Car insurance & charges for address change

ChewyyBacca

I m about to move house and need to change address in car insurance. Insurer is Admiral and I have online access to their portal.
The portal says I have to pay approx £16 to change my address.
Are insurers allowed to charge for usual things like change of address or mobile number on Online portal (not telephone/call centre)
With the outrageous annual premium, any additional charge by the insurer seems like taking a mick. Anyone got around paying it?

Ayr_Rage

Moving address is not only an admin issue it can change your premium if moving to a higher risk area.

All charges should be clearly stated in your documentation.

Hoenir

Either pay up or your insurance policy will be void. That's your choice. Whatever you might think of the insurance industry. 

Aretnap

Yes, they can charge an additional premium if the new address is one where they would normally charge a higher premium.

They can also charge an admin fee for making any change, provided the fee is a reasonable reflection of the admin costs associated with the change, which can include a measure of the cost of setting up and maintaining the online portal spread between the number of people who use it, not just the marginal cost of processing your own change.

There are plenty of insurers who don't charge admin fees for making minor changes, but they tend to be a bit more expensive to start off with. If you go with a bargain basement instead like Admiral who go for a very low headline price to be top of the comparison sites, they tend to have more hidden charges like admin fees.

TELLIT01

It's an admin charge for admin work.  Options basically are either pay up or go to another insurer and cancel the current policy.  There would be a charge for doing that too.

dunstonh

The portal says I have to pay approx £16 to change my address.
Are insurers allowed to charge for usual things like change of address or mobile number on Online portal (not telephone/call centre)

Looking at Admiral's charging structure, it is part admin charge, part premium.

And the answer to your question is yes.

With the outrageous annual premium, any additional charge by the insurer seems like taking a mick. Anyone got around paying it?

Why do you think other policyholders should pay for your changes?  That is effectively what you are asking.

When you bought the policy, why did you pick a provider that has a lower premium but explicit charges for admin rather than pick a provider that has a higher premium but has no charges for admin?

You have the choice.   So, its a bit silly to moan about it after you bought it.    You should have selected a more expensive insurer without admin charges if that is what you wanted.

DullGreyGuy

The general consensus is that it's better to charge those that incur additional costs for those costs rather than charging everyone more in advance. 

Creating online self servicing isnt free, nor is maintaining it. Even if you are buying your software rather than creating it yourself then the software house often charge a transaction fee. Some websites are smoke and mirrors too, the first online self servicing a former client introduced did nothing more than email the change to the call centre who then had to actually key it into the Policy Administration System. That team had to be overly large because it had to be keyed within the same working day.


Admiral state their admin fee for an online change for Motor is £13 so sounds like you have a £13 fee and £3 additional premium. 

All perfectly legal, at the end of the day if you dont want to pay the fee then dont move home. 

Scot_39

ChewyyBacca said:

I m about to move house and need to change address in car insurance. Insurer is Admiral and I have online access to their portal.
The portal says I have to pay approx £16 to change my address.
Are insurers allowed to charge for usual things like change of address or mobile number on Online portal (not telephone/call centre)
With the outrageous annual premium, any additional charge by the insurer seems like taking a mick. Anyone got around paying it?

The chances are you will find that the online method is cheaper than doing it over the phone

The last time I changed my car it would have been c£20-25 if did by calling at one of my past insurers - but free online - that £25 taken despite no premium change as done 2 months before renewal - on line anyway.

Someone has to pay for the staff time and the office / computers etc they use to help us.

DullGreyGuy

Scot_39 said:

ChewyyBacca said:

I m about to move house and need to change address in car insurance. Insurer is Admiral and I have online access to their portal.
The portal says I have to pay approx £16 to change my address.
Are insurers allowed to charge for usual things like change of address or mobile number on Online portal (not telephone/call centre)
With the outrageous annual premium, any additional charge by the insurer seems like taking a mick. Anyone got around paying it?

The chances are you will find that the online method is cheaper than doing it online.

The last time I changed my car it would have been c£20-25 if did by calling at one of my past insurers - but free online - that £25 taken despite no premium change as done 2 months before renewal - on line anyway.

Someone has to pay for the staff time and the office / computers etc they use to help us.

https://www.admiral.com/about-us/fees

£21 by phone or messenger, £13 self service