GEICO Home Insurance Review: Is It From GEICO or Another Company?

Things To Know

• Geico home insurance is actually sold through Geico’s insurance agency and is underwritten by other companies
• Geico home insurance claims are handled by the company responsible for underwriting, and not Geico directly
• While you can’t buy home insurance from Geico directly, you may still be able to get a bundling discount

You have probably seen commercials for Geico homeowners insurance and wondered if Geico home insurance really exists. While Geico advertises that they sell home insurance, they don’t actually underwrite it. so if you’re looking for Geico home insurance quotes, please be advised Geico has its own insurance agency that sells home insurance, but they don’t write the policy.

What company does Geico use for homeowners insurance? What types of home insurance are available? There is more than one, and as a result, Geico home insurance reviews may actually refer to a number of different companies, one of the Geico portfolio home insurance affiliates.  We know that’s confusing, and we are going to clear it all up.

Read on for Geico homeowners insurance reviews that cover how it works and which companies will handle your policy and claims. But before you start, enter your ZIP code to compare home insurance rates right now.

Where does a Geico home insurance policy actually come from?

When you contact Geico to get a home insurance quote, you are actually contacting an agency. Policies come from Geico insurance partners.

Dig out your homeowner’s insurance policy and read it carefully. You will likely see the name “Geico General Insurance Agency” or something similar on the top or bottom of the page in large letters and a different company’s name in smaller font somewhere else.

You may see the name of a familiar insurer, such as AIG, Chubb, Homesite, Liberty Mutual, or Travelers, or an unfamiliar one for that matter, which are just some of the many companies Geico Insurance Agency “places business.”

For the record, Esurance renters insurance and many of its other lines of business are also outsourced to companies like Homesite, so it’s not an uncommon practice.

You see, the fine print on Geico’s website mentions something about homeowners coverage actually being written through non-affiliated insurance companies, such as those listed above. That means Geico claims for homeowners are also handled by someone else.

And Geico’s website actually has a page with all of their homeowners insurance partners should you need to pay a bill, make a change, file a claim, or gather some information. There are about 30 insurers on that list. Some are even big names. Take a look at the top ten home insurance companies by market share below, courtesy of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC).

Several Geico portfolio companies make the list.

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Why won’t a Geico homeowners insurance review help you?

If someone is attempting to review Geico Home Insurance, they are either misinformed or simply making something up because ultimately such a company doesn’t exist, and your policy could come from dozens of different companies.

If you’re looking for a Geico Home Insurance review, it’s going to be all over the place. One individual may have received their policy from AIG, while another got a policy from Travelers, even though both were sold by a Geico rep.

Obviously these are two different carriers, so the only thing you could really gauge was the customer service experience in applying for the insurance, not the actual policy experience thereafter.

How each company handles claims could be completely night and day, though you would hope each company Geico chooses to work with is of a certain quality.

When it comes to rates, that too will vary based on the company Geico places you with, which may be dependent on the state where the property is located.

This means pricing could be great for certain people in specific states, but not so good in others. The upside is that Geico might have the ability to shop your rate with a variety of carriers at once to find you the lowest price.

But even after doing this, you may still want to call up some carriers that sell homeowners insurance directly to see what they can offer. Or visit a local independent agent to see if they have access to even more carriers with discounted rates.

However, Geico home insurance and auto may still offer you a bundling discount on your car insurance, even though it’s written by another company, so be sure to find out what Geico auto insurance discounts are available.

Does Geico write life insurance or renters insurance?

Geico does the same thing with other business lines, including life and renters insurance. In fact, they pitch 24 different lines of insurance, but then direct you to an unaffiliated company in which they earn a commission

For the record, Geico refers to policies from these affiliated companies as a “Geico Portfolio Policy.”

They also happen to sell life insurance, renters insurance, umbrella insurance, travel insurance, ridesharing insurance, and many other non-auto policies this way. At last glance, Geico was pitching 24 different types of insurance on their website, which is pretty impressive. Who knew that many lines existed?

However, there’s a distinction between these policies and the auto policies Geico actually issues themselves. In reality, a Geico life insurance policy doesn’t exist, nor does a Geico renters insurance policy.

They simply partner with affiliated companies to get a piece of the action. That’s why you’ll also see a lot of disclaimers about not having control and not assuming responsibility for these providers when gathering insurance quotes.

Geico probably feels the companies offering umbrella insurance or travel insurance will be solid choices for you, but they have to let you know it’s a different company actually providing the coverage, or that it’s secured through the Geico Insurance Agency.

While this doesn’t constitute insurance fraud by any stretch of the imagination, you may feel somewhat slighted, which is a common reaction when people find out they bought an insurance policy from some “no-name” insurer who doesn’t choose to advertise on television or radio.

Heck, if you end up saving money by switching homeowners insurance companies to what you thought was Geico or Progressive, you can still consider it a “win,” because at the end of the day, insurance is becoming somewhat of a commodity anyway.

Even if it’s not actually Geico home insurance, the specific company the policy is with may provide excellent service (or even better service than what you would expect from Geico) at a decent price. And that may be all that matters to you.

What kinds of homeowners coverage can you get with Geico?

If you do choose to get a homeowners policy from Geico, the following homeowners coverage options are available.

• Property damage coverage
• Personal property coverage
• Liability coverage
• Jewelry coverage

You will need to look at the language in your policy contract to know for sure what will be covered. For instance, depending on where you live, water damage from a flood may not be covered in your standard homeowners insurance policy — you may need a separate flood insurance policy.

Geico’s homeowners policy options include additional coverages like personal liability, medical expenses coverage, and additional living expenses coverage.

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What other types of insurance products does Geico offer?

Since you’re entitled to a multi-policy discount if you bundle multiple lines of insurance with Geico, you might be wondering what other kinds of coverage the company offers. In addition to auto insurance policies, here is a list of some of the policies you can get with Geico.

• Life insurance policy
• Motorcycle insurance policy
• Boat insurance policy
• Homeowners insurance policy
• Business owners policy
• Professional liability policy
• Umbrella insurance policy
• Pet insurance policy

You can also get valuable coverage through Geico’s jewelry insurance options.

Geico’s experienced agents can walk you through the specifics of any types of coverage you’re interested in, as well as discuss any special discount you might be entitled to for bundling.

How do you contact Geico?

You can reach a Geico customer service agent by calling the company’s customer service line at (800) 207-7847. Keep in mind that if you’re a Geico customer, you have online access to many policy service options through the company’s website and the Geico mobile app.

What’s the difference between an insurance company and an insurance agent?

Insurance companies create and sell their own products, an example being Geico auto insurance, whereas insurance agents sell insurance products for either one or several insurance companies.

An insurance company, also referred to as an insurer, is an organization that develops and distributes an insurance product for a profit. See types of auto insurance companies for more information on this. If the insurance product they sell is not profitable (i.e. they pay out more in claims than they generate in insurance premium dollars) they have an overall loss of income for a given time period.

An insurance agent, on the other hand, sells insurance to the public for a commission, but may not have a direct tie to the amount of money made by the insurance company they represent (see captive agent versus independent agent).

Regardless of the overall profitability of the insurer(s) they represent, the agent gets paid and is not on the hook for paying insurance claims out of the money they earn for selling the policy. Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?

Well, that may explain Geico’s latest tagline, “More than just car insurance.” So, can independent agents sell Geico? As a general rule, no, but an independent agent may offer policies from the same companies that Geico’s agency offers.

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What do you need to know about the insurance industry?

At the end of the day, an insurance policy is a contract between two parties who exchange “consideration,” in this case a promise to pay for a covered claim (the insurer) for a paid premium (the person who buys the policy).

The types of coverage, policy limits, customer service and insurance premiums may vary widely by company, but every insurer must play by the same rules as every other insurer in a particular state.

Liability limits of 25/50/25 mean the same thing on every policy, whether it’s issued by Geico, Progressive or State Farm.

One of the only true differences between insurance companies that sell the same product, standard auto insurance for example, is how the product is marketed. Don’t believe us?

Ask yourself why many insurance companies have billion-dollar advertising budgets that bombard us with constant advertising on television, radio and through the mail.

They are trying to give us the “warm fuzzies” or connect with our sense of what’s cool in order to sell us something…it’s how advertising in a free market works. Capitalism at its finest!

Geico Home Insurance: What’s the bottom line?

Because Geico has an amazing distribution network they can offer other products alongside their own even if they aren’t willing to make those products themselves. It’s kind of like how retailers put candy and other cheap items at the checkout

This explains how and why Geico acts as an insurance agent for homeowners insurance companies.

Geico (and Progressive homeowner’s insurance for that matter) have some of the best insurance distribution channels in the United States, but are not willing, for whatever reason, to develop a homeowner’s insurance product of their own (which may be VERY expensive).

There’s a reason they’re sticking to auto insurance and nothing else.

Progressive has tried it before and were not successful with the venture. Both Geico and Progressive, which are car insurers, sell you “someone else’s” homeowner’s insurance product.

That “someone else” is likely a company you have never heard of…but you don’t care because you bought a product from the friendly Gecko or Flo, who are both “people” you trust because they are funny and on television!

We all want to make purchases from people or organizations that we trust, even if that trust is based only on advertising. So, if the question is “Is Geico a good home insurance company”, the answer is no, because they aren’t a homeowners insurance company.

It’s time to compare rates. Enter your ZIP code for free quotes now.

References:

1. 1. https://content.naic.org/article/news_release_naic_releases_report_homeowners_insurance.htm

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