Blumen' Blasty, Pain in Bottom Insurance Companies!

[EltonFrog]

I have just moved house and I needed to change my address on my car & motorcycle insurance.

Esure (car) wanted to charge me me £25 admin fee and Bennets (motorcycle) wanted to charge me £30 admin fee.

I asked Esure to justify the fee and suggested to them that it was unfair and felt more like a penalty fee than an admin fee. They said that its in their T&Cs which it is, but I said it was still unfair and asked them once again to justify the fee. The operative was insistent that it had to be paid and that they have to notify various bodies about change of address' etc., I said that that was their cost of doing business and that I should not be paying for it. I also asked to speak to a supervisor. At first she wouldn't let me, I insisted and was asked to hold, about a minute later she came back on the line and said that they would waive the fee on this one occasion.

Then on the phone to Bennets and had a similar conversation but the nice operative was a bit more conciliatory. Again I said the fee felt a bit more like a penalty, I asked here to justify it, she asked how much I thought was fair. I said about a fiver, she said we are running a business, how about splitting the difference and say £15.00. I said go on then but I'm not that happy about it, but I'm wasting time here, she asked me to hold for a moment, and when she came back on the line she said that they would waive the fee! FFS!

GAH! If you want to get anything done in this country you've got to complain till you're blue in the mouth.

Still at least I saved £55, but what a palava!

 

[swee'pea99]

Always worth a bitch & a moan in my experience. My take on it is always 'what have I got to lose?'

 

[EltonFrog]

Always worth a bitch & a moan in my experience. My take on it is always 'what have I got to lose?'

Mine too.

 

[Firestorm]

The broker will have to change the address om their records, the underwriter will need to be informed, their records changed as well as the national database.
plus there could be a rating change as the premium rates may be different for the new post code , ie a greater number of thefts in the new area creating a different risk.

It does seem like a penalty, though, paricularly if you expect companies to do work for nothing....

 

[summerdays]

I don't think I've had to pay to change addresses anywhere, not that I've done it very often. The hardest think we've found was trying to get removed from the electoral register, my daughter is still struggling to get her name removed from an old address, and the two authorises just keep sending her off to the other one, and in the meantime mail goes to the old address!

 

[EltonFrog]

Once Bennetts agreed to change my address, I had a new certificate and policy documents by email within two minutes of hanging up the phone.

Insurance companies know that from time to time folk will need to change details on their policies there is no justification all in charging their customer for it, it's a cost of doing business.


(isn't the phrase "hanging up the phone" so 1970's?)

 

[EltonFrog]

[QUOTE 3368684, member: 45"]Do you still turn the TV off?[/QUOTE]

No 'cos I don't turn it on, but if I did I would.

 

[Kiwiavenger]

I think axa let you change it online for no admin fee, nfu mutual don't charge an admin fee.

I got stung by Churchill as in one year I changed address (£30) then had to add my brother in law, then declared the car off the road as engine blew up, then new car put on. So about £120 of charges! Now I pay nought to change details and I have any driver over 25 to drive for half the price

 

[EltonFrog]

I think axa let you change it online for no admin fee, nfu mutual don't charge an admin fee.

I got stung by Churchill as in one year I changed address (£30) then had to add my brother in law, then declared the car off the road as engine blew up, then new car put on. So about £120 of charges! Now I pay nought to change details and I have any driver over 25 to drive for half the price

Thieving feckin baskets! All they have to do is type in a couple details, the rest is just ones and zeros blatting about the internet.

 

[Kiwiavenger]

Thieving feckin baskets! All they have to do is type in a couple details, the rest is just ones and zeros blatting about the internet.

MMany moons ago I used to work for Churchill 's claims department and shuddered when people had a total loss as I knew it would be £30 a pop just for a change of vehicle. I've seen some quotes with a broker fee, and underwriting fee and the usual ipt bundled up in a price, just the fees can be silly money on some!

 

[400bhp]

Hmm, this is quite interesting. I'm quite surprised not one, but two have backed down on their T&C's.

Insurance companies will be looking to minimise cost. So, to waive the fee (in both instances) they must feel that you might have officially complained and it would cost them more in admin for the complaint than the admin cost to change address.

Now, building on that, if they think they admin cost for the complaint isn't a simple cut and paste job (i.e. they have a bog standard reply for complaints about fees for simple member change details and it never goes any further, and if it did the Ombudsman rules in favour of the insurer) this suggests there might be something more to this, in that the ombudsman may be ruling in favour of complainants on this.

Noted for future reference.

 

[screenman]

So everybody wants cheaper prices and higher wages.

I would imagine CUE now has a black Mark on the OP's name and will flag it up come renewal time.

You agreed to the terms at renewal and thought they were fine, until they were applied to you.

 

[EltonFrog]

Hmm, this is quite interesting. I'm quite surprised not one, but two have backed down on their T&C's.

Insurance companies will be looking to minimise cost. So, to waive the fee (in both instances) they must feel that you might have officially complained and it would cost them more in admin for the complaint than the admin cost to change address.

Now, building on that, if they think they admin cost for the complaint isn't a simple cut and paste job (i.e. they have a bog standard reply for complaints about fees for simple member change details and it never goes any further, and if it did the Ombudsman rules in favour of the insurer) this suggests there might be something more to this, in that the ombudsman may be ruling in favour of complainants on this.

Noted for future reference.

Good point, I wonder if they or the charges are or could be subject to miss-selling claims like PPI?

 

[EltonFrog]

[QUOTE 3369182, member: 45"]In it not just the same as them inflating your second year's premium on the off-chance that you won't challenge them?[/QUOTE]

Not quite. The admin charges are clearly listed in the T&Cs, it's the customers responsability to shop around when it comes to renewal time.

 

[Berties]

Just the word admin fee makes me chuckle , surely one change a year is a service you would think would except.
When students or any one renting sign for a new room they get charged a sign fee, my colleague has 61 students on his books and charges £125 sign up fee and after all the students are in promptly goes on a big holiday,