Lemonade Homeowners Insurance?

[jeromedawg]

Hey all,

I currently use Lemonade for renter's insurance (one or two people here suggested it for that). I just got a quote from them for Homeowner's too and it seems very reasonable - it's less than half the cost of what I would get through Geico. Although, we have auto insurance but it's under my wife's name... maybe there's a bundle discount but I'd suspect that it's not going to come close to what I'm getting with Lemonade. Also not sure how that would all work if all the loan stuff is currently only under my name.

Anyway, do any of you use Lemonade for homeowner's insurance? And if so, have you ever filed claims with them? Just wanting to get some reference points and experiences with them when it comes to actual incidents and damages that have occurred and how the process has played out for you.

The pricing seems too good to be true...

If not Lemonade for this, what other companies would you all recommend?
 

[seemsright]

I suggest finding a insurance broker that is local and having them run numbers for you.

I much rather call our insurance guy and make them deal with the red tape. I have used my insurance guy a few times where he just took care of the situation. He also responds to emails. I am willing to pay a bit extra to have things taken care of because my time is valuable and the last thing I want to do is deal with some call tree and be on hold forever.

[yachi]

It doesn't surprise me that you found Geico's home owner's insurance expensive.  I had the same experience.  Not only was the cost twice as high as the next company I shopped with, but they had a long list of things to "fix" before they would continue my insurance.  I got the message loud and clear that they didn't want to insure my place, and were tree-hating A**holes, which sucks because I love Geico and Berkshire Hathaway.  I fixed everything on their list but didn't send them the before and after pictures.  When they sent me mail saying the were canceling my policy I was well on the way to cheaper insurance with someone who seemed to care.

I had never heard of Lemonade Insurance before.  It looks like they've been around for 6 years, and are recently publicly traded.  From their wikipedia page, it looks like they kick the insurance back to Loyd's of London for reinsurance.  Loyd's is a reputable place.  There are a lot of good names as investors in this new insurance startup, but I really didn't like this:
"It uses artificial intelligence and chatbots to process claims and set a world record for processing a claim in 3 seconds."

At least half the time I call customer service, it's because a company's website is broken or unable to fulfill my request, so I nearly always need a live person.  Maybe it's different for other people.

[bacchi]

I asked for a quote but it couldn't handle an ADU. It also asked about a "complete renovation," with only 1 answer allowed.

With those questions, I felt like it gave them an out. "You said you renovated 5 years ago but the electrical upgrade was 6 years ago. Aha! Claim denied!"

[Sibley]

Lemonade is a newer insurance startup, it commonly falls under the "insuretech" label. As an insurance company I have no idea what their customer service is like. Home insurance is much more complicated than auto insurance, so it makes sense if they don't have it fully built out.

If you've only gotten quotes from Geico and Lemonade, you haven't gotten enough quotes. You should be getting at least 3, more like 5. And yes, you should be looking at what it would look like to bundle your home and auto. If you're married you probably need both spouses on the insurance anyway, so you've got work to do.

[chemistk]

Seconded going with a local broker.

I'm absolutely one for DIY, online-based stuff, like insurance and currently have GEICO for Auto/Nationwide for Renter's and apart from claims, I've never spoken to a representative.

Despite that, I (in our own closing process) decided to see what a broker could swing for me, and in a day he came back with a quote from an established local insurance agency at less than half what GEICO quoted me. He's going to take care of everything and just send us documents to sign as needed.

[jeromedawg]

Thanks all. I've assigned this task to my wife and she's going through a broker - they do seem to get the best discounts/bang for your buck offerings so likely we will go through the broker that was recommended to us from our life insurance broker and also the financial advisor my wife works for.