Policygenius Review: 5 Things to Know Before Getting a Quote

Policygenius promises to take the pain out of buying insurance by making the process of shopping for it simple, efficient and cost-effective.

For this Policygenius review, I went and got quotes for both term life and an auto/home insurance bundle. You can see the prices I was quoted here or read about my full insurance-shopping adventure below!

Policygenius Review: Here’s What You Need to Know

As an independent insurance broker, Policygenius is not beholden to any one company. When you shop with them, you’re getting access to a wide range of quotes from top insurers. In theory, that means you have a better chance of finding a premium that fits your budget.

In this article, we’ll take a look at how Policygenius works, what companies you can get quotes from, how the price quotes stack up and more.

Policygenius Review: Table of Contents

1. How Does Policygenius Work?
2. Where Is Policygenius Available?
3. Which Insurance Companies Work With Policygenius?
4. What Kinds of Insurance Can You Get Quotes For?
5. How Are the Prices on Policygenius?

1. How Does Policygenius Work?

Using Policygenius starts with entering some basic info about yourself. For the purposes of this Policygenius review, I’ll show you what you need to shop for both term life and auto/home insurance quotes.

Term Life Shopping

Shopping for term life insurance on Policygenius is easy. Here’s what you need to provide to get started:

• Gender
• Date of birth
• Zip code
• Citizenship status
• Marital status

After that, you’ll enter some health and related information:

• Height/weight
• Tobacco use
• Conditions (alcohol abuse, depression, high cholesterol, etc.)
• Family medical history
• Have you had your license suspended or revoked?

Finally, you’ll select your coverage:

• Coverage amounts available from $50,000 to $10,000,000
• Policy lengths available from 10 years on up; default selection is 20-year term

As a reminder, term life is money expert Clark Howard‘s preferred kind of life insurance policy for most people.

That’s because the premium stays the same throughout the life of the policy. Plus, it only pays out to your beneficiaries if you die while the policy is in force. There’s no investment component; you just get a straight-up death benefit.

Read more about why Clark likes term life here.

Auto/Home Insurance Shopping

While getting a quote for life insurance on Policygenius is pretty straight-forward, it’s a different story when getting a home and auto quote.

First off, you can get a home insurance quote on its own. But you can’t get an auto insurance quote on its own. That means if you’re interested in auto insurance, you’re forced into bundling it with home insurance at the present time on Policygenius.

Bundling typically gives you a discount. But if you’re not a homeowner, Policygenius may not be ideal for you in this respect. In that case, the best you can do is enter your email and wait until they launch their auto-only shopping tool.

However, if the bundling thing does work for you, Policygenius makes it easy on the front end to input your info with their PolicyScan software.

With PolicyScan, you can simply upload a pdf, screenshot or photo of the declarations page from your existing home and auto policies. (The declarations page is the page that shows your current policy information, and lists your coverages, deductibles and costs.)

Once you upload those files, PolicyScan will screen-scrape the data and enter it for you.

Pretty easy, right? But not so fast…

Waiting For Quotes

Things went a little haywire for me after uploading my documents. My expectation was that I would get instant quotes for my home/auto bundle, just as I did when shopping for life insurance on Policygenius.

As it turned out, shopping for a home and auto insurance bundle on Policygenius is very anticlimactic. I was told it would take a few days for my quotes to come back.

As the company notes:

“In order to provide you with accurate quotes (not just estimates!) for your unique situation, our insurance experts pull in third-party data, connect with insurance companies, and survey the coverage options in your state. This personalized approach takes time, but we think finding you the best policy is worth it.”

You do have the option to expedite the quote process by sending an email to pcbusiness@policygenius.com, which I did. However, I’m not really sure how much difference that made.

It’s definitely something to factor in if you’re in need of a quick quote.

2. Where Is Policygenius Available?

Policygenius is licensed to sell insurance in all 50 U.S. states and Washington, D.C.

You can find state licensing info here.

3. Which Insurance Companies Work With Policygenius?

Policygenius works with a variety of companies depending on the kind of insurance you’re getting a quote for.

For term life insurance, I was offered quotes from — in alphabetical order — AIG, Banner Life, Lincoln Financial Group, Mutual of Omaha, Pacific Life, Principal, Protective, Prudential, SBLI and Transamerica.

For the auto/home bundle, MetLife and Safeco were among the companies I got quotes from.

4. What Kinds of Insurance Can You Get Quotes For?

Policygenius offers several types of insurance quotes. In addition to auto/home and life, which we’ve already discussed here, they also can quote you for:

• Dental
• Disability
• Health
• Long-term care
• Pet
• Renters
• Vision

5. How Are the Prices on Policygenius?

OK, this is the crux of any Policygenius review, right?

For a 44-year-old male in good health who doesn’t use tobacco and has no family history of disease, these are the top five quotes I was served for a 20-year term life policy with a face value of $500,000:

One of the nice things about Policygenius is that the company has a “Life Insurance Price Promise.” That means if you find a lower quote for the same coverage, they’ll give you $100. Terms and conditions apply.

Meanwhile, when it came to the auto/home bundle, I matched my current coverage limits:

Auto

• Bodily injury: $100,000/$300,000
• Property damage: $100,000
• Medical payments: $1,000
• Uninsured motorists bodily injury: $100,000/$300,000
• Uninsured motorists property damage: $100,000 ($250 deductible)
• Collision: $1,000 deductible
• Comprehensive: $250 deductible

Home

• Dwelling: $166,000
• Other structures: $16,600
• Personal property: $116,200
• Loss of use: $49,800
• Bodily injury and property damage: $300,000
• Medical payments: $5,000
• Deductible: $1,000

So here’s the deal: It took about 48 hours from the time I entered my info on the website until I got a quote for home/auto insurance in my inbox.

When I finally did, Policygenius recommended that I stay with my current insurer for auto. However, that advice ignored the fact that I’m currently in a bundle and would lose that discount!

Regardless, Policygenius sent me three quotes for the home/auto bundle. Inexplicably, one was for auto insurance through Mercury — even though they recommended that I stay with my current auto insurer (which is not Mercury).

The other two, which generally offered less coverage than what I showed Policygenius on my declarations page, are below:

All in all, I was not impressed with the home/auto insurance shopping experience on Policygenius.

It took longer than I expected to get a quote and the coverage offered wasn’t as good as what I had. Plus, it was all more expensive than what I currently have.

Final Thought

Policygenius has some neat tech features like PolicyScan that make it easy to get the ball rolling on shopping for a home or auto policy to replace your existing coverage.

But I wasn’t prepared for the wait time to get a bundled quote on home and auto. Policygenius says it takes extra time to serve you up with a real quote, not just a teaser quote. Just don’t log on expecting to get an instant home and auto quote.

However, shopping for life insurance on the site is a flawless and quick experience from start to finish. You can expect an instant quote for term life insurance.

Meanwhile, we’ve got a lot more guidance on how to shop for the insurance that matters to your life. Be sure to check out our list of the Best and Worst Auto Insurers, Best and Worst Home Insurers and How to Buy Term Life Insurance.

More Insurance Stories on Clark.com: 

• Should You Buy Cell Phone Insurance?
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• What Is Disability Insurance and Should I Buy It?