Lloyds TSB car insurance

jess8905

I am really annoyed with what has just happened and need to vent:mad:

I brought a policy online with Lloyds TSB and forgot to say in the modification bit that my car has alloy wheels. I call them up and ask them to add this fully aware that the premium will increase slightly only to be told that they will add on a £15 administration fee just to add this little bit of information and in future every other change (adding or removing from the policy) will also incur this £15 admin fee!

This seems a bit steep to me but the advisor said it's standard practice with all companies and their fee is lower than other companies.

How can they justify £15 to make such small adjustments to policies?

Riq

Elephant is £30 think yourself lucky.

You're paying for them to ammend it, manager to check it, new premium calc, reprint of all documents etc etc.

lisyloo

How can they justify £15 to make such small adjustments to policies?

Quite easily I would have thought.
They have to employ and train people to make these changes.
The computer software needs to be in place as well as phone lines, printers, postage etc.
They have to pay for the training, management of staff, electricity etc.

I think you've got off fairly lightly to be honest.

Regardless of any opinions, I am pretty sure that legally you have no leg to stand on (there is a limit for fees but you are nowhere near it).

Quentin

lisyloo wrote: »

They have to employ and train people to make these changes.The computer software needs to be in place as well as phone lines, printers, postage etc.They have to pay for the training, management of staff, electricity etc.

In all this justification you omitted the p word!

lisyloo

In all this justification you omitted the p word!

Not sure what the p work is
If it's literally having a p then yes, I'm afraid people do have to attend the call of nature whilst the employer is paying them.
Here's a fuller list that I've cut & paste from another post.

staff time
their pension
their tax & NI
time off e.g. sick, holidays
their training
their manager
their desk & chair
hardware
software
rent
electricity
employers NI
employers liability insurance
paper, stamps, ink & printers
costs of storage of paper, stamps, ink & printers
costs or ordering paper, stamps, ink & printers
share of costs of daily royal mail collection
their share of payroll costs
their share of office cleaning costs
their share of kitchen equipment costs
their share of health & safety costs e.g. provision of fire extinguishers
their share of training for fire marshals and first aiders
their share of hygiene provsision e.g. paper towels, loo roll, sanitary disposal
admin costs for processing your payment
fees e.g. visa for your payment
time off for company meetings
time off for fire drills
share of business rates
etc.

Quentin

They could avoid many of these costs - getting rid of any women employees for example would remove one overhead you mention and might also increase their Profit!!

lisyloo

They could avoid many of these costs

How?
They could not for example avoid government imposed taxes.
They could not avoid competitive salaries and benefits necessary to attract the staff.
I don't think there is much (if anything on that list they could avoid).

getting rid of any women employees for example would remove one overhead you mention

There are a number of arguments against this:
1) sanitary disposal costs are minimal
2) They could only be removed if there were NEVER ever any females in the building e.g. cleaners, visitors etc.
2) It's illegal to discriminate on the basis of gender
3) Statistics show that females are often paid less for the same job

But it would be very very minimal.
The list is just there to demonstrate that the costs are a bit greater than the often referred to "just pressing a button".

and might also increase their Profit!!

Insurance companies are private companies that are in business to make profit.
I doubt whether they are making a huge profit by charging £15 and they are entitled to charge a lot more.
If they are then so what? The OP admits to making a mistake up front so why shouldn't they make a profit on any service they offer?
If you were thirsty and wanted a drink somewhere, then they'd make a profit out of your biological functions.

The best way to avoid paying too much in profit is to (where possible) self-insure.
I do this a lot because like you I don't want to pay insurance companies profits.

In some cases it is unavoidable e.g. it's a legal requirement to have 3rd party car insurance.

But I don't really see any fundamental objection to companies making profits or making money from you when you make a mistake (If you made a mistake on a flight ticket you'd have to pay).

If you have an objection to the capitalist system in general then there might be a better board for a discussion but in general I think it's provided us with a much better standard of living that say for exmaple communism (I suggest further discussion on that topic goes elsewhere out of courtesy for people who want to discuss insurance).

Quentin

There is no objection here to companies making a profit.

You were the one who omitted it from your lists of reasons why they make charges!

They must make a profit otherwise they close down don't they?

lisyloo

OK, that's no problem.
I have no objections to people adding things I've missed out.

I didn't deliberately leave profit out, I was just concentrating on costs.

It wasn't something I'd spent a lot of time on, it's just meant to be a demonstration of the fact that employing people has numerous costs attached because of legislation and overheads and it's not simply a case of 2 minutes of someones time pressing a button.

I don't think most of the costs can be avoided in the UK.
The jobs could of course be moved abroad where legislation and overheads and less costly but then I feel people would have other complaints so "be careful what you wish for".

BenL

How long ago was the policy taken out?

MSE way, cancel under 14 days cooling off rules for a full return of premium (hopefully nothing in the terms and cons for penalties - not allowed?)

Take out a new policy with them or a competitor after using Martins Car Insurance guides.

Quentin

Hopefully the op has at least got the £80 cashback from quidco!

As I don't think you can set up a policy on line to include modifications.

So the op should still be £65 up on the deal!