MTAs, Mid Term Adjustments, Change Of Details, Alter My Policy whatever term you use being charged to alter a policy is a constant source of annoyance, what is less clear is is this annoyance reasonable?
It is very clear that a large percentage of the population wants the cheapest insurance possible, nothing wrong with that but it also seems reasonable that removing the cost of changing policy details from the premium is also reasonable as most policy holders don't make changes mid term.
So if we accept that it is reasonable to be charged for MTAs how much should we be charged? Should it be just the cost of actually making the change or the cost plus a reasonable profit.
I think that the answer is clearly that the insurer should be allowed to make a reasonable profit, he is offering a service and the policy holder is the one asking to change the agreement.
It is certainly possible to offer Free MTAs and average out the costs and spread them across all policy holders, it is mainly a marketing and operational decision which way an insurer goes.
So what does it costs to do an MTA?