Defaqto star ratings?

andyo

I was under the impression that defaqto were an independent company who ranked insurance and other services acording to their products and corresponding customer satisfaction and were the 'ultimate' comparison site. Maybe I was mis-informed, but it appears that this is not the case. For example, I am insured through 'insure4retirement' who have a higher grading than the company they are actually using, Equity Red Star. Conversely, Swinton are rated lower than the company they are currently quoting me for, AXA. Is defaqto simply another facade such as the other comparison sites, or am I missing something

kingstreet

You may be mistaking the different functions of the firms in question.

Insure4retirement appears to act as an intermediary, so it found ERS for you and introduced you to them. It would have received a commission from ERS in doing so. You should have an initial disclosure document from I4R confirming how it is remunerated. In this case you should take note of the ERS defaqto rating, not that of the introducer.

I4R may also act as a provider of another manufacturer's product, what's known as "badging". In which case, the Defaqto rating would apply to the product it was offering as its own.

Likewise, Swinton has introduced you to Axa to place that type of business, so the Axa rating applies. Swinton's rating would apply to its own badged products.

It would be helpful if you could tell us what type of business was involved in each transaction.

andyo

Thanks for your reply, which clears things up a bit. It is home and contents insurance I am in the process of renewing and found it strange that defaqto rated brokers as well as the insurance companies they use. Like you say, Swinton and Insure4retirement may well have their own products.

dunstonh

There are also different versions of products available through different distribution channels. So, XYZ company product via one distributor may be a cut down version of the XYZ company product offered via a different distributor. So, dont assume the brand means the product is the same across the board.

InsideInsurance

And just because an underwriter is the same doesnt mean the administrators are the same or that the service is. At a previous clients they sold their travel insurance wholesale to large companies who white labeled it. Those companies could choose to pay a higher amount and get their customers calls prioritised, get greater "benefit of the doubt" in claims etc.

Defaqto is an independent company that compares the products themselves not their prices. However just like star ratings for hotels, not all products with the same star rating are equal. A lot of the "features" required for each rating is listed and therefore an insurer can build a product intentionally to get a certain star rating where as another may have a top class product but because its missing one or two minor features it doesn't get the higher stars. It is similar to one of those "hotel inspector" TV programs I saw once where they said that if the hotel closed its box room it would go from a 2* to 4* because it would then mean average room size was Xm2 and all rooms had ensuite etc etc.