Daily Mail

VICTORY OVER THE POSTAL PENALTY

Money Mail shames insurer More Than into refunding £6 charge for customers not online

- By Fiona Parker f.parker@dailymail.co.uk

THOUSANDS of car insurance customers will be refunded a total of £30,000 after Money Mail discovered they had been wrongly charged to receive paper copies of their policies.

Insurance giant More Than began charging customers £6 to receive their motor policy documents in the post in June last year.

The insurer said customers could view their policy free- of- charge online but needed to pay a small fee for a printed version ‘to cover the cost of overheads’.

But after Money Mail raised this with the Financial Conduct Authority, it emerged that More Than may have been in breach of the regulator’s rules.

The City watchdog says: ‘ Firms can provide the required documents and informatio­n in various ways, but where a customer also requests a paper copy this must be provided free of charge. We are aware of some concerns about whether firms are complying and will be looking into this further.’

Now, following pressure from the Daily Mail, More Than has axed its £6 fee and agreed to refund about 5,000 customers who have already been charged — a total of £30,000. The decision is a major victory for households who are not online and still rely on paper copies of bills and statements.

Last month Money Mail revealed how almost all major telecoms giants now charge customers up to £36 a year for paper bills. Some energy companies are now also charging customers extra if they cannot manage their account using the internet.

Tory Robert Halfon, MP for Harlow, has since set up a petition calling for a ban on charges for paper utility bills.

Now it has emerged that insurers are also penalising customers for not being online.

Of the biggest 30 insurance firms, only More Than charged customers an extra fee to receive their policy in the post — which it has now scrapped.

But others, including Axa, Aviva, More Than, Sainsbury’s and Tesco Bank, impose costly fees if you need to make a change to your policy over the phone. Yet, if you make the same alternatio­n online you will not have to pay a penny.

Fees can vary widely. More Than car cover customers are charged £25 to update policy or personal details midway through a contract by phone, the same fee as Tesco Bank car and home policy customers, while Axa charges £10. Aviva charges some car insurance customers £18 if the alteration changes their premium, while home insurance customers will pay £8.

Sainsbury’s Bank charges car insurance customers £25 and those with home cover £15.

It is understood that while it is not against the FCA’s rules to charge this type of admin fee, the watchdog would expect the charges to be proportion­ate to the service provided.

James Daley, of consumer group Fairer Finance, says: ‘If a company is charging £20 or £25 when a similar sized firm is charging £ 10 or nothing, it should prompt it to justify why its charges are so high.’

Former pensions minister Baroness Ros Altmann says: ‘This is discrimina­tion against older people who can’t and never will be able to manage online.’ Other firms have introduced extra fees for customers who need a second copy of their documents sent in the post.

The Co-op charges those with its Young Driver Policy £15 for a replacemen­t paper policy. Its eco insurance customers pay £3. Hastings charges its customers £5 for duplicate paper documents if they are requested more than six weeks after the original was sent out.

More Than customers who have paid £6 to receive a paper statement should receive a letter from the firm by the end of May, along with a cheque. The company will then send a follow up letter two weeks later to make sure customers have received the refund.

Elaine Ellis, 71, was shocked to discover she would be charged £6 to receive her policy documents in the post. The retired personal assistant who lives with her husband Martin in Swallownes­t, South Yorkshire, was renewing the car insurance on her Vauxhall Astra and was sent a letter along with her documents informing her of the new charge.

She says: ‘ I need to print things out so I can read them through properly. So I phoned them up and told them I would charge them for the cost of printer ink, the paper and the time it would take me to print out my policy if they sent it by email. It’s great news they’ve axed the charges, it’s a step in the right direction.’ More Than, the trading name of Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance ( RSA), made a £ 480 million profit last year. Its chief executive Stephen Hester earned around £4.1 million.

An RSA spokesman says: ‘We are committed to treating our customers fairly and responding to their diverse needs. Policyhold­ers can access all documents for free online, and customers who require printed documents in large print, Braille or audio CD also receive these for free. This will now be extended to all customers.’

AXA, Aviva, Tesco and Sainsbury’s say they take individual circumstan­ces into account and sometimes waive fees for making changes over the phone.

An Axa spokesman says it will consider whether a customer ‘is uncomforta­ble or unable to make a change online’.

A Tesco spokesman says: ‘Customers are informed online, in their policy documents, and when they contact us that an administra­tion fee may be charged for making policy changes over the phone.’ Sainsbury’s Bank says the extra charges for making changes over the phone are proportion­ate to the service provided.

An Aviva spokesman says: ‘We regularly review our charges for mid-term adjustment­s in line with FCA guidelines’.

A Hastings spokesman says the £5 charge covers ‘administra­tion, printing and postage’.

A Co-op spokesman says: ‘The charges cover the cost of admin staff and postage.’

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