£35 admin charge for changing address! ***WON***

[stephen66]

If they have failed to give you a breakdown of their costs to effect the change of address on your policy, then I would go for it.

Have you sent them a letter before action advising them of your intentions?

 

Hello,

 

They sent a breakdown some time ago, which stated it was a £25 fee plus 15% of their "loss of commission"; in other words 15% of the amount refunded by the insurer. At the time they sent a snotty reply that that was all they were prepared to say on the matter pending a ruling by the FSO.

 

More recently I sent a letter before action which they did not acknowledge. There has been no "goodwill gesture" or customer service in any shape or form.

 

I expect I'll hear from them soon, once they've had the court's documents

[Zola]

They sent a breakdown some time ago, which stated it was a £25 fee plus 15% of their "loss of commission"; in other words 15% of the amount refunded by the insurer. At the time they sent a snotty reply that that was all they were prepared to say on the matter pending a ruling by the FSO.

 

 

Its funny that 15% of the £35.00 charge was for lost commission, how exactly does that work when recently I changed my address with budget and was charged the exact same £35 BUT my insurance premiums increased slightly.

Surely then in my case I should have been charged £29.75 as they wont lose out on any commission for the change in premium

[Rob S]

I would have thought the loss of commission was an issue between them and the insurer. It might be worthwhile reading their T's and C's to see if it mentions anything about them claiming for a loss of commission should a insured person move to an area which is cheaper.

 

Glad to see you are giving it a run in court though:)

[jonni2bad]

Yep - best of luck....

[stephen66]

Yep - best of luck....

 

Thanks. I've had an "acknowledgement of service" today in which they say they intend to defend all the claim. I'll keep you informed of what happens.

[watercooled]

I am shocked but what can i Say for budget insurance companies. The companies I have worked for (the more expensive ones) never charged for these. To be honest I would challenge them on this. As per Data Protection they need to keep their details up to date. The advisors are paid around £7ph, Chang of address takes about 3 mins tops, the rest is altermated. So I see no way why it would cost anything above £3 and thats being generous.

[watercooled]

These insures also want to keep business,Therefore start threatening to take your business else where......

[stephen66]

These insures also want to keep business,Therefore start threatening to take your business else where......

 

I took it elsewhere; in fact they encouraged me to do so! BTW I have heard nothing from their solicitors to date.

[jonni2bad]

An intention to defend means the complete opposite for banks, so let's see where they go with this.

[thecornflake]

I think the DPA argument is interesting. You could try finding out the address of their data controller (I presume they would have one) and send them a letter about your change of address. I don't have a copy of the DPA to hand but it's worth checking up on it.

 

However they are also arguably providing a service, although it does have to be reasonable as stated earlier.

 

I'm due to move soon and I'm with Privilege so it will be interesting to see how you get on.

[jonni2bad]

If they are called BUDGET INSURANCE COMPANY LIMITED or BUDGET RETAIL LIMITED then the address is here

 

 

Date Controller

(Company name)

PEGASUS HOUSE

BAKEWELL ROAD

ORTON SOUTHGATE

PETERBOROUGH

PE2 6YS

[s1h]

I can't believe you are even bothering to persue this, I probably wouldn't of bothered is it really worth all this for £35?

 

Just pay it and move somewhere else at renewal

 

when you took out the policy you would have been sent t&c stating this charge which you are asked to read.

 

If you paid for it over the phone when you took the policy out they would have read a statement out to you saying that they may make charges etc and you would have agreed to this.

 

However if you go to the FSA then I would of thought budget would refund it based on the advice of the fsa as if it is pursued through them it will cost them a lot more than £35.

[stephen66]

I can't believe you are even bothering to persue this, I probably wouldn't of bothered is it really worth all this for £35?

 

when you took out the policy you would have been sent t&c stating this charge which you are asked to read.

 

However if you go to the FSA then I would of thought budget would refund it based on the advice of the fsa as if it is pursued through them it will cost them a lot more than £35.

 

 

I'm very disappointed by your opinion. We're all here to take action against companies that are ripping us off. It does not take £35 to update an address; it is an unfair charge and it should be challenged.

 

When you buy insurance I think the terms and conditions are posted to you after you have paid, if this is so, you do not have sight of them at the time of entering the contract and so, by law, they are not incorporated into that contract. They certainly do not read all the T&Cs over the phone: that wopuld take all day!

 

If you subsequently read the T&Cs and decide that Budget is not for you, they charge you a percentage of the premium as a cancellation fee. I know because I tried to cancel and it was just too expensive to leave them! There are many other posts here about Budget's extortionate exit fees and they are much more than £35!

 

In the alternative the T&Cs fall foul of unfair contract terms since these require T&Cs to be negotiated by both parties and not to be written in advance by Budget and imposed on the customer.

 

This is pretty much what I said to Budget. Their reply was "we won't quote for you at your renewal", which was fine as I would not want to use them again any way. What kind of customer service is that?

 

I did not go to the FSA but I did go to the FOS but the FOS defended Budget but they also defended my bank about bank charges. I have no confidence in the FOS.

 

The good news is that today I received a letter (from the Peterborough address that was quoted) paying me the £35 fee plus the £30 court fee. Settled out of court. Another vicotry for the CAG!

[jonni2bad]

CONGRATULATIONS

 

I think you were right to challenge this. It's a shame that they were not prepared to defend as I would have been very interested to hear both their reasoning for the level of charge and also the verdict of any Judge on the issue, however it was never likely bearing in mind the cost.

 

Some might argue that, as such, this was not a real victory. I would disagree (a) because this is precisely what the banks do - say that the cost is too great and, as far as I am concerned, if you know you are right you should challenge it, if nothing more than to deter future claimants - and (b) because your primary concern was the cost, and since this has been refunded you have gained exactly what you wanted. If you had set out with a view to changing the world, I might have to reconsider, but you didn't.

 

I just hope that more people challenge these ridiculous charges in future.

 

Well done Stephen.

[stephen66]

CONGRATULATIONS

 

Thanks.

[s1h]

Sorry if your dissapointed by my opinion stephen but a few points.

 

1) No they don't read all the T&C over the phone to you, but they will say something like " we are required to give you details of our products and services and inform you of our terms & conditions I can read these to you now or send them in the post for you to read" I am guessing you probably said send them out, as like you said it would take a while for them to read them over the phone.

 

2)You say "If you subsequently read the T&Cs and decide that Budget is not for you, they charge you a percentage of the premium as a cancellation fee"

 

You will probably find that budget themselves like most brokers charge a fixed fee ie £20 then 17.5% of the insurer premium for cancellations. The insurer also charge a percentage of the premium when you cancel this is from the insurer not the intermediary/broker (budget) If you look in your policy booklet there should be a sliding scale showing the percentage of premium refunded dependant on what month you are in. Any policy will have a 14day cooling off period in which time you should have read the t&c's.

 

3) It is up to them if they don't want to quote you for renewal that is there choice do you really think they care. You are small fry to them, how much is your annual premium? average is about £300 they will make about 10% of that. Just like if you go to a shop/pub/restaraunt and **** them off then they can refuse to serve you.

 

Fair play to you you got your £35 quid back but was it really worth it it sounds like you spent a lot of time on this, and it really is borderline that you did get it back. They are well within their rights to charge it and lets face it you probably didn't read the t&c like most when you took out the policy and you only thought the £35 was unfair when you had to pay it you didn;t ever query it before then ie when you took out the policy. At the end of the day they refunded it because they didn't want the bad publicity and that would have cost them more than £35.

 

Congratulations though on another victory.

[jonni2bad]

You will probably find that budget themselves like most brokers charge a fixed fee ie £20 then 17.5% of the insurer premium for cancellations. The insurer also charge a percentage of the premium when you cancel ... If you look in your policy booklet ...

 

Shastie, I do think you have rather missed the point of this site in general.

 

It may have passed you by, but simply because something is in writing, or even in terms and conditions, it does not necessarily mean it is right or even lawful. I have not seen you post in any bank threads telling people that they signed up to conditions that tells them they could be charged, so why do you think these terms and conditions can have a different viewpoint?

 

Do you work in this industry? It's just a hunch and certainly not something you should feel obliged to reply to...

 

Fair play to you you got your £35 quid back but was it really worth it it sounds like you spent a lot of time on this, and it really is borderline that you did get it back. They are well within their rights to charge it and lets face it you probably didn't read the t&c like most when you took out the policy and you only thought the £35 was unfair when you had to pay it you didn;t ever query it before then ie when you took out the policy. At the end of the day they refunded it because they didn't want the bad publicity and that would have cost them more than £35...

 

Once again, I ask if you truly understand the concept of the law in respect of unfair terms and conditions. Stating what you might do in a contract does not make it lawful per se. Otherwise banks could add that if you fail to keep within your overdraft agreement then they can hire a sniper and pick you off on the way to work. Extreme example maybe and certainly meant in jest, but I hope you can see the point I am making.

 

I have no idea how much time Stephen spent on this but without the attitude shown here this whole site would cease to exist - in fact it would never have even started.

 

You state it was "borderline" that he got his money back, but do not offer any reason why this is the case, so perhaps you might care to expand for our greater knowledge?

 

You also state that they paid back because they didn't want bad publicity. How do you know this? If it is simply your opinion then fine, but I have to query why you think this. If this case proceeded to court then I find it very hard to believe that the press would be interested so you must surely be referring to any publicity that Stephen might generate. I can't remember him stating that this would happen and unless he runs a national newspaper then I doubt it could be achieved. Small claims court actions also do not set a president, so would not generate interest that way either.

 

I think it is very likely that they (a) did not believe it worth the cost of defending which can be quite substantial or (b) had been made fully aware that there was a good chance of them losing the case based on the law of contracts, penalty charges and the like.

[s1h]

I understand what you are saying jonni but I am just voicing my opinion. People that are reclaiming bank charges are claiming hundreds if not thousands of pounds back not £35.

 

Im just saying i probably wouldn't have bothered. As for bad publicity surely it would be if he lost the case and then took it to the papers? again this was just my opinion. I did say in a previous post on this thread that if he went to the FSA then I would of thought budget would refund it based on the advice of the fsa as if it is pursued through them it will cost them a lot more than £35.

 

Yes I did work in the industry previously and are not sticking up for budget. If you read another post of mine you will see me mentioning that my opinion of insurance companies is very low and that the only difference between insurers and the bookies is that the bookies will pay out once in a while.

 

Sorry didn't mean to rattle anyones cage. I guess it is just a case of time = money for me and I wouldn't have thought personally it was worth spending time on this to get back £35.

 

Sorry if I have offended anyone.

[stephen66]

Sorry if I have offended anyone.

 

Hi, No you didn't offend but your opinion seemed at odds with the point of this web site.

 

I agree that some people have chased banks for much more than this but I think these large bank debts are actually many little charges added together; for example ten thirty pound charges totalling three hundred pounds. I don't see how a thirty pound unauthorised overdraft charge is any different to a thirty pound change of address charge. Such charges may be legally right but they are morally wrong on the basis that it doesn't cost thirty pounds to send a letter.

 

Slightly off the original topic, I did try to cancel within the cooling off period but Budget wanted to charge a percentage of the cost of the policy, which would have made cancelling very expensive, so I had no choice but to stick it out. I don't think you should be tied into T&Cs until you have read and received them; for this reason I think cancellations should be penalty free in the cooling off period.

 

This particular policy was underwritten by Brit. I contacted Brit and they told me that they had no charges for early cancellation, so all the penalty went into Budget's pocket.

 

Budget wrote to me and told me that the charges were to cover the underwriter's charges, so I sent them a copy of Brit's letter. That was quite amusing

[halinlondon]

hi,

 

What steps do you take from start to finish? please can you summaries the action taken so i ca follow suit. am also looking to take my bike insurance company to court because they will not change my address details before i pay up £65.00. considering a full yours insurance on my bike costs £75.00

 

thanks:)

 

I'm very disappointed by your opinion. We're all here to take action against companies that are ripping us off. It does not take £35 to update an address; it is an unfair charge and it should be challenged.

 

When you buy insurance I think the terms and conditions are posted to you after you have paid, if this is so, you do not have sight of them at the time of entering the contract and so, by law, they are not incorporated into that contract. They certainly do not read all the T&Cs over the phone: that wopuld take all day!

 

If you subsequently read the T&Cs and decide that Budget is not for you, they charge you a percentage of the premium as a cancellation fee. I know because I tried to cancel and it was just too expensive to leave them! There are many other posts here about Budget's extortionate exit fees and they are much more than £35!

 

In the alternative the T&Cs fall foul of unfair contract terms since these require T&Cs to be negotiated by both parties and not to be written in advance by Budget and imposed on the customer.

 

This is pretty much what I said to Budget. Their reply was "we won't quote for you at your renewal", which was fine as I would not want to use them again any way. What kind of customer service is that?

 

I did not go to the FSA but I did go to the FOS but the FOS defended Budget but they also defended my bank about bank charges. I have no confidence in the FOS.

 

The good news is that today I received a letter (from the Peterborough address that was quoted) paying me the £35 fee plus the £30 court fee. Settled out of court. Another vicotry for the CAG!

[Mwynci]

£65 is an awful lot, is this just a charge or are we talking about an additional premium? Who are they ?

[honeybee13]

Halinlondon, you're posting on a very old thread. You could try sending a PM to the OP, or otherwise start your own thread. Or the answer could be in the thread you posted on if you read it all.

 

HB