Admin charges for auto renewal

[Pob]

I auto-renewed my car insurance with Tesco last week. I called them this week to notify them that my address had changed (my sister lives at my old address, so I still got the policy through).

 

My car has always been kept at my current address (only down the road), even when I was still living at my old address and it clearly states on my old policy the correct (current) address for the vehicle being kept overnight, so I was surprised when the sales rep told me there would be an additional charge for a change in rating. Surely this is based on where the car is kept, not where you live...

 

He then advised there was an admin charge of £15 for making this amendment - despite it clearly being within only a few days of my having received and checked the renewal policy documents.

 

He said that unless I paid the £25 charge there and then my insurance would not be valid. Naturally I paid, but I am currently writing to them to express my disappointment at what I see to be grossly unfair charges.

 

Is there any form of ombudsman I could refer this to if I get no joy...?

[barracad]

The premium would be calculated on a number of factors, including where you live. Where you live makes a difference to how they calculate your risk as a person, not the risk as to where the car is kept overnight.

 

As for the admin charge, whilst £15 does seem a little on the high side, you have to remember that if the £15 is a true reflection of their costs then it would make no difference whether you were making the amendment a few days after the start of your policy, or a few days before the end - if it was a true reflection of how much it costs them to make the relevant changes then it should be a fixed cost.