Insurance (MCE): Admin charge for change of address

Rather than derail someone else's thread with this ...

I recently (Nov '07) renewed my bike insurance and changed from eBike to MCE (because they gave me the cheapest quote).

I phoned them up to change my address on the policy and to inform them that the bike would now be kept in a locked garage overnight rather than "on private property" (side garden path), expecting them to say "ok, that will reduce your premium by £x".

What I wasn't prepared for was this:
"Ok, you'll be pleased to hear that there is no affect to your premium, just an admin charge of £40".

Is this the norm?!?

I've cancelled my policy, because of the nature of my work, I could have a couple of address changes each year, and I'll be buggered if I'm being charged £40 each time

I even spoke to MCE's Customer Services and asked why the admin charge was so high to simply print a piece of paper (or several pages for the entire friggin policy) and post the damn thing!? Their response was complete and utter bo||ox ... "It's an admin charge dependent on the area you live in".

Why should that matter?!?

So I'm now shopping around for new insurers

Happened to me Pedro...Funny thing is my change of address, affected my by £6, i live in the frickin corner of a nice estate.

Charged me £36 to change the address.

BTW this is Motorcycle Direct when I changed mine...I am now with MCE

Admin charge is for having to send you out new documentation. Depending on which company you are insured with and how much you complain (sometimes) that charge can either be soaked up by the company or just simply waived. I've changed address before and not had any admin charges to pay and had a reduction in premium because of moving to a better post code.

Originally Posted by plowsie

BTW this is Motorcycle Direct when I changed mine...I am now with MCE

Now ain't that strange ... I just spoke to Motorcycle Direct who said "we charge anything UP TO ?25 for changes to policies".

And you're now with MCE ... who charge ?40 for the privilige LMAO

Got a good quote from Motorcycle Direct ... policy is with AXA.
?367 FC with 1 years NCD, pillion cover, legal expenses, breakdown recovery, take bike onto continent for upto 30 days, AND I'm insured 3rd party to ride other peoples bikes. Sounds ok, but just gonna ring around and get a few more quotes first.

Si, I can understand them charging to re-issue documents, but FFS, ?40 to print a policy and post it?! What are they printing it on? Gold-leaf with special ink?? And are they sending it via courier?? LMAO It's a joke!

Insurance companies are well within their rights to charge a "reasonable" admin fee for such changes, but IMO ?40 is NOT reasonable.

Originally Posted by Pedro68

Now ain't that strange ... I just spoke to Motorcycle Direct who said "we charge anything UP TO ?25 for changes to policies".

And you're now with MCE ... who charge ?40 for the privilige LMAO

Got a good quote from Motorcycle Direct ... policy is with AXA.
?367 FC with 1 years NCD, pillion cover, legal expenses, breakdown recovery, take bike onto continent for upto 30 days, AND I'm insured 3rd party to ride other peoples bikes. Sounds ok, but just gonna ring around and get a few more quotes first.

Si, I can understand them charging to re-issue documents, but FFS, ?40 to print a policy and post it?! What are they printing it on? Gold-leaf with special ink?? And are they sending it via courier?? LMAO It's a joke!

Insurance companies are well within their rights to charge a "reasonable" admin fee for such changes, but IMO ?40 is NOT reasonable.

Hey, they have to rip someone off somewhere to please the shareholders. May as well be us for simple changes of address.

Originally Posted by BigApe

Hey, they have to rip someone off somewhere to please the shareholders. May as well be us for simple changes of address.

LOL ... well we get ripped off enough in this country as it is (taxes), so why shouldn't the insurance companies join in

I'm with Ebike and have a monthly policy. They print off the docs every month and I dont get charged 40 quid for it....

[flymo]

40 quid is scandelous. You wanna check the small print of the policy to see if they warned you.

I've never had to pay a fee like that in my life and I'ld be pretty miffed if I did.

Unbeleivable. Sounds like an email to MCN wouldnt do any harm either.

Robbin' gits.

Pedro, go back to MCE and tell them your cheapest quote, they'll beat it

Tell them if they dont charge for your change of address then you'll stay with them. You'll have to pay a cancellation fee anyway

EDIT: Alternatively, I did a search on google for "we will beat any bike insurance quotes", spoke to CIA, i got their first quote down from 856 to 602 with no deposit to pay was all for, knowledge purposes though. Couldnt be arsed with fannying about!

I know that if you cancel a policy then they have to justify their admin fee or they'll be dragged over hot coals: when I cancelled my old policy they wanted to charge ?80 in admin fees so I complained to the FSA and my insurance company was unable to demonstrate that it would cost them ?80 to cancel my policy, so they got rapped across the knuckles and the cost was waived.

It sounds like this kind of admin charge is little more than money-grabbing without respect to the actual cost so ask them to provide a breakdown of the costs before you pay and if they refuse or the breakdown doesn't look right, complain to the FSA.