Car insurance address change charges

thecornflake

Hi,
Sorry if this has already been covered elsewhere. My elderly parents are moving house and although I've done some address changes online for them with the free service at iammoving they are doing some by phone. Swinton told them there is a £25 admin charge for doing this but it's free if they create an account online and do it that way. I'm surprised this is still legal for a couple of reasons - 
1) There's no way it costs them a difference of £25 to have someone do this over the phone unless the call lasted about 3-4 hours (staff time cost)
2) It's potentially discriminatory against people unable to use the internet for either ability or connection reasons
3) If you tell a company your personal details have changed and they don't change them they're breaching data protection law so they're obliged to do it whether you pay the fee or not (assuming they're confident you are who you say you are)
I've argued with insurance companies about this in the past and they've always backed down on the charge but I'm interested to know why they are still allowed to do it.

TadleyBaggie

thecornflake said:

1) There's no way it costs them a difference of £25 to have someone do this over the phone unless the call lasted about 3-4 hours (staff time cost)

That would mean they would be paying their staff around £6ph, way below the minimum living wage. They have other costs as well.

Reminds me of my dad who used to complain in a restaurant that he could buy the same bottle of wine for half the price in a supermarket.

Sandtree

1) You are being too simplistic, the cost isnt just hourly rate of agent x length of phone call, unfortunately companies have to pay the agent when they are sitting there waiting for their next call, they have to pay them when they are in training, they have to pay Employers National Insurance, Employers Liability Insurance, they have to pay a team manager to oversee them, a department manager to oversee the team manager, an area manager to oversee the department manager. Then you have the compliance department and all their staff to ensure what the staff are saying is legal, then you have the IT equipment that isnt free nor are the staff that make sure it keeps running. Unfortunately insurers don't get given offices for free either and so they have rents to pay, facilities managers, electricity, gas, business rates etc

Plus remember that the £25 includes the governments cut with tax

2) Discrimination is not illegal unless its on the grounds of protected characteristics like gender, sexual orientation or race. Having internet or not in itself is not a protected characteristic, you could try to argue that more elderly people have no internet and so its age discrimination but that is an increasingly week argument since computers became common in the workplace in the 90s and so even someone who retired 30 years ago and so now in the 90s probably will have dealt with computer - my mothers 88 and uses her laptop/internet way more than I do outside of work

3) If you do not agree to pay the fee they can simply cancel the contract which is likely to attract a £50 admin fee or more plus mean you have to declare you've had insurance cancelled for the rest of their lives... they would have to send the chaser letters etc for the debt to the new address though as you say.

thecornflake

TadleyBaggie said:

thecornflake said:

1) There's no way it costs them a difference of £25 to have someone do this over the phone unless the call lasted about 3-4 hours (staff time cost)

That would mean they would be paying their staff around £6ph, way below the minimum living wage. They have other costs as well.

Reminds me of my dad who used to complain in a restaurant that he could buy the same bottle of wine for half the price in a supermarket.

Ok fair enough my maths was a bit out, but last time I changed over the phone it took about 10 minutes and half of that was taking the payment for the change in the actual policy charge. And no other company I've come across except car insurance seems to do this currently.

davidmcn

thecornflake said:

2) It's potentially discriminatory against people unable to use the internet for either ability or connection reasons

If a customer actually has a relevant disability (in this case, do they?) then the service provider would need to make reasonable adjustments. So yes, it's possible that might mean allowing them the same concession by e.g. providing the service over the phone. Though I wonder about the size of the intersection between people too disabled to use a website, and wanting to have motor insurance...

cajef

Some charge some don't, I have been with Direct Line for car insurance for several years and they do not charge for any changes such as car or address to their policies.

Sandtree

cajef said:

Some charge some don't, I have been with Direct Line for car insurance for several years and they do not charge for any changes such as car or address to their policies.

They all technically charge for it, the question is if they take a DL type line where they charge everyone £15 extra per year in the up front premium or if they take a Swinton type approach where they only charge those that make a change £25 (assuming just under half make a change per year on average)

There are certainly some who would argue its fairer only to charge those that use a service the cost of providing it.

cajef

Maybe but when my renewal quote comes each year I check for any cheaper quotes then phone DL and they always match to within a few pounds the cheapest, new car last year and no admin fee plus small refund as new vehicle slightly cheaper to insure.

csgohan4

cajef said:

Maybe but when my renewal quote comes each year I check for any cheaper quotes then phone DL and they always match to within a few pounds the cheapest, new car last year and no admin fee plus small refund as new vehicle slightly cheaper to insure.

been with DL for 2 years, but couldn't match and moved elsewhere, not to the budget ones I might add

Jaybee_16

Recently paid my car insurer £25 to change address. The insurer sent the confirmation of payment and address change to the previous address I had just left. 

Thrugelmir

thecornflake said:

I've argued with insurance companies about this in the past and they've always backed down on the charge but I'm interested to know why they are still allowed to do it.

By wasting peoples valuable time you are contributing to the problem you are complaining about.  Resources have to be paid for. Someone else is picking the tab you are incurring.  Resulting in the £25 charge for minor changes. If fewer people were required the cost would come down.