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Geico Home Insurance Review
You can trust the gecko and give Geico the green light if you’re in search of affordable homeowners insurance.
- Optional coverage for high-value items
- Full-featured mobile app
- Flood insurance available
- Bundle homeowners and car insurance for big savings
- Basic selection of homeowners coverage
- Underwritten by a third-party insurer
You may be familiar with Geico’s gecko in TV commercials. The green gecko says that switching to Geico brings you “real service, real savings.” The insurance carrier often places at the top of the list of the most affordable car insurance companies. But the savings don’t stop at cars — if you’re in search of quality homeowners insurance at a lower price, you’ll want to read this Geico home insurance review.
The insurer was founded in 1936 to provide car insurance to government employees. Today, Geico provides car, homeowners, renters, business insurance and more to Americans nationwide. To bring you this fact-based Geico home insurance review, we analyzed factors such as financial strength, customer reviews, coverage and discounts options to provide a SimpleScore rating for Geico.
We follow a rigorous editorial policy designed to keep our writers and editors independent. Articles may reference products from our partners, so here’s more information on
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What we analyzed
Wondering how we came up with the SimpleScore for Geico? To review Geico, we examined the following factors:
Discounts
Geico shines when it comes to savings. Base prices for homeowners insurance is already competitive. If you can take advantage of the variety of Geico discounts, you can save further. Consider the following discounts:
- Multi-policy: Having more than one type of coverage can bring you savings in all your policies. You can always check with a Geico agent for advice on other types of coverage worth expanding into.
- Home safety: Adding devices such as smoke detectors, carbon monoxide alarms and fire extinguishers can bring you an instant discount on your premiums.
- Home security: You can also secure your home for savings by adding a home security system.
[ Read: What Home Insurance Discounts Are Available? ]
Coverage
Geico’s homeowners coverage is fairly standard. A notable feature is flood insurance, which many home insurance companies don’t offer. Geico’s home coverages are:
- Property damage: Provides reimbursement if your home’s structure is damaged for covered perils such as fire, theft or severe weather.
- Personal property: Protects the contents of your home, including furnishings, electronics and personal items.
- Jewelry: Up to $2,000 for jewelry but you can add more coverage.
- Personal liability: Pays for medical expenses and legal defense if someone is injured in your home.
- Medical bills: Also covers medical expenses when guests are hurt on your property.
- Additional expenses: Gives you an allowance to pay for other living arrangements if your home is uninhabitable.
Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is essential. The cheapest homeowners insurance in the world isn’t worth the savings if you have trouble collecting on your insurance claim. We looked at objective ratings from agencies such as:
- J.D. Power: J.D. Power for national and regional customer reviews and insurance company rankings. Geico isn’t rated at this time for homeowners insurance since it uses a network of insurance companies to underwrite policies.
- AM Best: Geico gets the highest rating of A++ for financial strength. This is important when it’s time to get paid on your claims.
- S&P: Similar to AM Best, Standard & Poor’s rates a company’s financial strength and awarded Geico with an AA+.
- BBB: The Better Business Bureau helps customers resolve issues with companies. Geico is not accredited with the BBB but has an A+ grade.
[ See: The Complete Guide to Home Insurance ]
Support
It’s important for an insurance company to be available to customers in case of an emergency or to help with questions about billing or the policy. Getting in touch with Geico is possible in several ways:
- Chat through the mobile app 24/7
- Use the Geico Virtual Assistant
- Calling (800) 241-8098 weekdays 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. (EST) and 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. (EST) on weekends.
Accessibility
Providing coverage to all types of policyholders is a vital element of a positive customer experience. As mentioned, Geico provides several ways of reaching out when you need help, have questions or want to file a homeowners insurance claim. In addition, Geico’s website and mobile app are user-friendly and extremely clear and easy to navigate. Do your research straight from Geico — there are plenty of tools and online learning resources to help you learn more about how insurance works.
What we like about Geico
There’s more to Geico than low-cost homeowners insurance. The insurer has the highest financial rating A.M. best awards (A++) so you can rest assured they’ll be there for you when you need to file a claim. But that’s not all. There are other things going for Geico.
Add-ons
Optional coverage for high-value items such as jewelry is clear and easy to understand. A basic homeowners insurance policy will provide you with coverage for your home’s contents and up to $2,000. But as you know, the cost of fine jewelry can well exceed $2,000. You can always add more coverage for a diamond engagement ring or a fine watch for as little as 1% or 2% more.
Bundling discounts
Bundling home and auto insurance piles on the savings. If you have a car and a house, insuring both with Geico is the way to go. Add more than one car to your home and auto bundle to qualify for up to 25% off per vehicle.
[ Next: The Best Home and Auto Insurance Bundles ]
Who should get this policy
New homeowners just getting started could use some budget relief. Geico homeowners insurance is ideal for first-time homebuyers.
Things to consider
Before you click on “Buy” it’s best to weigh the drawbacks. They’re minimal but still worth being aware about.
Basic coverage
Geico isn’t as known for homeowners insurance. The home insurance coverages offered are a bit basic. Other insurers have unique coverages and discounts for home upgrades and green home rebuilding, for example. Geico is limited to property damage and personal property coverage.
Third-party underwriter
When you buy homeowners insurance through Geico, a different carrier writes the policy. It shouldn’t be a deal breaker — you can still pay your bills to Geico and contact customer support for general help. But if you need to file a claim, you’ll be transferred over to the third-party insurer.
[ Related: Types of Homeowners Insurance ]
Who shouldn’t get this policy
Homeowners with unique needs such as a landmark home should look at other homeowners insurance companies.
Geico home insurance vs. the competition
Take a look at how Geico fares against the three largest homeowners insurance companies.
Jake from State Farm isn’t just a funny commercial bit — he’s ready to dole out plenty of home insurance coverage.
State Farm and Geico both offer coverage for most major perils, including theft, fire and storms. Both companies also provide homeowners discounts for fire or burglar alarms. State Farm is better known for homeowners insurance than Geico. In J.D. Power’s 2020 U.S. Home Insurance Study, State Farm ranked in eighth place with an above-average score of 829 out of 1,000. Besides the notable customer service rating, State Farm has a large network of agents and offices nationwide, something that Geico is lacking. Learn more about State Farm homeowners insurance.
Are you — and your home — in good hands with Allstate home insurance? Your wallet certainly is with Allstate home insurance discounts and bundling.
Allstate has one of the largest selections of homeowners discounts in the industry, beating out Geico’s selection. When it comes to discounts, the best one may be Allstate’s 25% discount for bundling auto and home insurance. It’s higher than Geico’s bundle discount, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that an Allstate bundle will come in cheaper than Geico’s. Allstate’s base pricing is typically higher than Geico’s. To be sure you’re getting the best deal from either highly-rated insurer, get quotes from both to compare. Read our full Allstate homeowners insurance review to learn more about Allstate home insurance.
While USAA may not have a ton of home insurance discounts, it does have an army of customer service specialists, which earns it high customer satisfaction scores.
USAA and Geico both have roots in providing insurance coverage to military and government employees. Geico expanded its offerings to the general public while USAA requires all policyholders to qualify for membership. To qualify for USAA coverage, you’ll need to be active or retired military or retired to one. Other differences are customer service — USAA always tops J.D. Power’s annual customer studies for overall customer satisfaction and claims handling. Learn more about USAA home insurance in our full review.
Geico’s home insurance rates
Geico’s rates can vary depending on many factors. They include coverage limits, location, value of the home and contents, your credit score and more. Every company weighs these factors (among others) differently. All homeowners policies include coverage against perils such as:
- Fire or lightning
- Windstorm or hail
- Explosion
- Riot or civil commotion
- Damage caused by aircraft
- Damage caused by vehicles
- Smoke damage
- Vandalism
- Theft
- Volcanic eruption
Standard coverage does not include protection against earthquakes or floods, which need to be purchased separately. To get an accurate idea of Geico’s homeowners insurance rates, get a free quote from the Geico website.
[ More: Understanding Home Insurance Quotes ]
Geico online and mobile app
Geico’s website is simple to use and easy to navigate for customers of all ages. The clean white background and minimal amount of images and graphics ensure that the website loads quickly, even if you’re using a rural internet connection.
Don’t miss out on downloading Geico’s mobile app. It’s one of the most full-featured insurance apps you’ll find. You can manage your policies, update claims and even chat with customer service 24 hours per day straight from the app. Best of all, the Geico app is designed to match the website. It’s simple to navigate and won’t take long to get the hang of.
Geico home, auto and life insurance
If you’re happy with Geico, the carrier has more insurance options available. The most popular include home, auto and life insurance.
Home insurance
Some of the most common homeowners insurance discounts from Geico include:
- Employee and membership discounts: Geico offers affiliate discounts to more than 800 organizations.
- Military discounts: Active duty or retired members of the U.S. Armed Forces, National Guard or Reserves can receive up to a 15% discount.
Life insurance
Life insurance makes it possible to leave loved ones a tax-free payoff after you pass away. Geico’s life insurance policies are comprehensive. You can choose from an affordable term life policy for a set period of time such as 10, 20 or 30 years. Or you can buy a more complex package of permanent life insurance, such as whole or universal life insurance.
Bundling discounts
Geico is best known for auto insurance coverage. If you purchase a Geico home and auto insurance policy, you can qualify for a discount on both. Geico doesn’t specify how much of a discount you can earn, but it’s likely one of the more significant savings from the insurance carrier.
Geico in the news
- Geico has received praise for its workplace practices, earning spots on Forbes’ America’s Best Employers By State 2019, Best Employers for Women 2019 and Best Employers for Diversity 2020 lists.
- In spring 2020, Geico also received media attention for giving its auto, motorcycle and RV insurance customers a 15% premium credit as part of its financial relief efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- The Better Business Bureau gives Geico an A+ rating. Since Geico doesn’t underwrite its homeowners policies, it doesn’t qualify for ranking in J.D. Power’s Property Claims Satisfaction Study, but some of its partner companies rank very favorably. For example, in Power’s 2020 study, The Hartford ranked second, with 896 out of 1,000 points, and American Family ranked eighth.
Too long, didn’t read?
If you’re looking for a wide range of home insurance coverages, Geico might leave you wanting more. But if basic coverage at an affordable price is all you need, you can’t go wrong choosing Geico.
Last Updated November 24, 2020 – Updated editorial review of insurance company
We welcome your feedback on this article and would love to hear about your experience with the home insurance companies we recommend. Contact us at inquiries@thesimpledollar.com with comments or questions.
Keep Reading
Methodology
The SimpleScore is a proprietary scoring metric we use to objectively compare products and services at The Simple Dollar.
For every review, our editorial team:
- Identifies five measurable aspects to compare across each brand
- Determines the rating criteria for each aspect score
- Averages the five aspect scores to produce a single SimpleScore
Here’s a breakdown of the five aspect scores and their rating criteria for our reviews on home insurance.
Why do some brands have different SimpleScores on different pages?
To ensure the SimpleScore is as helpful and accurate as possible, we developed unique criteria for every category we compare at The Simple Dollar. Since most brands offer a variety of financial solutions, their products and services will score differently depending on what we’re scoring on a given page.
However, it’s also possible for the same product from the same brand to have multiple SimpleScores. For instance, if we compare State Farm’s home insurance according to our criteria for the best home insurance, it scores a 3.8 out of 5. But when we compare State Farm according to the criteria for the best auto insurance, it scores higher, since the features the company offers can vary by the type of insurance.
Discounts
We looked at the number of discounts each company offers – more discounts mean a higher score.
Coverage Options
We awarded higher scores to the companies that offer more coverage options.
Support
We awarded higher scores to companies with the most channels for customer support.
Customer Satisfaction
We leveraged the J.D. Power 2019 Home Insurance Satisfaction Study℠ to see how customers rated their experience with each company. (If a company wasn’t included in J.D. Power’s study, we skipped this aspect and averaged the four remaining aspect scores.)
Accessibility
We looked at the level of accessibility of each company – the more resources they have the higher their score
Reviewed by
Nashalie Addarich
EditorNashalie Addarich is an editor for The Simple Dollar. She recently made a career switch from the legal field, where she was an attorney in Washington, DC. In her free time, she enjoys learning new languages. You can also find her editorial work on Reviews.com.
