Swinton Home Emergency Insurance Discussion

MSE_Tony

Hi,

This is a feedback thread on boiler breakdown and home emergency provider:

Swinton

Please share your experience with other MoneySavers. Click reply to take part:

• Have you experienced problems?
• Did you haggle and succeed?

The feedback comes as part of the Boiler Breakdown Insurance guide.

Thank you,

MSE Tony

dacouch

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/jul/16/swinton-fined-mis-sold-insurance-add-ons

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/nov/05/ex-swinton-insurance-directors-fined-misselling

sleeque

Moved in to my property less than 6 months ago & signed up with Swinton for home emergency cover. They were happy to take my money until I needed them to sort out a water leak from my boiler which they refused on the grounds that the said boiler didn't have a service certificate within the past 12months.


As I have only been at the property for 6months, I thought this was the worst type of profiteering and quite frankly, just unethical. They're a joke and would discourage anyone from signing up with them. There's a reason why their policies appear cheaper than most, they find excuses not to honour the contract.


Thieves!!!!

rosie383

Has anyone had positive experiences with Swinton?

Sleeque I don't think you can really complain if you even looked at their website. You don't even have to read the small print to see that you need the boiler serviced for the cover to be valid. It's there on the main page:

'Boilers and central heating systems must have been serviced within 12 months of the claim'

JoeA

Note: I've had a letter today telling me the price is going up from £6.99 to £9.25 a month (for Gold). Its partly blamed on rises in government Insurance Premium Tax but this is actually only a tiny amount (about 20p) so the price has risen significantly due to a "review of [their] prices".

I found it easier enough to sign up but i've not used the service yet thankfully.

Hope this helps,
Joe

Zippy69

I've had their letter about the price increase as well.

As the letter specifically only mentions the rise being down to the 3.5% Budget increase in IPT, I phoned them and asked why my premium was going up from 6.99 to 8.99pm.

The chap I spoke to couldn't answer me and said that although they'd been told about the increase, no official reason had been given for the +20% increase in premiums!

kirsteenSK9

I've had the same letter - I phoned to query why it was going up so much and said that I wasn't happy. They offered no opportunity to get the price reduced so I have cancelled my policy.

They are still advertising it as £6.99 a month for new customers on their website...

Peridot67

I signed up to Swinton Home Emergency cover having been sold it after I renewed my car insurance with them. What a mistake! Last week, my boiler started making very loud noises so we turned it off and called them. The came out and capped off my boiler stating it was a flue issue and went away leaving me without heat and hot water. I am chronically ill with a neurological condition that means I am sensitive to cold (it causes a lot of pain), I can also not even have a shower as my shower is fed by the boiler, neither can I wash any clothes as I cant dry clothes in a cold house. My home is uninhabitable for me as although I can keep my lounge and kitchen warm with electric heaters, I cant do the same in my bathroom or hallway and stairs so passing from a warm environment to a cold one is having a severe effect on my health and well being.

After numerous calls to them to find out what was happening, we fell into the 12 month service trap - swinton wouldnt consider a claim until I proved the boiler had been serviced, my previous home emergency cover used to service my boiler every year but didn't issue paperwork so it took many calls to get them to agree to email me with confirmation that the boiler was serviced within the last 12 months (which it was) - trouble is they said it can take up to seven working days to provide this, having had no heat for 3 days already I asked AXA - the insurance company providing the cover to contact my previous insurers for confirmation of the service. They wouldn't do this - giving me the promises of a call back that never materialised. I eventually went back to the office that sold me the policy and one call from them resulted in AXA agreeing to confirm the boiler service. I then waited another day with no news and eventually called AXA back to be told the issue is with the flue and they wont touch the flue as its 'wear and tear' - as my house is only 9 years old even I can see that this is very unlikely to be the case and tried to argue 'how can you say that the flue is damaged when no one has inspected it - your engineer is just guessing' - again a promised call back never happened and its now sunday, no one at work to talk to - thankfully the weather has changed and it's a bit milder so I am able to keep reasonably warm but the forecast is saying it's going to get cold again from tomorrow and I dont know what to do! I am on ESA and PIPS after being too ill to work after having worked for 22 years full time so I am inexperienced in having to negotiate my way around the benefits system. I have no savings. I am in a shared ownership property, the housing association, waterloo housing - who own the rest of the property wont help. I am stuck with no heating and hot water and having made some enquiries with other contractors, cant even get the flue inspected properly as the boiler has been capped off !

I am exhausted with all of this, in pain and cold. :-(