My car insurance was due to expire so phoned Swinton to get my renewal quote, was far more than i had been quoted elsewhere so informed the Swinton phone agent that i would not be renewing and set up insurance at nearly half the cost with the AA, today get policy renewal docs from swinton, called them to tell them that it should not have been renewed only to be told that it had to be cancelled at a cost of £50.00, it appears that swinton takes a renewal deposit via direct debit about 6 to weeks before renewal date from every customer, this way they have your money on deposit even if you do not renew, and then they try to keep the money by Lying about whether the policy has been renewed or not, fired up by the massive amounts of complaints against Swinton, i have today started a complaint against them by sending a recorded delivery letter to the local office and a copy to head office, i intend to fight Swinton all the way and am fully expecting to have to escalate the complaint to the chief executive and ultimately to the Ombudsman, also as i have never signed the credit agreement for the premiums i believe that Swinton does not have the proper authority to take the direct debits and so have asked Swinton for a copy of the credit agreement with my signature upon, if they fail to produce this i will also make a complaint on this basis as well.

If you are having dealings with Swinton i would suggest the following, when speaking to anyone at Swinton ensure you get a full name of the person you are dealing with, the request for the full name of the person will usually be met with just being given a christian name and that they are the only person of that name there, insist on a surname before you continue the call, if possible record the phonecall, tell the swinton operator that you are recording the phonecall, this will usually get the response that it is not legal to to record the phonecall, that simply is not true you can record the phonecall if you wish, never believe anything that any one at Swinton tells you and ensure whatever they tell you is followed up by them in writing.

Everyone who has a swinton policy should write to Swinton and tell them that they do not want there policy automatically renewed and do not want the "renewal deposit" taken by direct debit.

I can only warn everyone to ensure that they are careful in there dealings with the liars at Swinton, otherwise it will cost you dearly.