Car insurance help needed please.

[scorterooney]

HI - Just downgraded cars from a rather smart Alfa to a KA lol.

Anyway just phoned up my insurers to see about changing insurance details and they want to charge me £20 admin fee ( which is fair enough) and then continue to charge me EXACTLY the same price as i was paying on the alfa !!!

Just so you know - Alfa is worth £3000, ins group 13, 1.8 engine with leather etc and the new KA is worth £1000, insurance grp 2 , 1.3 engine and boggo standard. - if i do a search for insurance on the Ka the company i use only show a premium of £150 a year where as the alfa is £220 a year - so i fail to see how the premiums can be the same.

So something amiss there imo.

Alternativly i can cancel my insurance and go with the post office for £80 a year lol - only problem there is that my current insurers will then charge me £45.59 which is a cancelation fee and the interest on the direct debit payments we agreed to.

Does the cancellation fee sound right ? Is that lawfull etc ?

Is there anyway i can cancel without paying the fee bearing in mind i have paid 6 months worth of £19 a month direct debits and only have 4 more left to pay.

In a nut shell can anyone offer any advice on what rights i have and what the insurance company can and cannot charge .

thanks

[scorterooney]

Ignore the above / delete mods.

I figured i needed insurance and the cheapest way was to give in to my current insureres demand - still feel aggrieved at having to pay the same insurance i paid on nice Alfa on a ruddy Ka though !!

[gyzmo]

Just if it helps clarify, there were a couple of issues here.

Firstly, quotes for new business are generally cheaper than renewals. Amendments are based on the existing policy premium, so will not bear relation to the new premium. Its basically a marketing ploy to attract new business in the hope that they will not renew elsewhere.

Secondly, different insurers have different risks. A Ford KA will be acceptable to one insurer but not be attractive to another. It's basically down to what kind of business each insurer wants on their books. If they don't like it, they charge more. It could be that there is some factor which is disproprtionately affecting your rating, thus your premium. Just as an example (from my oold employer)

They had a bottom line of £150 - that is, that is the minimum they would charge anyone for a year's policy (basically, the amount of money needed to pay for the administration, overheads etc). However, if you are a very good risk, you would, were it not for the bottom line, be charged say £100. Because of the bottom line, you are charged £150. Now an adjustment is made (additional driver) which attracts a £30 increase but the amount charged STAYS at £150 becasue the underwriting still puts it at under the £150.

It's more complicated than that, but that's how the senior underwriter explained it to me anyway. I know the situation posted is sort of reverse, but this is really to show the way insurance premiums work (in a rather basic manner!)

[scorterooney]

cheers for the reply - Suppse its just one of those things and ill make my point by not renewing in august lol.

the main bug near is i have a quote of £130 with £50 cashback elsewhere - So £80 for a years insurance :o :o which i would of obviously preffered to take - add on the cancellation charges etc though and the overall price creeps up