Changing car mid way through policy

KayW001

I am changing my car with less than 3 months left on my existing policy. I'm changing the car from an 06 sport to a 56 titanium, when doing a brand new quote the difference is £2.
I've contacted my insurance company and they want £30 for the remainder of my policy which is quite excessive, considering a new quote diffence is £2, so effectively they are saying an extra £120 for the year.
When I question this, they throw it's the underwriters that do this and there is nothing they can do and when pressed further they say the change is based generically, not on my original factors, eg, where I live. 
Has anyone come across this problem before, know how this works etc?
I've tried raising this with their complaints which they've done but they said all they'll do is look at it, see it's to do with the underwriters and close. 
Thank you

paddyandstumpy

Who is the insurer? Is it via a broker?

You will most likely find that the additional premium includes a fee for processing the change. 

JosephK

In all likelihood, it's an admin charge. Fairly standard on any change made to a policy. 

Jumblebumble

It is better than them simply ending the policy and refunding you nothing. After all you had a contract with them that you changed.  Why should they do the work for free ?
The equivalent to £120 for the year is irrelevant. If they asked for £5.00 for a different car on the policy would you complain that was equivalent to £1825 ?

eddddy

As others say, that sounds like it may be mostly an Admin Fee.

Essentially, it's the fee for: The time you spent talking to the agent, the cost of preparing new policy documents etc.

As you can imagine, insurance companies have to pay a bunch of agents to deal with customer policy changes (e.g. changing car, changing address, changing named drivers), and they have to pay for their office space, computers etc. So they charge each customer who wants to make a change, say, £30 to cover those costs.

When you next renew / change your policy look at the Admin Fees as well as the actual premium. For example, if you think you might need to make more policy changes, you might it better to pay a slightly higher premium to an insurer with lower admin fees.

KayW001

It's directly through the insurer, they don't charge an admim fee and the change is done online.

daveyjp

What does your policy document say about charges for changes  mid term? 

 My insurance company don't charge if changes are done on line, it is one reason why I chose them.  I made a change a couple of weeks ago and it was indeed free.

ThePants999

Don't get too worked up over £30. Your renewal quote probably WON'T be £120 higher, and if it is, simply don't renew with them.

kerri_gt

KayW001 said:

It's directly through the insurer, they don't charge an admim fee and the change is done online.

It will still be classed as a change in policy admin fee even though you're doing it online.  If you check your documents it should say what the charge is for any changes or amendments made during the term of the policy. Had the same with mine,  £25 charge for the pleasure of updating my policy online myself.  On the scale of costs associated with buying a new car though it really wasn't worth getting worked up over.