Car insurance charge £70.00?! for changing address??!!!!

littlebearbeer

Hi all,

Anyone got any ideas on whether it is possible to reclaim a £70.00 fine that a certain car insurance (hint:1066 battle of...) company charged for changing my address?? Is this right... i agreed to the charge because i had no real choice. I have been with the company for about 4 years... surely this is no way to treat a good customer!? £70.00 for retyping the address on a letter makes no sense to me!

Any ideas anyone?

Thanks,

shelly

Being £70 I would imagine its for more than just a change of address. It might be that the area you have moved to is classed as higher risk for theft, damage etc.
IIRC when we moved we had to pay just over £50, that was for change of address on policy and an increase in risk.

dunstonh

£70 certainly sounds like a risk increase as most admin fees are less than £50.

Steve1981

Admin fees can be up to £50 PLUS the change of risk costs

robpw2

when my partner moved from his parents house to our old home last year it was 110 a month (he was 20) went up to 220 a month

raskazz

I happen to know through friends in the industry that Hastings charge £42 administration fee, so the risk has increased by £28.

I also know that Hastings's Terms of Business are misleading as they state:

"What will you have to pay us for our services?
Hastings Direct do not charge any administration fees for our services but any changes made to your policy may result in additional premium."

You should raise a complaint with them, as they are in breach of the FSA's ICOBS on fee disclosure - requirement 4.3 in particular. State that you are happy to pay for any change in risk, but not for fees which were not disclosed to you.

I am absolutely in favour of administration fees - but not when they are not disclosed to the customer at inception.

Let us know how you get on.

shelly

littlebearbeer wrote: »

Hi all,

Anyone got any ideas on whether it is possible to reclaim a £70.00 fine that a certain car insurance (hint:1066 battle of...) company charged for changing my address?? Is this right... i agreed to the charge because i had no real choice. I have been with the company for about 4 years... surely this is no way to treat a good customer!? £70.00 for retyping the address on a letter makes no sense to me!

Any ideas anyone?

Thanks,

Just reading the OP again, could it be that the £70 is not an admin fee but just a premium loading for change of address? Nowhere in OP do they say its an admin fee, just a fine.

We assumed its an admin fee, myself included.