Insurance Admin fee for changing the vehicle?

olly300

sandoz wrote: »

Unfortunately, Bartman, I've been there myself. A couple of changes to my policy. These being; a change of car and a change of driver, and charges £40. I was really annoyed. I read the terms and conditions and yes the charges were in there, in very tiny print but nevertheless they were in there. I like most people, don't have the time to read ALL smallprint but do expect to be treated fairly and expect admin charges, bank charges, credit card charges etc. to be reasonable and fair.
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The majority of companies small print is not actually written that small anymore. If the print is too small then you can complain starting with the companies internal process and escalating to appropriate regulator.

Businesses act for their own self interest within the law and only when other consumers who have bothered to read the T&Cs have either taken them to court, notified the media or taken them to the appropriate regulator have contract terms been changed.

Therefore if you choose to not go through the T&Cs because you have insufficient time, see a the terms in a legal contract as "junk" or simply can't be bothered (like most of the population) then you have only yourself to blame if you find yourself being charged what you don't want or don't get the service you thought you were paying for.

raskazz

sandoz wrote: »

Well I really don't think so, but what I would like is a real breakdown of all additional services, cost's etc., before taking out the policy ie; what's the charge for changing my car, and why most insurers prices differ, what's the charge for changing my name, and so on.

The cheap insurance you refer to is not so cheap when you come to change any aspect of your insurance policy.

Details of any fees are stated in the policy documents that are sent to you at or immediately after inception of the policy. I suggest you read them, and exercise your cooling-off rights if you disagree with them.

Edited to add: The charges are not hidden at all. For example, having read this thread, out of interest I decided to see how long it would take to check the admin fees of four major car insurers - Churchill, Direct Line, Norwich Union and Admiral. It took me a smidgen over 5 minutes in total, so an average of about 1.25 minutes for each. And I don't even insure with these companies so have no documents to hand.

lisyloo

but what I would like is a real breakdown of all additional services, cost's etc., before taking out the policy ie; what's the charge for changing my car, and why most insurers prices differ, what's the charge for changing my name, and so on.

You should be able to find these in the terms and conditions currently.
Many websites e.g. direct line, would have these available on-line as a PDF so you can see them up front.
If you don't want to do the legwork yourself then try www.matthewsguide.co.uk
I haven't used it myself but I understand it was created for exactly this purpose.
Some of it is free and there is a bit you have to pay £1.99 for, or of course you can trawl round the net for free if you have lots of time.
I'm not making any recommendation as I haven't used it but just making you aware that this is intended for the purpose you describe.

The cheap insurance you refer to is not so cheap when you come to change any aspect of your insurance policy.

Absolutely.
When you buy ANY product, you need to check out the on-going costs and not just the initial cost.
For example - totally unrelated but I have been looking at buying myself a home body wrap kit (one of those where you wrap yourself in clay and bandages).
When I looked at the prices I compared not only the initial costs but the on-going costs of additional clay as it's a consumable item. As a product it's not related in any way to car insurance but the principle is the same. The up-front costs is only one element of the overall "cost".

A lot of companies these days try to lower inital premiums as much as possible for obvious reasons. It a bit like Easyjet lowering flight costs but charging customers that want to take baggage. Personally I think it's actually fairer because those that don't want to use the service get a cheaper flight.

The bit that I think you have been missing is that this cost was stripped out of your upfront premium so it was actually cheaper than it would have been if they included everyone's admin work.

This is not an additional cost, it's just been moved from the upfront premium.
So if they'd given you admin changes for free then your premium would have been £40 extra because all those things I mention do actually need to be paid for.

losgiganteskid

Bartman wrote: »

Hi i have a scooter insured with Adrian Flux and bought a motorbike so i had the insurance changed from one to the other and they charged me a £37 admin fee, then when that bike broke i had to change it back to the scooter which cost a further £37 admin fee.
Now i have bought another motorbike of which i obviously need insuring now the Premium is only £109 for the year but if i have it transfered over again i will have paid over double that with the admin fees added.

I want to know can they charge that much money for entering a few details onto a computer?.

I dont want to pay that much again but dont want to lose my half a year no claims i allready have so i dont want to cancel it and get a new one.

any help would be greatly appreciated.

Bartman - why don't you ask Adrian Flux a couple of questions -I doubt they will answer either (beware though as they might consider the answers worthy of a fee !!) -

"Given that you receive a commission from the Insurance Company in return for placing my business - a) what is the amount of commission you receive and b) is the commission you receive insufficient for you to deal with my insurance requirements over the period of cover ? - if their commission is insufficient perhaps they need to re-negotiate revised commission levels, (always supposing their book of business is proven to be profitable).

lisyloo

if their commission is insufficient perhaps they need to re-negotiate revised commission levels

Hang on a minute, consumers are not at liberty to dictate how companies run their businesses (although you can suggest, boycott, lobby etc.).

It's up to the business.
Ultimately if you don't like it go elsewhere.

It's a bit like me going to Asda and saying "Does £2.50 for a chicken not allow you to avoid battery farming?"
To be honest I think that's a waste of my time.
If I want organic, free range then I'll go to the farm shop and pay a lot more.

You can if you like spend all you time moaning and trying to get businesses to change their ways to suit you, alternatively you could spend your time usefully researching the salient points and giving your business to the companies that fit in with your values. I'd suggest the latter is a better use of people's time.

If enough people refused dirt cheap premiums and paid more for better service then that's what they'd get.
Unfortunately we have short-term outlook, so people buy dirt-cheap and then moan when they find it they didn't get something of quality.

That's why we have rubbish service, rubbish food, no regard for animal welfare or environmental consequences.

raskazz

losgiganteskid wrote: »

Bartman - why don't you ask Adrian Flux a couple of questions -I doubt they will answer either (beware though as they might consider the answers worthy of a fee !!) -

"Given that you receive a commission from the Insurance Company in return for placing my business - a) what is the amount of commission you receive and b) is the commission you receive insufficient for you to deal with my insurance requirements over the period of cover ? - if their commission is insufficient perhaps they need to re-negotiate revised commission levels, (always supposing their book of business is proven to be profitable).

I fail to see the point of that question. The commission earned is purely for generating business, to cover the cost of marketing and inception. It is not intended to cover customer service provision, hence the administration fee.

losgiganteskid

raskazz wrote: »

I fail to see the point of that question. The commission earned is purely for generating business, to cover the cost of marketing and inception. It is not intended to cover customer service provision, hence the administration fee.

Well Raskass - your absolutley wrong with that statement - the commission earned by an intermediary for the placing of a motor client is certainly NOT solely for generating new business. Commission should be sufficient for advertising, (business acquisition) - preparation (where necessary) of the policy documentation and despatch, customer servicing throughout the term of the period of insurance (including assistance etc with claims handling if necessary) and preparation (where appropriate) of renewal documentation and despatch of renewal reminder.

According to your theory, the intermediary doesn't pay for the preparation / despatch of renewals - who does then ? Or does your company send out renewal notices "postage to be paid by the policyholder" - plus the cost of the envelope and all and sundry as mentioned earlier in the thread ! I suppose you could always charge another fee for postage etc:rotfl:

Anyway, i'm leaving now for a well earned rest for 2 weeks in the sunshine - - I suppose if I applied some admin charges to my policyholders I could have a month or two away, but I feel as though I should be here to put you right on a few pointers. :hello: :hello:

samuela66

Bartman wrote: »

Hi i have a scooter insured with Adrian Flux and bought a motorbike so i had the insurance changed from one to the other and they charged me a £37 admin fee, then when that bike broke i had to change it back to the scooter which cost a further £37 admin fee.
Now i have bought another motorbike of which i obviously need insuring now the Premium is only £109 for the year but if i have it transfered over again i will have paid over double that with the admin fees added.

I want to know can they charge that much money for entering a few details onto a computer?.

I dont want to pay that much again but dont want to lose my half a year no claims i allready have so i dont want to cancel it and get a new one.

any help would be greatly appreciated.

Mine charge a £25 admin for any change you make...............

raskazz

losgiganteskid wrote: »

Well Raskass - your absolutley wrong with that statement - the commission earned by an intermediary for the placing of a motor client is certainly NOT solely for generating new business. Commission should be sufficient for advertising, (business acquisition) - preparation (where necessary) of the policy documentation and despatch, customer servicing throughout the term of the period of insurance (including assistance etc with claims handling if necessary) and preparation (where appropriate) of renewal documentation and despatch of renewal reminder.

How am I "absolutely wrong"? The commission could cover those other functions that you mention, but will not necessarily do so in all cases. It entirely depends on the terms of business agreement between insurer and intermediary. So actually, you are absolutely wrong as you are making flawed generalisations. It is up to the broker to decide whether they want revenues to flow only from commissions or both commissions and client fees.

losgiganteskid wrote: »

According to your theory, the intermediary doesn't pay for the preparation / despatch of renewals - who does then ? Or does your company send out renewal notices "postage to be paid by the policyholder" - plus the cost of the envelope and all and sundry as mentioned earlier in the thread ! I suppose you could always charge another fee for postage etc

Actually, many EDI insurers send renewal documentation direct to the insured, and as such pay a lesser level of commission to the broker to take account of the reduced workload. Even if, as is common, the intermediary does prepare renewal, as this is not in repsonse to a request from a customer and is a routine function then it goes without saying that it will not be charged for. This does not logically mean that requests for amendments should not be charged for either.

sandoz

sorry been busy working.
firstly clay wrap sounds to painful for me.

Thank you for making perfect sense, I did go to the www.matthewsguide.co.uk site and found it really helpful, I am not saying I agree with all the charges etc., but at least now I understand the need for some of them not only did I read good sense I got a free Legal Protection
Policy.

So thank you very much