Car insurance news
Cheap car insurance hides hidden admin fees, warns Which?
British motorists have been warned against a number of hidden charges which can turn an apparently cheap car insurance policy into an expensive mistake.
Consumer watchdog Which? Money has revealed that around 80 percent of car insurance quotes mask a raft of often fraudulently-expensive administration fees for customers who wish to change their details or cancel a policy.
Those who shop around for the cheapest car insurance on comparison websites are particularly venerable, as the majority of such sites disregard administration charges when comparing quotes.
Of the 151 car insurance firms in the Which? study, 105 levied additional changes for so-called ‘policy amendments' (covering a change in personal circumstances for the policyholder or any of the named drivers), with the most expensive costing £55.
Hidden cancellation fees were particularly steep, rising to £85 in some cases.
We asked one of the duck2water quotes team for her thoughts on hidden administration fees: "Your personal information directly affects the risk of insuring your car, so changing this information with your car insurance company means a little more work for them than it would at the bank or city council offices - a small charge for doing so is reasonable," she said.
"However, some of the cheaper car insurance providers use very steep administration fees as a sneaky method for recouping costs. It's these firms that the consumer needs to be wary of."