In This Review: Our Take | Pros & Cons | Cost & Discounts | Coverage | Availability | Customer Reviews | Swyfft vs The Competition | Our Conclusion | FAQ
Insurance policies can protect your home when the unexpected occurs—from fire and windstorms to theft and vandalism. Not only do these policies protect your home and its contents, but they can also protect you from legal fees and medical expenses if anyone is injured on your property. For most, home insurance policies are well worth it.
Not all home insurance companies offer the same coverage, availability, and quality of customer service. The This Old House Reviews Team has created this in-depth Swyfft home insurance review to help you determine if the company is the best fit for your needs.
Our Take
Swyfft entered the home insurance scene in 2014 with a technologically advanced approach. The company generates tailored homeowners insurance quotes in just 10 seconds, requiring only your address. Many other companies require you to answer a series of questions about yourself and your home.
There are some drawbacks to this approach, though. The quote tool “estimates” your home’s construction year and its square footage. You have the option to change these, but it means that the initial number you see may not reflect the actual cost.
Unfortunately, Swyfft is only available in six states and uses underwriters for its policies, meaning that you do not address claims issues or customer service concerns with the company directly. In addition, the company does not offer 24/7 customer service by phone and lacks a mobile app. We give Swyfft home insurance an overall score of 79.75 based on metrics like availability, customer service, and more.
On Swyfft’s Better Business Bureau profile, complaints cite frequent claim denials. Some reviews applaud customer service, while others note concerns about limited customer service hours.
Pros & Cons
Compare the advantages and disadvantages of Swyfft homeowners insurance.
Swyfft Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Quote in 10 seconds | Only available in six states |
| Replacement cost contents coverage included in basic policy | Doesn’t underwrite its policies |
| Only six years in business | |
| Little information available about underwriting partners |
How Much Does Swyfft Home Insurance Cost?
The exact cost of Swyfft homeowners insurance depends on many factors, including your property value, size, the materials it was constructed with, where you live, the coverage limits you select, the insurance deductible you choose, and more.
Swyfft offers an online quote tool that can estimate your premium in just 10 seconds. However, the tool estimates figures like the value of your home, the square footage, the year it was built, and more. That means that the initial number that comes up may not be the actual cost. This can be frustrating.
We received a sample quote for a single-family, new construction, roughly 2,400-square-foot home in Houston, Texas. The monthly cost of $148 is competitive.
Cost
| Type of Coverage | Amount of Coverage |
|---|---|
| Dwelling | $420,230 |
| Other structures | $60,000 |
| Personal property | $300,000 |
| Loss of use/Additional living expenses | $180,000 |
| Liability | $300,000 |
| Medical payments to others | $5,000 |
| Monthly Cost | $148 |
Discounts
Swyfft offers fewer discounts than many of its competitors in the home insurance industry.
Swyfft Discounts
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Protective devices | Discount for homes with safety features like fire alarms, burglar alarms, and storm shutters |
| Gated community | Discount if your home is located in a gated community |
| Loss-free | Discount for going a stipulated period of time without filing a claim |
Coverage
Swyfft includes all industry-standard coverage in its basic policy, along with replacement cost coverage.
Swyfft Coverage
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Dwelling + other structures | Covers the home’s interior and exterior structure, as well as detached structures like sheds and garages |
| Personal property | Covers personal property both inside and outside the home in case of covered loss, including clothing, furniture, appliances, and electronics |
| Loss of use/Additional living expenses | Covers costs associated with temporarily living outside of your home, including dining and accommodations, due to covered damage or destruction |
| Personal liability | Covers legal fees in the event you are sued for injury or personal property damage to a guest |
| Medical payments to others | Covers medical expenses of a guest who gets injured at your home, regardless of fault |
| Replacement cost contents coverage | Covers cost to replace your contents at their original value |
Swyfft offers some optional endorsements to help you customize your home insurance coverage.
Swyfft Endorsements
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Water backup and sump pump failure | Covers damage caused by a blocked drain pipe or sump pump failure |
| Sinkhole collapse coverage | Covers damage caused by a sinkhole |
| Personal injury | Covers legal fees associated with false arrest, invasion of privacy, slander, and defamation |
| Enhanced personal property coverage | Increases limits on valuable personal property like jewelry, furs, and antiques |
| Identity fraud | Covers cost of restoring your identity after events like credit card theft |
Availability
Swyfft’s homeowners insurance is only available in six states— Alabama, Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Texas.
Reviews of Swyfft Insurance
Swyfft is accredited by the Better Business Bureau and holds an A+ rating with the organization. See what some customers had to say about their experience with Swyfft.
Corey A. said:
“Could not ask for a better customer service experience than I have with Swyfft. In the matter of a year, we have had two unfortunate claims from a house my wife and I bought. Not only did they assess the damage on the first claim extremely fast, when we gave them the estimate from our contractor that was a substantial amount higher than the initial estimate, they approved it within 48 hours and the check was on its way… Thank you, Swyfft!”
Jay S. said:
“No policy self-servicing online is possible and they are closed on the weekends for business… very poor service model.”
Our Conclusion
Founded in 2014, Swyfft does not yet have a long track record. Its coverage is only available in six states, and the company does not underwrite its policies. Coverage is comprehensive, but the online quote tool is not as convenient as it seems. Because it only estimates features on your home, the online quote tool can initially produce a quote that doesn’t reflect the actual features—and when you make the updates, the cost may change. We give Swyfft home insurance a score of 79.75 out of 100.
To find the best provider for your needs, we recommend getting quotes from multiple home insurance companies that serve your area:
Swyfft vs The Competition
See how Swyfft stacks up against some of its top competitors on key metrics.
Comparison
| Provider | Swyfft | Lemonade | Amica® |
|---|---|---|---|
| Our score | $80 | 83.5 | 96.6 |
| State Availability | $6 | 27* | 48 (not available in AK or HI) |
| BBB Rating | A+ | B+ | A+ |
| Years in Business | $6 | 5 | 113 |
| 24/7 Claims Service by Phone | X | ✓ | ✓ |
| Protective Devices/Safety Features Discount | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Bundling Discount | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Mobile App | X | ✓ | ✓ |
*Lemonade home insurance is available in AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, GA, IL, IN, IA, MD, MA, MI, MO, NV, NJ, NM, NY, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, TN, TX, VA, WA, WI
Company Information
- Company name: Swyfft
- Company type: Private
- CEO: Sean Maher
- Year founded: 2014
- Headquarters: North Tower, 44 Headquarters Plaza 4th Floor, Morristown, NJ 07960
- State availability: 6
- BBB rating: A+
Frequently Asked Questions
Our Methodology
The This Old HouseReviews team is committed to providing comprehensive and unbiased reviews to our readers. This means earning your trust through transparency and having the data to back up our ratings and recommendations.
With that in mind, we created an objective rating system to score each home insurance company. Here’s what that review process looked like:
- We analyze the information on each company’s website. This allows us to determine what products and services are offered by each home insurance provider.
- We get a sample quote from the companies by either talking to a sales representative or by using the online quote tool. This tells us what a policy looks like and costs.
- We test customer service by talking to a company representative, finding out their hours of operation, and determining what technological features are available for customers.
- We update all of this information on a continuous basis, storing it in a proprietary database that allows us to compare dozens of home insurance companies against each other.
With this data, we created a rating methodology to score each home insurance company. Our rating system is a weighted, 100-point scale based on the following factors:
- Coverage (30): We rated home insurance companies higher if they offered the six main types of homeowner protection—dwelling, other structures, personal property, loss of use, liability, and medical payments to others coverage.
- State availability (7.5): Companies scored higher if they covered more states than their competitors.
- Customer service (15): This factor is based on our communications with the company representatives, as well as the companies’ claims and quotes processes, availability throughout the week, and customer service information found on their websites.
- Technology (12.5): Technology can increase the efficiency of filing and tracking home insurance claims. Companies scored higher if they had technology options like mobile apps and online chat functions.
- Reputation (20): We gauged trustworthiness based on years of experience and Better Business Bureau (BBB) ratings.
- Additional benefits (15): Companies that offered optional features, like discounts and endorsements, scored higher than competitors that didn’t.
Our Reviews team has a full-time researcher who collects and regularly updates data points from every company to help us compare them on key factors such as coverage, service, and dependability.
To share feedback or ask a question about this article, send a note to our Reviews Team at reviews@thisoldhousereviews.com.