*HELP* Huge fee on address change for car

Unpredictable

I recently bought a car for £400, and insured it at a very reasonable £409 (paid in one go) using the method from MSE. However it came due for some very expensive repairs (not covered) and I decided it might be best to sell it. I moved house at around the same time, so when I called the insurance company to inquire about suspending/cancelling the insurance or transferring it to another car, I also notified my change of address. I was told that it would add £137.41 to my premium, to be paid within 10 days. I thought this over and called again, explaining that the car had not been kept at my new address, since it was garaged for repairs and would soon be sold. They offered to change the address back to the old one, which I agreed to as a temporary solution, but they called again later saying that since I had changed my address again, I would be charged £137.41 TWICE unless I provided proof of residence at my old address. That's as far as I understood it. Hopefully I can do this; there’s NO WAY ON EARTH I CAN PAY.

(I asked the woman to explain the charge properly, and whether it actually cost £137 to re-input my details on the computer system, and made her as relieved to get rid of me as I was to get rid of her by the time the call was finished.) :mad:


Has anyone had the same issue with insurance companies, and is there any legal basis for these EXORBITANT fees?

A_Nice_Englishman

If you can name the insurance company, hopefully someone who is also insured with them and has amended their address will be able to confirm your story. Otherwise, I'm afraid you appear to be a troll. Sorry if I'm wrong.

ISTR I was charged £15 when I moved house

Unpredictable

The company is Quinn Direct.

(ISTR = ?)

A_Nice_Englishman

ISTR = I Seem To Remember.

Looking at Quinn Direct's website, the only admninistration fee I can see is £35 on cancellation. I can hardly believe they would charge nearly four times as much for a change of address.

What does it say in your policy?

bagpuss_fan

Firstly, I'm not sure what you mean by the MSE method? did you pay in full? My experienced of insurance companies is that they'll try and charge you for as much as they can! We had a very powerful, and expensive car, which we paid for the insurance in full, several months later we changed it for a laguna! obviously much cheaper car, less bhp etc, I paid £40 to change the vehicle on the policy. A month later, changed the car again to an Impreza, and was asked to pay £240 because the car was more expensive, more of a risk than the laguna. I refused to pay! My argument being that we were not offered a refund for changing to the laguna, therefore the price we paid covered us for the first car, the most expensive and quickest car, and any additional cost now (bar the £40 change of details fee) was completely unreasonable. The girl on the phone was adamant, however, i kept my cool and insisted on speaking to her Manager. Eventually I was only charged £20 admin cost! My advice is 1) Keep your cool, as annoying as these operators are, getting angry will not help you! 2) phone back and query the charge again 3) insist on speaking to a Manager, someone who can give you answers (and refunds if you are polite but insistant!) Good luck

Unpredictable

By MSE method I meant the systematic comparison search.

Thank you, I'll take your advice.

divadee

are you sure this is just an admin fee?

to me it sounds like you have moved to a riskier area in the insurance companies eyes hence the premium will be more.

dunstonh

I agree with divadee. This sounds like a change to a riskier postcode and the bulk of that charge relates to that and not the admin.

and is there any legal basis for these EXORBITANT fees?

Yes there is. Retailers can sell their products at whatever price they like (within reason). What you call a fee is actually mostly an insurance premium and therefore a retail product. The £35 fee is an acceptable amount for the admin.

madfrenchgirl

It surprises me that Quinn-Direct would charge so much to move to a riskier area TBH. BF was with him when we moved from Farnham, which is a rich place with less car crime than the average, to Southampton which is quite high for car crime and theft and he never got charged anything!

I would say phone them back, make sure you do not speak with the same girl again and explain the situation politely. They might accomodate you a bit better than the first time.

Now if it had been Tesco's, I would not have been surprised: 100 quid extra on premium (excluding admin fees) just for moving 2 miles down the road to Aldershot.

I have found out that the people actually charging you admin fees are not the insurers but the brokers. I have been witht he same insurer for 3 years but each with different brokers. I knew last year that I was going to move to Southampton during my policy period and asked for the revised premium during the quoting process as well as the possible fees. I was happy paying extra premium, but for example: M&S would not charge me anything for the admin while the PO would charge me 40 pounds just for changing a few fields on a computer screen. I went with M&S as a broker in the end.

dobbie82

I paid an extra £120 for moving to a flood risk area...(norwich union) but was spread out over the 8 months or so left on the policy as I paid monthly.

More than likeley its an admin fee + higher risk

thetope

quinn-direct has a bit of a reputation here in northern ireland as being a bit of a "ryanair" type business... i.e. fine and cheap, til you want to change something or something goes wrong.

i would imagine the extra fees would be because the postcode change alters the perceived risk. i can't see why they would charge to cancel the insurance if you paid in full upfront though.