Safeco Homeowners Insurance Review

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The Bottom Line

Your home is your most valuable asset, and you want to make sure you have the best homeowners insurance to protect it. Safeco offers a wide range of personal property coverages, including equipment breakdown coverage as an affordable add-on. With several tiers of coverage, homeowners will be able to find a policy that fits their budget. However, Safeco has below average customer satisfaction ratings, including a below average score on J.D. Power’s 2019 Home Insurance Study.

The Details

The Good

Robust coverage options. Safeco excels when it comes to offering a wide range of coverage endorsements and coverage enhancements. Their equipment breakdown coverage, which you can add as an endorsement to your policy for just $2 a month, will replace broken appliances and equipment with one that's Energy Star® grade of similar type and quality.

Straightforward claims process. Safeco makes it possible to file your claims online or over the phone, offers a 24/7 claims assistance hotline and allows homeowners to get property damage estimates via video chat through its RealTime Review™ system.

Variety of other insurance products. Like many major insurers, Safeco offers a bundling discount for combining insurance products. So you can save if you also combine your Safeco homeowners policy with Safeco auto insurance, landlord insurance or umbrella insurance.

The Bad

Below average customer service ratings. Safeco earned a 2 out of 5 rating from J.D. Power's 2019 Home Insurance Study, putting it below average for the industry. It scored low marks for the price of policies compared to the level of coverage offered, and for the clarity and accuracy of the billing process and policy information available.

Fewer ways to save than competitors. When it comes to discounts on homeowners insurance, Safeco offers fewer opportunities for saving than some other major insurance companies. It doesn't offer any unique discounts, like discounts for making your home more green, which you can find with some other providers.

The price of home insurance varies widely and depends on your state, ZIP code, and the specifics of your home. But Safeco had an above average cost according to quoted premiums with Policygenius. The average annual Safeco premium for homes with insurance values under $1,000,0000 was $1,983, according to Policygenius data.

Your rates are particularly impacted by the amount of coverage in your policy. Below is the average cost of homeowners insurance at different levels of coverage with Safeco.

Average annual homeowners insurance premiums for each coverage level were calculated using Policygenius quoting data.

Discounts

One way to ensure you're getting the best rates on homeowners insurance is to take advantage of any discounts your insurer offers.

Common discounts include bundling discounts for combining policies and discounts for owning a newer home or paying your premiums in full. Safeco offers the standard discounts you'll find from many of its competitors, but no unique discounts that you won't find other places.

• Multi-policy discount - Save up to 15% by bundling home with auto insurance, and save even further by adding insurance for your boat, motorcycle or RV.

• New home discount - If your home was built within the last 10 years you'll qualify for savings.

• Pay in full discount - If you pay your annual premium up front at renewal instead of monthly, you'll be able to save a little money over time.

Because you rely on homeowner's insurance to product your most valuable assets, it's important that the company is fiscally stable and will be able to pay out your claim if necessary. Safeco has the backing of parent company Liberty Mutual and strong financial ratings to ensure your home is safely insured.

• Year founded: 1923

• Standard & Poor's rating: A-

• Moody's rating: A2

• A.M. Best rating: A+

Standard & Poor's measures companies' creditworthiness and is used primarily by financial investors and other market stakeholders. S&P is also valuable in measuring the long-term financial stability of insurance companies. An AAA rating is the highest issuer credit rating assigned by S&P. Safeco's rating of A- still puts it in a relatively strong financial position.

Moody's is very similar to Standard & Poors, except rather than measuring a companies ability to remain financial stable and creditworthy, Moody's measures what the expected losses would be if a company were to go into default. It's particularly valuable in analyzing the value of stocks and bonds with certain companies. A AAA rating is the highest possible score you can receive from Moody's. Safeco's A2 rating isn't the highest it could be, but it's still in a high tier of financial stability.

A.M. Best is the most reliable credit-rating tool insureds can use to gauge the financial health of a particular company. Unlike S&P and Moody's, A.M. Best is focused exclusively on the insurance marketplace. A good score with A.M. Best means a company is more likely to fulfill their financial obligation to you when it comes time to file a claim. With a score of A+, Safeco has the second-highest rating an insurance company can receive with A.M. Best.

One of the best indicators of the quality of a given homeowners insurance company is customer feedback. That's why third-party sites that rate customer experience are a valuable tool for researching insurers.

Safeco is slightly below average when it comes to some customer satisfaction ratings, like J.D. Power's overall satisfaction score. But it's also had relatively few customer complaints according to the NAIC complaint index.

• J.D. Power: 2 / 5

• BBB: A

• Consumer Affairs: 3.7 / 5

• Trustpilot: 2.6 / 5

• Consumers Advocate: 4.2 / 5

• NAIC complaint index: .91

J.D. Power provides studies that rate insurance companies across policy offerings, price, clarity of billing and policy information, interaction, and claims. An overall satisfaction score, "based on how customers view every experience of their experience with homeowners insurance providers", is reflected here and used for our ranking.

The Better Business Bureau ranks companies across a large swath of criteria. While consumers can submit ratings to the BBB, these scores are not taken into account in their rating, although tangential metrics that take into account customer experience are.

Consumer Affairs is a platform that lets consumers directly rate customers, while Consumers Advocate rates companies based on stability, reputation, and policy coverage.

Trustpilot is a consumer review website that allows users to award businesses a score out of 5 along with a written review. Companies are then awarded an aggregate score out of 5 based on collected reviews.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners tracks the number of complaints submitted to state insurance departments with their national complain index. A score of 1 is the baseline average, and a score of 0 means there weren't enough complaints to count. Safeco's score of .91 means it received about an average number of complaints.

Safeco offers four homeowners insurance coverage packages ranging from a bare-bones options with standard coverage limits and optional add-ons to a completely comprehensive package that includes the highest available coverage limits.

If you're not sure how much coverage you should purchase for your home, an independent broker can help you identify the coverage level that's right for you. Here's a look at each of Safeco's four coverage tiers:

Essential

• Standard coverage

• Optional extended home replacement coverage (up to 50%)

• Optional personal property replacement cost coverage

New Quality-Plus

• Everything that's included in the Essential tier

• Higher coverage limits for certain property type and valuables

Optimum

• Everything that's included in New Quality Plus

• Even higher coverage limits for certain property and valuables

Premier

• Everything that's included in the Optimum plan

• Highest coverage limits available

• Guaranteed home replacement coverage

• Replacement cost personal property coverage

• Open perils coverage for personal property

Note: The information above represents potential policy options and may not be available for every applicant. Speak to a licensed expert for a personalized look at your coverage options.

Safeco is available in most states. The application process is slightly clunkier than with some of its competitors, but the claims process is rated fairly well.

State availability

Safeco homeowners insurance is available in every state except Alaska, Arkansas, New Jersey, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Maine and the District of Columbia.

Digital tools

Safeco's digital tools include online bill-paying, a Safeco app for smartphones and its RealTime Review™ for estimate claims damage via video chat.

The application

Safeco's online application leaves a little to be desired. The quote function takes users through the process, entering personal information about themselves and their home, but stops short of offering a quote. Unlike many of its competitors, homeowners cannot complete their Safeco application entirely online and must speak with an agent.

Ease of claims

Safeco customers can file claims over the phone, and then complete a damage assessment in person or through video chat, a timesaver for busy homeowners. You can also file a claim through the Safeco mobile app, and submit photos through that channel as well.

Additional claims service

Safeco maintains a 24/7 claim assistance hotline if you need to speak with someone about a claim. Claims tracking is also available through the mobile app. Safeco also has a free contractor referral service available to most customers. And, in the event of a natural disaster, Safeco deploys a national catastrophe team to the area to handle claims.

Claim satisfaction

Safeco's claims tools earned it a score of 3 out of 5 on the J.D. Power 2019 U.S. Property Claims Satisfaction Study, putting it slightly below industry average but in the same tier as many of its competitors.

Online, some Safeco homeowners insurance customers praised the company's responsiveness and smooth handling of claims, but others complained about the reimbursement timeline.

Policygenius offers insurance policies from many of the nation's top insurers, who pay us a commission for our services. However, all editorial choices are made independently.