Swinton home insurance - I believe I am genuinely entitled to my money back!

Catherine_Johnson_2

".....and I told him words to the effect of "No thanks, I'll look elsewhere". "


'Words to the effect of' is fairly meaningless when the actual words you used are what is important. Perhaps if you had used those actual words there wouldn't have been any confusion?

abbyscuito

Mharkins wrote: »

....And yes maybe I am a bit desperate... R u single?

Mike

You are desperate?

Mharkins

Catherine_Johnson wrote: »

".....and I told him words to the effect of "No thanks, I'll look elsewhere". "

'Words to the effect of' is fairly meaningless when the actual words you used are what is important. Perhaps if you had used those actual words there wouldn't have been any confusion?

I do believe those were among my exact words said near the end if the call.

Obviously I said other things first like "how much is it" and "what would I be paying for, exactly" and "bye". But I cannot be 100% sure, the conversation was a week or so ago now. I would hate for Swinton to have recorded the call and have them pull me up on the exact wording.

So, still, "No thanks, I'll look elsewhere" is a fairly definitive quote as to what I want, in my opinion.

Am I bickering now? Hope not, apologies if I am.

Thanks for your replies.

Mike

P.s: I've known 'words to the effect of' to stand up in court when quoting unscripted text. It can't be expected to remember a conversation exactly.

abbyscuito

Did you take out home insurance with someone else? If you have it suggests you cancelled with Swinton

chubb3g114

Auto renewal is a con and should be made illegal.
When you buy insurance it's for a year if you want to continue then you buy another years cover. If you had paid by cash or cheque they wouldn't auto renew unless you pay again so why should they auto renew because you pay by bank card.

chubb3g114

abbyscuito

chubb3g114 wrote: »

Auto renewal is a con and should be made illegal.
When you buy insurance it's for a year if you want to continue then you buy another years cover. If you had paid by cash or cheque they wouldn't auto renew unless you pay again so why should they auto renew because you pay by bank card.

chubb3g114

Until your house burns down and you forgot to renew 2 months earlier. There are pros and cons IMHO.

hcb42

Thread is better being moved for better answers.

The argument about auto renewal goes round and around. See insurance threads if you have all weekend to spare!!!


Meantime, to OP - Just write to Swinton, enclosing proof of alternative cover, to back up your claim that it was cancelled on the call.

(Personally, from what you have written, you turned down an alternative quote...swinton are a broker, so it is a little vague to me whether you would actually go back when you "shopped around", to be honest)

Evilm

Mharkins wrote: »

Lesson learnt

EvilM; the letter states verbatim "We're writing because there are a few points on your home insurance that need clarifying before your insurer can issue your policy documents. Would you please contact us as soon as possible so that we can talk them over with you.

Yours sincerely 'signed by hand'"

There is nothing in the smallprint regarding specifically auto renewal.

I suppose there may be a covert assumption in there that they are going to issue policy documents - do you think the wording of the letter is, legally, enough to count as an instruction to auto renew? There is nothing in the contract regarding auto renewal.

My interpretation of the letter is if I don't contact them, they don't have sufficient detail to proceed and therefore are unable to issue any policy documents. Bearing in mind I have not agreed to, nor have I signed anything regarding the renewal of the policy: Swinton have assumed it.

Is assumption all they need to proceed? It just doesn't seem right to me.

Thanks for your replies.

Mike

Letter singular? Didn't you say above that there were 3 letters?

If that is ALL they say and they don't have anything else attached such as a quote then fine, they don't seem to have told you.

I've never seen an insurance renewal letter that short however. All the ones I've received have had about 4-5 paragraphs or a quote attached with the automatic renewal warning in about paragraph 4 or on the bottom of the quote.

If it doesn't say that and there is nothing in the original paperwork and letter from when you took out the policy then perhaps you do have a case to say Autorenewal wasn't advised to you.

I would echo the person above who says "Is it worth it" but I know your response will be "Its the principle of it!" so I won't bother.:money: