Admiral - high fees for change of address

Romeo_Golf

Hello,

I wonder if anyone could give some advice regarding car insurance. I am asking on behalf of my daughter. She has a car insurance policy with Admiral and has just phoned them in order to change the address on the policy. She has moved temporarily from the south to the north of the country for 5 months due to work.

Admiral have told her that to change her address will cost £248. My jaw dropped at this. Her previous address and new address are in the same insurance postcode category as we checked beforehand. She has changed her address on a previous policy before and it has cost her nothing. When she challenged the charge, they said it was something to do with 'premiums' but she didn't quite get the reason.

At the moment, I have told her to ring back and firmly challenge the charge and say she will complain to the Financial Ombusman if she doesn't get a clear answer as to why it is so high. Also to ask how much they will charge to cancel the policy so she can buy elsewhere. I think she has about 6 months left on it.

Any other suggestions? Thanks so much! She was expecting to pay an admin fee but £248 seems ridiculous.

PinkPig

You'll probably find that part of the change is an admin fee, and part of it is a difference in premium between the two addresses. Insurance postcode categories aren't really relevant, insurers can choose how much to charge for different areas.

I don't think you have much recourse if the cost is too high - Admiral aren't obliged to insure at the new address. Your best bet is to check comparison websites to find out if it would be cheaper to cancel and take out a new policy elsewhere.

dunstonh

Admirals fee for amendments is quite low. The amount of £238 is not just the admin fee but also the increased risk premium.

At the moment, I have told her to ring back and firmly challenge the charge and say she will complain to the Financial Ombusman if she doesn't get a clear answer as to why it is so high.

The FOS will not take on complaints about pricing unless it is due to discrimination or an error.

In this case, the most likely reason is that the new post code is higher risk than the older one. Insurers risk postcodes to the 5th or even 6th digit nowadays. Each having its own risk profiles. So, there is no standardisation across the board.

Romeo_Golf

Thank you for the replies! I understand now, think I will advise her to look at the cost of cancelling and buying a new policy.

Aretnap

Romeo_Golf wrote: »

Her previous address and new address are in the same insurance postcode category as we checked beforehand.

I'm not sure what you mean by insurance postcode category, but lots of people find something like this online

http://www.carinsuranceexplained.com/car-insurance-explained/car-insurance-postcode-risk-list.html

and assume (understandably, from the way it's presented) that it's some sort of universal list used by insurers. It isn't - if I remember correctly it's the ratings which were used by one particular insurer (Aviva?) for motorbikes some time in the mid 1990s. It has no relevance to modern car insurance prices, and is only used as clickbait by various websites in order to improve their search engine ranking.

As above, in reality each insurer applies sets its own area ratings based on its own claims experience and target market - and as data handling has improved they probably vary from street (or at least small group of strreets) to street, rather than just by town or by broad area as they did when that list was put together.