Rac insurance rip-off

[naesocks]

Hi
I put a private plate on my CLK 220 yesterday & informed my insurance company (RAC) of the change. For the privilage they charged me £25 admin fee + £61 fee for 'making the car more desireable' Anyone else heard of this 'more desireable fee'

 

[Deleted member 37751]

I can understand the admin fee, never heard of the other charge?
Sounds a bit suspect to me..

 

[MOCAŠ]

Hi
I put a private plate on my CLK 220 yesterday & informed my insurance company (RAC) of the change. For the privilage they charged me £25 admin fee + £61 fee for 'making the car more desireable' Anyone else heard of this 'more desireable fee'

I've never been charged extra for having a personal plate, and I can't see their logic. Surely the only person to whom the car will be more desirable is you! And surely the number plate is the first thing any thief would change.

 

[npuk]

Many insurance companies charge an admin fee when making changes to the policy.

Check your policy handbook and check if they consider a private plate a 'modification' or if it has any info about about how putting on a private plate affects the policy / premium.

Did you make any other change at all to the policy at the same time?

 

[naesocks]

No the plate was the only change

 

[GP801]

This is crazy. Personally never found the RAC competitive for us but Aviva (who own the RAC) are always very competitive. The crazy world of motor insurance.

 

[gina2201]

I'm sure when I changed plates a few years ago Tesco never charged me for this, my BF is in the procss of removing his plate in preparation for sale of the R32 and his insurance charged him £15. I honestly cannot recall being charged this with Tesco and I did it about 3 times!

 

[JOB-BLACK-RAT]

Hello nasocks,

Admin fee I understand but i thought the other charge would only be for mods??

Threaten not to renew with them and see if they will refund the charge. I think your right to question the latter fee!

 

[Aoraki]

If you had gone to them with the "private" plate on the car when first insuring, I bet they wouldn't have questioned it, it just seems like yet another way to screw even more of your hard earned out of your wallet. As suggested earlier, threaten not to renew.

 

[st13phil]

The bottom line (no pun intended) is that whenever we deal with motor insurers in the UK we drop our trousers, bend over, and hope it's not going to hurt too much

I always have that sentiment in mind when I arrange or change my car insurance, and as a result have never been surprised at the ingenuity that they exhibit when it comes to inventing reasons to charge me more money

 

[st13phil]

As suggested earlier, threaten not to renew.

Too late - they have your money. Should have told them to poke their policy where the sun doesn't reach when they asked for the £61

 

[grober]

You will find it under the "any excuse to jack the price up" clause in your policy.

 

[Burger]

Ah, the old think of a number and double it trick...

I've never been charged extra for my plate. Sounds like total... (insert chosen word) to me.

Regards,

 

[Rayny]

The admin fee is reasonable.
This is one of the few occasions where I think that talking to a supervisor/manager might help, the registration plate should not make any difference to the rating.

 

[kusanku]

Don't think that is fair, but I am not surprised. Pretty well any change to a vehicle will be used as an excuse to put your premium up, and they will reason that you are not going to change insurers before the policy is due for renewal over a crafty little charge like this.
Personally, I don't even think the admin fee is reasonnable, and not all insurers will charge it. I changed car mid-way through an insurance period many times, but have only been charged an admin fee once. The admin involved was somebody changing the details on their computer system, which took less than 10 minutes, which I could easily have done online myself were that facility available.

 

[markjay]

The admin fee is reasonable.
This is one of the few occasions where I think that talking to a supervisor/manager might help, the registration plate should not make any difference to the rating.

Agreed.

Incidentally, the only part of the car that you can't really steal is the registration mark... (as opposed to the physical license plate).

In general, there are three reasons why a mod will cause increase in premium:

1. Car is more powerful / can go faster / more dangerous etc - e.g. ECU remap, increased turbo boost

2. Car is more desirable to thieves - e.g. alloy wheels

3. There is a statistical connection between this specific mod and likelihood of a claim (i.e. suggesting a behavioural pattern, such as more aggressive driving style) - e.g. fitting a large wing-type boot spoiler

Apparently, in this case the RAC wrongly used clause 2. They should have used clause 3 (i.e. suggesting that owners who have private plates are less careful drivers). This would probably prove to be statistically incorrect, but this argument would make sense on a logical level if not the factual one, as opposed to clause 2 which - as already said by others - does not make any sense al all...

Incidentally, when I got my private plates, Aviva did not charge any admin fee when changing my policy, not did they increase it. They also haven't increased it when I installed COMAND (which - according to Aviva - did not require a change of policy or even notification, even though I did notify them anyway - and according to them my retrofitted COMAND will be fully covered!)

 

[davidjpowell]

When we bought the C Class Direct Line were insisting on a £550 excess for me as a Named Driver (other half's policy). I have a decent accident record, and one SP50 with 3 points. Am (and remain pretty peeved).

Consequently I moved it on to More Than Business, who I also use for the Saab. They were almost £ for £ on the quote, but then I discovered when the policy came through a larger excess on the car again. Nice of them to tell me.

I will be off on the hunt again on renewal...

I put them in the same catagory as banks, and do not believe then when they say they are not making money. I'm sure that somewheer they must be, or they would be out like a shot.

 

[markjay]

I put them in the same catagory as banks...

I put them in the same category as mobile phone companies - no way you can really compare the tariffs....

 

[davidjpowell]

I put them in the same category as mobile phone companies - no way you can really compare the tariffs....

Works as well!

Here is the big question. Who would you trust more;

A A Banker
B an Insurer
C mobile phone salesman
D An Estate Agent

 

[Rayny]

Don't think that is fair, but I am not surprised. Pretty well any change to a vehicle will be used as an excuse to put your premium up, and they will reason that you are not going to change insurers before the policy is due for renewal over a crafty little charge like this.
Personally, I don't even think the admin fee is reasonnable, and not all insurers will charge it. I changed car mid-way through an insurance period many times, but have only been charged an admin fee once. The admin involved was somebody changing the details on their computer system, which took less than 10 minutes, which I could easily have done online myself were that facility available.

Even if the facility were made available for you to 'do it yourself' the insurance company and broker would still have to provide the building, computer, software and associated staff costs which have to be paid for somehow.