Bought a brand new car - 1st new car for 6.5 years.
Phone E-sure and they said the premium would now be £182 to cover the new X-trail. Having done a quote on their website last week it quoted £162.
When I queried this the young man said there was a £20 Admin Fee for changes! This is my first change of car in 6.5 years with them!
Green Flag Breakdown Cover charged Zero when I gave them the same changes.
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How short sighted of them. For £20 they may well have lost a customer.
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For £20 they may well have lost a customer.
I have 2 x cars and House + Contents with Esure and in the 6.5 years have made Zero claims.
Other than Sunday past - Windscreen cracked by a stone (I am still waiting on the Glass Company finding the right screen in the right colour!.
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I'd give them a call and point out the error of their ways.
V
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Many insurance companies (not just motor) do this now - I generally find that firmly objecting to the fee will get it waived, but it doesn't always work.
On motor, Admiral (and presumeably all their related companies) are bad for this - both my daughters are insured with them, but one has changed address 3 times in year, added her boyfriend and changed the class of use. They charged £15 for every change.
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so....let's see.
Phone bod types in change of address, system prints new cert, cert put in franked envelope, then posted off to you. Not sure how it equates to £20 worth.
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Cheap companies have to make their money somehow!!!
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£162 to insure a brand new car seems eminently acceptable - I don't think I would complain too much for a small administrative charge in this instance.
The only time I did was when I acquired my current Bora four years ago and DirectLine wanted to charge me a fee even though the insurance renewal was only six weeks away.
I couldn't persuade the company to change its mind, so paid up and dropped them soon afterwards - now I'm with Zurich, who offer quite a bit more for quite a lot less...:-)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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We recently moved. I'm with More Than who charged me £43 for a change of address. SWMBO is with Admiral - they charged nothing.
I had a similar situation with Liverpool Victoria about six years ago and have not used them since.
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My insurance company tried this one on me when we changed the 1993 BMW 318i to a 1996 Mondeo Estate. First they tried to tell me that the Mondy was more nickable than the BMW and then wanted £20 admin fee. I said that they could charge me the admin fee if they liked but dont bother writing to me at renewal time, just send me my proof of no claims bonus. Without a seconds delay the £20 admin fee was waived. For the record I have been with them for about four years, never claimed and always paid premium in full up front every time.
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£162 to insure a brand new car seems eminently acceptable
£162 to Comp insure a £20K Group 11 car car for 12 mths is fine by me - I alsohave Group 16 car and that costs £197 - again good value.
It is the cheek to ask £20 for a Change of Make/Model.
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...... Not sure how it equates to £20 worth.
A salary of (say) £10 per hour probably costs the company £30-£40 when all overheads are taken into account.
--
L\'escargot.
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Direct Line also make a charge - £10 or £20 for change of address - as well as upping the premium for moving to a considerably smarter part of town as 'people in smart areas are more likely to claim'. On my shed?
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I had the MX-5 and two motorbikes insured with a well known insurer who tried to charge me a whopping £25 to notify them of a change of address. I explained very politely to the lovely young lady on the phone that as a triple customer of theirs for the past three years, I thought this somewhat unfair, and that if I were made to pay it, all three policies would be taken elsewhere at renewal time! They withdrew the charge there and then.
With regard to Mapmakers comment, my parents had something similar after they moved a few years ago from one of the most crime ridden council estates in the South to a small village in the middle of nowhere and her insurers used the same excuse when the premium went UP. Apparently "thieves go out to these areas because they know there are plenty of nice cars worth stealing". "I don't doubt that for a second" said mum, " but can you tell me how that applies to a 12 year old Mondeo worth £350?"
Not that it made a jot of difference....
Cheers
DP
--
04 Grand Scenic 1.9 dCi Dynamique
00 Mondeo 1.8TD LX
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And of course if you moved back to the rough area they would drop your premium back - ho ho.
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I'm with MoreThan, 2 cars and house insured with them and so far they've never charged me or even asked for any admin charges whenever I've changed my car. But saying that I pay monthly so maybe they add it all up and never tell me they're charging me admin fee! I'll ask next time :)
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I really don't understand the problem with a £20 fee - you've phoned them up, spent maybe 2/3 minutes on the phone, used their systems again, and they have had to print some new documents and post them out. Why can't they/shouldn't they charge?
These days people are so hung up on Rip Off Britain that everything seems a con. Why don't we make all companies non-profit making charities?
I change cars relatively often, and don't object to a £15/£20 fee to do so.
I spend most of my days trying to explain that companies that we do business with have to make a profit - if they don't we'd have a fairly short trading period with them because there wouldn't be a business.....
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We had the same thing recently with Diamond on my wifes car when we changed the reg no not the car wouldn't have minded a fiver but not £20.00
The thing that really gets me is that they employee a call centre in India and us UK mail to deliver it so does it really cost more than a £1 !! not likely
Still voted with our feet - Swift cover a lot more high tech and cheeper!!
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Totally agree with PhilDews.
Maybe we should go a stage further and make all alterations to a policy after it is taken out chargeable. As PhilDews says, everything does a cost. Full Stop.
I almost never make alterations so I would object to paying an increased premium because Joe Bloggs makes ten changes per year.
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Red Baron - I'm not sure whether some of your comments are sarcastic. So what I would add is that whilst I do not object to a small admin fee (£10/£20) for any changes, if that fee were to be, lets say £40, then that is becoming unreasonable.
With my work hat on, what do the terms and conditions say about admin charges? If they are not mentioned, then how can they levy them. If they are mentioned, is a figure given?
I always buy my car insurance on a lowest cost, rather than best cover. With an excess of £600 ish generally and none of the optional legal etc. cover. By doing this I don't expect any added value.
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No, they were not meant to be sarcastic at all.
At work, I have a company credit card that I use to buy inexpensive items because every time that I raise a purchase order, it costs the company £50 to administer it.
Just the same principle will apply to insurance companies. Someone has to pay.
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Sorry Red Baron - didn't mean to offend.
As a procurement professional, working in the construction industry, everyday is spent trying to educate people about process/transaction costs. I would rather pay £20 if I use the service, rather than have £25 added to my premium everyear to allow for me changing things.
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My expectation would be that the insurance companies business model should include the cost to service customers.
The investment in the relevant systems has already been made, and the call centre costs will be more or less fixed (maybe there is some capacity flexibility if they are outsourced).
I think that the admin fee is just an incremental revenue stream that the industry has cottoned onto. Goes straight into the margin.
Clearly people?s experience here is mixed, but if you challenge it, it?s often waived. If not then you have to consider it part of the total cost and vote with your fee next time.
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So far I?ve not been asked to pay a fee when changing address or model of car. However, on two or three occasions charges have been imposed when I?ve been a day or so late paying my credit card bill, but these have subsequently been cancelled at my request.
One only has to ask.
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Everything is becoming an add on these days. The UK has (for much of its commercial trade) become a 'dumping' market, so other costs need to be picked up elsewhere to make it worth people doing business here. The airlines blaze a trail with this.
Off topic a bit though I know but relevant to extra charges........checked in a xxxxxxx flight recently behind a big bird with a case, probably 110+kgs of her and 20kgs for the bag. No extra charge necessary. Person (petite) in front of her had just checked in 2 bags, say 60kgs for her and 25kgs for the bags, but been charged £15 or so extra for the second bag!!!! What a con!!!!
No, I'm not weightist!!!!!
Just off for a large doughnut.
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