Annoyed with Swinton Car Insurance

asandwhen

I took out car insurance with Swinton at the end of June. The cost was around the £200 mark and I am paying about £22 per month.

I have purchased a new car which I pick up at the end of the month. I am going from a 1.0L to a 1.2L so knew it would cost me a little more but not too much.

I called Swinton to be told that it will go from £22 per month to £78 per month (9 Months left) I was absolutely gobsmacked at this. The chap then said he can move it to another insurer and he could get it down to £52 per month.

I still felt this is a little excessive so I checked online and would you believe Swinton are coming out at the cheepest again at £19 per month for a new policy. I cant understand why im paying so much penalty to change my car mid term.

I have decided to cancel my policy altogether (At a cost of £90) and go with someone else but i am left really annoyed with swinton.

forgotmyname

Its not just the engine size though. The other car may have a high claim ratio.

So approx £10 extra a month is to cover the admin charges?

Did you query the price if it came out online for much less?

asandwhen

Not £10 extra! originally £56 extra per months (£78 PER MONTH) then lowered to £30 extra pound per months (£52 per month).

While as a new customer it actually went down £3 per month to £19 per month.

They wanted to charge me an extra £500 to change my car.

dwsjarcmcd

I think the person who was a Swinton's employee who posted yesterday could have helped but it looks like all his/her posts have been deleted! Wonder why!!!

beefturnmail

Swinton are a bunch of crooks who's strategy is to get premiums for new customers as low as possible so that they appear at the top of sites such as confused.com, then try every trick in the book to recover the cost of doing this from existing and repeat customers, such as:

- massively hiked premiums on renewal, yet if you go in as a new customer you can get the premium at half the renewal price.

- Agressive inertia marketing - using auto renew and continuous payment authorities and making it as difficult as possible to opt out of these. If you pay by direct debit they take without notice an additional £30 as a 'holding desposit' against next year's premium 2 months prior to renewal, before you even get the renewal quote. They refund if you ask, but many fall into the trap and assume that 'they might as well just renew'

- Inflated administration costs and additional premiums for changes such as yours.

Unfortunately, not much you can do in your situation, other than cancelling and paying the £90.

Most insurance companies apply some of these tactics to some degree, but Swinton are one of the most underhand in my experience.

getmore4less

£90 cancellation sounds excessive.

I just had the same,
After a few years with swinton(previouslt budget) last few having to get cashback to get the price competative, this year I changed cars mid term.

£90 to change cars on the same policy(3.5month left) or £10 to cancell(refund less than admin) policy was £185.

Would not budge on admin so left them.

New policy with direct line £190. we have had good experience with a previous claim with direct line so prepared to pay a bit more on renewal next year.

They also have lower admin charges for future changes.