Car insurance - change of address charge??? extortionate

AdrianC

edy500 wrote: »

It was a mixture of both the admin charge and the premium...

Riiiight.

but listen..
im generally paying around £350 for car insurance per year... so to hike that up not matter if its premium or anyother charge by £100... when I have under 6 months left of the policy is extortionate.. its basically a charge overall for where im registered for overnight parking of my car...

Yes, quite. And that's where it spends most of its time, right?


You were paying £350 for the risk of your old property.
You are moving, and insurers think your new address is higher risk.
You are being asked to pay for that higher risk.
If you were moving to a lower risk area, you would get a partial premium refund, offset by the fee to change the premium.

But I have to say I have just received a call from the insurance company im talking about and they have knocked off the admin charge and refunded part of the premium charge.. so its now cost me £50!

So how much was the actual change fee, and how much was the increase in premium? Clearly the fee was (substantially, I'd guess) less than £50, so less than half of what you claimed it was.

SouthLondonUser

edy500 wrote: »

But for me knowing this doesnt mean I have to sit back if im not happy!
I will try and find out information to help me.

You're angry. Fine. Vent your anger. But be realistic.

You have no recourse whatsoever against the fact that the insurer considers your new address higher risk.

Do the terms and conditions of your policy explain what the admin charges are for a change to the policy? And how much you'll be refunded if you cancel after the cooling-off period? If, as I suspect, these things are in the terms but you didn't read them, there's nothing you can do. If the terms are vague, and talk about generic charges without quantifying them (I doubt that's the case), then you have a better argument.

You have been asked before: how much is the admin charge exactly? AFAIK most insurers charge between £20 and £50. Maybe, just maaaaybe, if £100 were the result of a £95 charge + £5 different risk, you might argue £95 is unfair etc etc - but good luck with that.

AdrianC

SouthLondonUser wrote: »

You have been asked before: how much is the admin charge exactly? AFAIK most insurers charge between £20 and £50. Maybe, just maaaaybe, if £100 were the result of a £95 charge + £5 different risk, you might argue £95 is unfair etc etc - but good luck with that.

Well, we know it's less than £50, because after the fee plus some of the premium have been knocked off, the remainder of the premium is still £50.

SouthLondonUser

Which means that, realistically, there's nothing the OP can do. He can consider if he'd save money cancelling his current policy and taking out a new one with another insurer, but he'd lose the NCB accrued in the partial year so far.

edy500

boys..boys
my car spends a lot of its time actually being driven and around many area's...
But hey if you look back...I have got a partial result!
ie the bill has been half'd which is much more reasonable... im a bit happier.. and I received a written email apology for the fact they didnt tell me over the phone when I rang in the changes that there was to be a fee... im not bothered if its premium or service charge really.. as its the overall cost thats coming out of my account..

But hey ho, we need not go on with this haha

Enjoy your evenings and lets all relax.. cos I'm happy the insurance company realised they didnt actually handle things very well, and they thanked me for my input and survey!

System

edy500 wrote: »

It was a mixture of both the admin charge and the premium...
but listen..
im generally paying around £350 for car insurance per year... so to hike that up not matter if its premium or anyother charge by £100... when I have under 6 months left of the policy is extortionate.. its basically a charge overall for where im registered for overnight parking of my car...

You moved to a more risky area with a higher chance of a claim, your policy increased accordingly. If you think its bad now wait until renewal. Could be worse, could have moved to a central Bradford postcode and then it'd have gone up a grand.

SouthLondonUser

You're saying he moved to a riskier area. How can you be so sure that's the reason for the increase?
It amazes me that so many people here seem to have blind faith in insurers. A price looks odd? Well, it must be the risk profile, because insurers are so scientific, they use so much data... What?

In the OP's example, the price example could be driven by the higher risk of the new area. Or ir could be a commercial decision to squeeze customers who move address like lemons, because they have little alternative : either they butter up and pay, or they cancel their policy and take out a new one, which may cost them even more. I am not saying that's the reason, I am saying it could be, we can't rule it out.

Practically, nothing changes for the OP. But passively accepting there is a statistical, risk-related reason for every insurance price is naive and wrong.

arcon5

Im really not sure whay you was expecting when you changed address. It should have already been in your head there will be some kind of risk assessment and an admin fee.

edy500

Haha, we can keep questioning or finding a way to make me look like the one in the wrong or stupid but Im not really going to be drawn into negative reaction by some input's.. as right now over 50% of me and my also my bank balance is a bit happier with my insurance company!
Although I still feel it was pretty unprofessional to not mention there would be a debt of £100 from my account with being a loyal customer and all.
But after all said and done the insurance company admitted a mistake and apologised which is rare so in my book I appreciate that as we all make mistakes, mine being and I must add during a busy time for me assuming the unsaid.

And hey of course I'm aware that fee's do sometimes occur when we move or make changes ...and sometimes they don't as well, so it not being mentioned I thought 'wrongly' no fee.
And in relation to not being told of a fee the email that arrived was titled 'new insurance certificate' rather than 'Bill/fee reminder' or something to that effect.

So due to this I just didn't expect £100 suddenly being debited from my account.

No matter what is said here I personallybelieve 100% I was right to challenge this as £100 for the remaining 6 months of my policy and above all not to be told that there was going to be a fee when I spoke with my insurance company added up to me well.. as you could see initially not being very impressed.
So there we go.. thats the explanation.. do what you will with it.

But I dont really feel the need to keep justifying why I wasnt pleased so I shall leave it there.

So good day have a great weekend and thanks once again for some of the helpful input and I hope if some others read this they will also expect and demand a decent level of professional behaviour from not just insurance companies but every service provider they pay!

neilmcl

I really don't see the point of this thread. You change address, your perceived risk changes and your premium changes plus a reasonable fee was charged, neither of which could be described as extortionate. What did you think would happen.