Swinton?!

ACG

My grandad (86) has just called me to ask me about home insurance as he knows I sell it.

Hes with Aviva and he isnt bothered about cost (within reason) he wants to know hes got good cover in place. So I went through it and its pretty good, has 5 star defaqto (which I take with a pinch of salt but its an indication) - all is fine.

He spoke to Swinton and he asked them what their rating was and was told they do not take part in it so do not have one... sooo just being curious I went on the defaqto website and it does have a rating, 3 for buildings, 2 for contents.

Just a warning to people really. Hes 86 and more with it than me, hes not one to have the wool pulled over his eyes but he does not have the internet and is of the age where he takes people at face value if they give him a straight answer.

Being polite, if they have got something so simple wrong what else might they be getting wrong.

If anyone from Swinton reads this... not impressed that your staff are either full of the proverbial or do not know their products. Its not exactly crime of the century but if a claim needed to be made and he was expecting a payout, the last thing a couple in their 80s need is to hear they wont be getting it and then having to argue the toss.

But hey ho, you would have sold an extra £300 policy.

InsideInsurance

To the best of my knowledge they dont just sell their own wording and so the star rating would vary by policy.

Indeed, whilst not wanting to defend Swintons, looking at Defaqto the only "Swinton" product that is there is called Home Online which I would hazard a guess at is an online only product and so if he was speaking to their call centre/ branch it may well be that they dont sell this on the phone and so it would be a true statement that they dont have any ratings for their offline wordings or they dont sell standard wordings over the phone.

ACG

If that is the case then I will take back my post and go back to my corner.

It was underwritten by L&G, but I would assume its swintons policy wording somewhere down the line.

InsideInsurance

ACG wrote: »

If that is the case then I will take back my post and go back to my corner.

It was underwritten by L&G, but I would assume its swintons policy wording somewhere down the line.

Certainly their online one is standard wording for Home with a panel of insurers behind it so Defaqto will credit it to Swinton rather than the insurer. A random quote I did came up with Axa as the insurer but the wording identified it as the Swinton Online Home.

I am not inclined enough to phone Swinton to ask if they use standard own wording or off the shelf products or a mixture etc but going by the product name it would suggest its different on internet than on phone.