Experts say that changing the details on your van insurance policy could cost you, as a fee of as much as £30 could be charged to you independent of any changes to your premium.
Cheap insurance providers say that such fees are only used to cover the administrative costs of making changes to a customer’s policy. However, with different commercial van insurance providers charging various fees, evidence seems to say that insurers simply charge their customers whatever they feel they can get away with charging.
Policyholders wanting to change their name after an event such as marriage would be able to do so for free if they are insured with many providers. However, there are some, such as Swiftcover, that would charge a £30 fee to update your details.
Another fly in the ointment with Swiftcover is that the provider does not charge customers for changing their personal details via the insurer’s website. Industry experts suggest that the company feels the time spent by a call centre representative making the changes – which could not possibly take more than a few minutes at most – is worth £30; however, you would be hard pressed to find a call centre staff worker paid as much as £30 an hour, much less £30 for every five-minute call they handle, and with the high stress of working at a call centre while countless disgruntled policy holders ring you up for hours on end, £30 an hour is not nearly enough to pay for the therapy needed after working such a position for any length of time.