree with any terms.