Swiftcover Car Insurance Review: Does it Stand Up?
Swiftcover Car Insurance Review: Does it Stand Up?
Good for
- Repairs by their approved network guaranteed as long as you own the car
- New direct customers can save 12.5% with Nextbase dashcam
- Printable car insurance certificates- no waiting for the post
- Can make many admin changes online for free
- Only ask about accidents in past 3 years (typically 5 with other insurers)
Bad for
- Not as good for drivers who like to call customer service for help (you may be charged)
- Website design makes it frustrating to get quotes
The guidance on this site is based on our own analysis and is meant to help you identify options and narrow down your choices. We do not advise or tell you which product to buy; undertake your own due diligence before entering into any agreement. Read our full disclosure here.
Swiftcover, an online car insurance brand, may offer lower prices but there are certainly trade offs. Should you buy car insurance from Swift? Let's talk through the pros and cons to help you decide.
In This Review
- Swiftcover Car Insurance: Overall Review
- Swiftcover Car Insurance Customer Reviews and Ratings
- Cost Comparison, Discounts and Cancellation Fees
- Policy and Coverage Options
- FAQs
Swiftcover Car Insurance Overall Review
Swiftcover is a trading name of the AXA Insurance Group, and operates an "online" car insurance service. By processing policies and problems online or through email, Swiftcover is able to keep costs down and offer lower premiums—but be sure you're comfortable with the potential drawbacks before signing up.
For example, the relative difficulty in talking to a real customer service staff member may not suit all drivers. While their customer service phone numbers are buried in their website and difficult to find, we have provided them below in our list of Swiftcover phone numbers.
Cover options
Swiftcover offers two tiers of car insurance: Swiftcover Car Insurance and Swiftcover Plus Car Insurance. Here are some of the difference between the two tiers, for comprehensive cover:
| Comprehensive cover features | Swiftcover | Swiftcover Plus |
|---|---|---|
| Loss or damage to your car | Included | |
| Fire and theft damage to your car | Included | |
| Uninsured drivers cover | Included | |
| Replacement car cover | Included | |
| Personal injury (death, loss of sight/limb) to your driver | Included | |
| Foreign use cover | Up to 90 days | |
| Courtesy car (up to 14 days if car being repaired by approved repairer) | Optional | Included |
Keys (loss or damage) | Not included | Included up to £2,500 |
| Wrong fuel cover | Not included | Included |
Personal injury and rehabilitation | Optional | |
| Courtesy car upgrade | Optional | |
| No claims discount protection | Optional | |
| Legal assistance cover | Optional | |
Improvement to Swiftcover website
In the past, the Swiftcover website was frustratingly difficult to use to get quotes. Luckily, they've upgraded their site and now it's pretty easy to get quotes online.
You can also get quote from a comparison site like our partner QuoteZone—Swiftcover is in their panel.
How does Swiftcover work?
Swiftcover is a trading name of AXA Insurance UK—all Swiftcover policies are underwritten by AXA, one of the biggest car insurance companies in the UK. As a result, your cover ultimately lies with AXA when you take out a Swiftcover policy.
Swiftcover Car Insurance Customer Service Reviews and Ratings
Drivers should expect a low-touch customer experience with Swiftcover since it tries to operate online as much as possible.
Swiftcover Trustpilot
Over 7,000 existing customers have rated Swiftcover with an average of 4.6 stars out of 5 on Trustpilot. This is a great score, with more than three quarters of customers rating their experience as the full five stars. Here is a sample of excellent customer comments from Trustpilot:
"Wow, quick and easy, i explained my situation at the start we had a good chat very impressed with the support, i explained my situation the chap said it's fine if you want your cover to start tomorrow we can set up a d.debt and once you are in a better position you can ring up and swap it over to a 1 off payment, i phoned up 2dys later and swapped it over no hassle, thanks again for your help really appreciated."
"Car accident insurance claim. So far, so good (after being on hold for almost an hour!). The person I spoke to was really thorough and took time to ensure she had all the relevant information from me. The hire car company contacted me immediately, and the company who were instructed to assess whether the car could be repaired were swift to get in contact too. Hopefully a hire car will be of similar standard and size and my car will get a full and thorough repair and be back to me in no time (allowing for the 25 day delay with car repairs into garages - which I have already been notified about)."
"Seems fine I like not having to provide proof of no claims bonus"
"Problem solved quickly and professionally"
"Great deal and efficient service"
And here are some negative customer reviews, many of which relate to the claims experience and difficulties with the website:
"Everyone seems concerned about how easy it was to get a policy. Wait till you try to get a claim settled. They implied my claim was fraudulent and I was thousands of pounds out of pocket."
"It took 2 and a half months for me to get a courtesy car and for my un-driveable car to be collected, leaving me to have to arrange alternative transport for this time period."
"I have had all sorts of issues in adding a new policy, it took nearly an hour and ultimately I failed. Too many glitches and time-outs on the web site, esp. if you want to add multiple named drivers."
While some customers report difficulty with the claims process, Swiftcover shouldn't shouldn't have any trouble having the resources to pay out on a claim. AXA received an A rating from Fitch Ratings, which is the third highest rating available and places AXA as an "investment grade" credit risk.
| Ratings | |
|---|---|
| Trustpilot customer service rating (Swiftcover) | 4.6 out of 5 |
| Fitch financial strength rating (AXA) | AA- |
Swiftcover Car Insurance Quote Comparison
According to our recent tests comparing cheap car insurance companies, Swiftcover consistently ranks as one of the cheapest, if not the cheapest, comprehensive car insurance.
But, of course, we'd always recommend getting quotes from different sources before deciding which policy is best for you. It can be helpful to check prices with some of the largest auto insurance companies to get a good picture of the market for your profile. For some background information on pricing, see our article on the Average Cost of UK Car Insurance—and the chart below shows quotes for our sample, 45-year-old driver of a Ford Fiesta. As you can see, Swiftcover was the cheapest offering from any of the major companies.
Cheap Car Insurance Companies
Swiftcover Car Insurance Discounts
Swiftcover offers some typical car insurance discounts such as saving by paying upfront; but additionally Swiftcover has some unique ways to lower your premium, such as adding a dashcam to your car.
| Discount | Who qualifies? |
|---|---|
| Nextbase dashcam | Direct new customers can save 12.5% (discount doesn't apply to extra add-ons like Breakdown cover) |
| Making any changes online | To save money, you can make most changes to your policy online quickly and easily through your personal online account, My Swift Space; calling customer service to make a change could result in a charge up to £30 |
| No Claims Discount (NCD) | Each year you don't make a claim should increase the discount you receive; alternatively, making one claim in a year will drop your NCD by 3 years and making two claims will drop your NCD by 4 years. |
| Pay all at once | Paying your premium in monthly instalments by direct debit will cost you more than paying the full amount upfront with a credit or debit card |
| Buy your policy early | If possible, arrange your policy up to 3 weeks ahead of the start date to save up to 50% |
Swiftcover Cancellation Fees
| Swiftcover Cancellation Fees | |
|---|---|
| During first 14 days | £0 |
| After 14 days | £52.50 |
| Other admin changes | £0 online (My Swiftspace) and £25 offline (e.g. over the phone) |
Swiftcover Car Insurance Policies
Swiftcover offers two types of motor cover to its customers: Comprehensive and Third Party, Fire and Theft (TPFT). (They don't sell Third Party Only policies.) Drivers who want their insurance company to repair their car if it's damaged in an accident should buy a Comprehensive policy, because the other type of cover (TPFT) doesn't cover collision damage to your own car.
In addition to covering damage to your car, Swiftcover's Comprehensive plan includes windscreen cover, uninsured driver promise, personal accident cover and car stereo cover as standard. An "X" below means either it's included or is available to get as an add on for an additional premium (e.g. on the standard comprehensive policy, you need to pay extra for courtesy car coverage, while comprehensive Plus policies include this).
| What's covered | Comprehensive | Third Party, Fire & Theft |
|---|---|---|
| Uninsured driver promise | X | |
| £5,000 personal accident cover | X | |
| Personal belongings up to £300 | X | |
| Windscreen cover | X | |
| Courtesy car cover (must use approved repairer) | X | X |
| Car stereo cover | X | |
| 24 hour UK-based claims line | X | X |
| Lifetime repair guarantee | X | X |
| Nextbase Dashcam discount | X | X |
While you might think that Comprehensive cover costs a lot more than TPFT, that's not always the case. Drivers who want to insure their own car (i.e., protect their asset) are generally viewed as being less risky to insure. As a result, a comprehensive plan might not cost much more than a TPFT plan. It's worth checking prices of both, even if your budget is tight. The cost of car insurance will be well worth it should you ever need it!
Extra Coverages
Like many insurers, Swiftcover offers some coverages as optional extras for which you'll need to pay an additional premium. If you don't want these features, you don't need to pay for them.
| Extra Coverages | |
|---|---|
| Protect your No Claims Discount | Allows you to have one claim in a year or two claims in a three year period and keep your NCD. |
| Legal Cover | Up to £100,000 in legal fees for a car accident that's not your fault to recover losses from the responsible party. |
| Courtesy Car Upgrade | Plus policies can upgrade courtesy car to get a hire car the same size as your own, which you can keep for up to 21 days (without the upgrade you'll get a small car for up to 14 days); not available on standard policies |
| Personal Injury & Rehabilitation | Up to £100,000 to help pay for specialist services such as physiotherapy and chiropractic treatments |
| Breakdown Recovery | 4 levels of breakdown cover available |
| EU Cover | While all policies by law give you third party liability cover in Europe, if you want the same level of cover you have in all EU countries as you have in the UK you'll need to add "driving abroad cover" through your online account. There should be no additional charge. |
Who Swiftcover won't cover
While Swiftcover has no upper age limit for drivers they'll insure, Swiftcover won't offer cover to everyone. In particular, if you have certain marks on your driving record, past issues with getting/keeping insurance or work in certain occupations you won't be eligible for a Swiftcover policy.
| You can't get a Swiftcover policy if you: | |
|---|---|
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Important Swiftcover Car Insurance Phone Numbers
As an online insurer, Swiftcover's preferred method of contact for customer service issues is email, and customers can make many changes to their policy online once they're registered. Swiftcover's customer service number (listed below) is buried in their website and drivers should be aware that admin changes made on the phone may result in a charge of £25.
Customer service hours of operation are: Monday - Friday 8am - 8pm, Saturday 9am - 5pm, Sunday 9am - 3pm; however the emergency helplines are open 24 hours a day. They note that for the shortest waiting times, call them Tuesday - Thursday 8am - 9am.
At the time of writing there is no live chat feature available but their social media team have the same opening times as their customer service.
| Swiftcover Insurance Contact Numbers | |
|---|---|
| Customer service | 0330 024 6394 |
| Claims from abroad | +44 1892 500 169 |
| 24 Hour Helplines | |
| Claims | 0371 984 3333 |
| Windscreen repairs | 0330 024 6399 |
| Emergency breakdown assistance (for customers who've bought the optional offering) | 0800 107 7006 |
FAQs
Swiftcover Insurance Compared to Other Car Insurance Brands
To better understand the value of Swiftcover Car Insurance you need to see it relative to other available options. We’ve compared this option to other car cover so you can decide which will create more value for you given your individual needs.
Swiftcover vs Budget
Budget car insurance works with a panel of top car insurance companies in the UK, has impressive customer service reviews and offers a solid set of features as standard.
Quick Takeaway: Budget car insurance might be a better option if you like to be able to pick up the phone and speak with a customer service representative when you need assistance with something. They may not be as cheap as Swiftcover, but it's certainly worth getting quotes from Budget to see how their prices compare.
Swiftcover vs Carrot
Carrot is another "budget" online car insurance company like Swiftcover. Carrot is also a telematics black box brand, so customers must use a black box to track their driving style—this also enables Carrot to offer cheaper prices to its customers. Unfortunately many customers report black box errors, with customers reportedly having journeys recorded when they're actually taking the bus or when they and their car are safely parked at home. Prices may be lower, but there's no way to call into customer service—Carrot is an online company and as a result only offers web chat customer service. While the high street rewards for good driving may be enticing, plans are quite basic and you can't buy any no claims bonus protection—of course, if you're a new driver then you won't have a no claims bonus to protect anyway (you usually need around 4 years of accrued NCB in order to buy NCB protection).
Quick Takeaway: If the price is right and you just want basic cover then Carrot may be a good option, but be aware of the high cancellation fees, lack of customer service phone lines, missing features—and the fact that you need to use telematics.