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QBE Home Insurance Review (2023)

QBE is an Australian insurance company offering homeowners insurance in the United States. This insurer has gotten quite a few complaints from its American customers.

Read Time: 8 mins

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QBE Home Insurance Review
2.5
★ HOIC RATING
Premiums 3
Claims 1
Customer Satisfaction 2
Financial Standing 4
PROS
  • Available in most, if not all states
  • Strong financial ratings
CONS
  • Website lacks details and is a bit confusing
  • Very little discounts or additional coverages available
  • Claims experience and customer experience is subpar
  • Not transparent for quotes

QBE Insurance Company has a long history. It was originally founded in 1886 in Townsville, Australia. It was originally named The North Queensland Insurance Company Limited. The main focus of the company back in that day was marine insurance. The company expanded rapidly and spread throughout the globe.

QBE first came to the U.S. in 1924. In 1921 the company took over Bankers’ and Traders’ Insurance Company and in the 1970s the company merged with Equitable Probate and General Insurance Company to become QBE (Queensland Insurance + Bankers and Traders + Equitable Probate). The company is now headquartered in Sydney, Australia and provides insurance coverage in 27 countries. They sell a number of different insurances across the U.S. including homeowners’ insurance.

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Where Is QBE Homeowners Insurance Available?

It is a little unclear how many states QBE offers home insurance coverage in. During our research, we found conflicting reports. On the company’s website, it states that QBE offers home insurance coverage in 47 states and D.C. but does not say which states. Other reports stated that the company offered coverage in 44 states or 50 states. Regardless, QBE offers coverage in most, if not all states in the U.S. You can contact the company to determine if QBE serves you in your state.

QBE home insurance coverages

QBE Insurance offers standard H0-3 home insurance policies along with a couple of additional coverages and other forms of home insurance.

QBE’s HO-3 policies include the following coverages within them:

  • Dwelling: This section is designed to protect the structure of the home itself and any attached structures such as a chimney.
  • Other structures: This section is designed to protect any structures that are not part of the home itself such as a shed or pool.
  • Personal property: This section is designed to protect the homeowner’s personal belongings if they were to become damaged, stolen, or destroyed.
  • Loss of use: This section is designed to protect the homeowner from incurring additional living expenses as the result of damage to the home that leaves it uninhabitable for a period of time.
  • Personal liability: This section is designed to protect the homeowner from incurring any legal bills that may be forced upon the homeowner as the result of an injury to a guest or property damage of another person’s where the homeowner is found to be at fault.
  • Medical payments to others: This section is designed to protect the homeowner from incurring any medical bills that may arise as the result of an injury to someone on the property regardless of who is at fault.

Coverage limits

We were unfortunately unable to determine the maximum coverage limits that QBE has on their standard home insurance policies. It is recommended to talk with a QBE agent to determine what coverage limits may apply to you.

Additional coverages offered

The best we can tell, QBE only offers a few additional coverages to their standard home insurance policies. These add-ons include:

  • Extended replacement cost: this protection extends the dwelling coverage to up to 125% of the original coverage amount
  • Equipment breakdown: This protection protects against breakdowns of appliances in the home
  • High-value item coverage: This protection increases the coverage limits for high-value items such as jewelry or art

Other policies offered by QBE

QBE Insurance also offers a few other home-related insurances. These other insurances include:

  • Renters insurance: Tenants of a rental property will have their personal belongings covered with this insurance
  • Personal umbrella insurance: The personal liability coverage is greatly increased with this insurance
  • Flood insurance: Offered through the National Flood Insurance Program, homeowners will be covered from damage caused by flooding with this insurance

Cost of QBE Home Insurance Policy

Unfortunately, we were unable to determine the average cost of an HO-3 policy with QBE. With any insurance provider, there are numerous factors that play a part in determining the premium of a home insurance policy in any individual situation. Talk with a QBE agent to get a quote for your specific set of circumstances. Typical factors include:

  • Location of the home
  • The home’s age
  • Home’s condition
  • Claims history of the home
  • Coverage limits, add-ons, and discounts
  • Credit score

This is not an exhaustive list as quite a bit more could be factored into the premium.

Homeowners Insurance Cost Calculator

Discounts available

QBE Insurance offers a few discounts to reduce the premium cost of their policies. These discounts include:

  • Bundling: received by purchasing multiple policies with QBE.
  • New Home: received by having a home that is less than eight years old.
  • Security system: received by having a security system installed in the home.
  • Highly-rated fire department: received by living in a community that has a highly-rated fire department in it.

It is unclear how much each discount will be for the homeowner.

Claims process

According to customer reviews, QBE Insurance is not a great company when it comes to the claims process. Customer reviews repeatedly state that agents put them on hold for long periods of time, are rude, and are unhelpful. The reviews are overwhelmingly poor, which is not a good sign for potential customers to see. The company does have an online form that homeowners can start the process with and they have a page that explains the claims process.

Customers also report that QBE tends to lowball customers on the value of the claim or deny as many claims as possible. The customer accounts of the poor claims service are a big drawback and should make potential customers wary about receiving anything for the policy they may end up paying for.

Customer experience

The overall customer experience seems to be quite awful according to customer reviews. There are numerous negative reviews of the customer service of the company. Many homeowners state that even when they go to cancel their policy, the company drags their feet and tries to require documents that should not be required to cancel a policy. Customers for the most part are not happy with how they are treated by the company.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioner’s complaint index shows that QBE has a higher-than-expected complaint ratio. This is another red flag for the company. It shows that customers are frustrated or angry with the company more than would be expected. Homeowners looking for coverage should be cautious and shop around to compare the customer experience with multiple companies. The website also lacks details on the products and other information that would be nice to see, but it still has quite a bit that can make it a good starting point for potential customers. Overall, customers seem frustrated with their experience with QBE.

Financial strength

QBE has strong financial ratings. They have an A rating from AM Best and an A+ rating from Standard & Poor’s. Those ratings are not the highest rating a company can obtain but are pretty close. This shows that QBE can meet its financial obligations, even in the worst of times, and survive. The company can also pay out claims when a large number of claims happen to come in at once, due to something like a natural disaster. This is a positive for the company and should give policyholders some peace of mind. QBE is not rated by the other major credit ratings agency, Moody’s.

Conclusion

Based on our research, QBE is a middle to lower-end-of-the-pack home insurance provider. It looks as if the company does have great financial health and provides solid insurance coverage, but based on customer reviews, QBE’s customer service is not very good at all.

The reviews give the sense that the company does not want to pay out any claims. Customers repeatedly stated how frustrated they were with the service representatives, hold times, wait times, and lack of communication from the company. This is not good to see for potential customers. QBE Insurance’s website also leaves some room for improvement.

The website is a bit confusing and lacks details and transparency as to what is actually offered and at what price. It doesn’t look like QBE offers much customization or flexibility in their policies as well. There are only a few additional coverages available as well as only a few discounts available. This doesn’t allow customers much room to maneuver to get the coverage they want at a reasonable price.

Overall, homeowners looking for coverage should include QBE in their shopping around of home insurance companies but should certainly look at other companies and consider some others before deciding to look at QBE.

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ABOUT AUTHOR
Kyle has extensive background in financial planning and financial writing. He is an expert in home, auto and life insurance. Kyle holds a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration from San Diego State University and multiple financial planning designations.
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1 thought on “QBE Home Insurance Review (2023)”

  1. We cancelled our policy through the agency and directly through QBE. And we were told that QBE. Required a copy of our new policy in order to cancel. REALLY! IF I CANCEL A POLICY WITH YOU THERE IS A REASON!

    It is none of your business who We went with. We cancelled policy in May and today I get a bill for the insurance. SERIOUSLY !!! I DONT HAVE YOUR INSURANCE ANYMORE!!!

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