Hastings Admin Fee's

[zoltron]

Well I was considering taking out a policy with HD, but in light of seeing these admin fees I think I'll steer clear.

 

I'm currently insured with Co-Operative and I thought their admin fees of £15 for amendments were a bit steep, but £35 for very little work is just bordering on extortion, and before someone pops up and states there is a lot of work that goes on in the background, don't bother my wife worked in the underwriting department of a large insurer for 18 years.

 

Let me tell you £35 is way off the mark, even £15 by my wife's calculations is a bit much. The breakdown my wife calculated which included work by back office staff on a salary preparing new documents was close to £9 - £10 per policy modification and thats still being generous in her calculations.

 

If anyone disputes this at Hastings, kindly post up a breakdown. But it will never happen as admin fees are deemed commercially sensitive or so says my wife. But as she's out of this business now she don't mind a bit of whistleblowing.

[Hastings Direct. Joe - Soc]

Hi Zoltron,

 

Thank you for your post, while I'm disappointed that you chose another insurer, I am glad that you were able to make an informed decision based on our published info about what you might be charged. In order to give our customers more freedom and transparency, we made the decision to split admin fees from the premium. Now we can offer extremely competitive rates and also apply fees only where necessary so the fairness and value to our customers is better than ever.

 

Just so you know, our fees are not for profit and are there to help recover our own costs in performing administrative tasks so we can keep growing while offering a five star Defaqto rated product.

 

However, we're always reviewing our fees and utilise customer comments to do so, having just recently taken £10 off our admin and cancellation fee based on your feedback.

 

Regards,

 

 

Joe

[unclebulgaria67]

At some point there will be a court ruling or FCA decision on admin fees, which will say that any admin fees which are in excess of actual costs incurred, are not allowed. If such a decision was ever backdated, it could be similar to the Banks with PPI. The costs of dealing with it and refunding amounts would be huge.

 

Something for Insurers management teams to think about and assess the risk of this happening. I think it might make sense to have independent assessment of costs to justify admin fees, just in case there was ever a court ruling or FCA decision. If an independent assessment suggests reduced fees, it woukd make sense to reduce them and keep them under periodic review.

[chonker]

I've just been hit with a charge of which £25 was "admin" fee for changing my address, it's funny I've just moved and obviously I've called many companies to change my address for free. I can't see how a couple of dozen characters in a database can possibly cost Hastings this much, they really aught to get their IT seen to!

 

The lady I spoke to on the phone told me this is how they keep their prices low, by not charging customers these types of fees up front.... so wait I'm paying a share of all what would be all of their new customers fees? That surely can't be legal?

 

The fee to cancel my policy was £45 though so seems I'm over a barrel, it's just disgusting what these companies get away with. I certainly wont be using Hastings again.

[dx100uk]

I've just been hit with a charge of which £25 was "admin" fee for changing my address, it's funny I've just moved and obviously I've called many companies to change my address for free. I can't see how a couple of dozen characters in a database can possibly cost Hastings this much, they really aught to get their IT seen to!

 

The lady I spoke to on the phone told me this is how they keep their prices low, by not charging customers these types of fees up front.... so wait I'm paying a share of all what would be all of their new customers fees? That surely can't be legal?

 

The fee to cancel my policy was £45 though so seems I'm over a barrel, it's just disgusting what these companies get away with. I certainly wont be using Hastings again.

 

 

you need to start a new thread

of your own please

 

 

dx