Published : 7 years ago, on 08/02/2018

96 percent of people can’t accurately answer a typical home insurance quote question without leaving the buying process

Homelyfe, a new type of insurance company that uses modern technology to allow consumers to find and buy insurance in under four minutes, today launched its home and contents insurance offering.

Founded by serial entrepreneurs Peter Goodman and Andrew Craven, Homelyfe’s technology was built from the ground up to disrupt the archaic systems consumers previously had to navigate when purchasing insurance. The Homelyfe app operates across iOS, Android and web platforms to offer home buyer’s insurance alongside the new home and contents insurance product.

Frustrated with the antiquated processes involved with buying insurance from traditional providers, the founders of Homelyfe built the entire solution – from the ratings engine to the user interface – themselves. By adopting a modern, data-led approach, Homelyfe has made it possible to get insurance quotes and buy a policy in under four minutes, answering far fewer and simpler questions rather than 60 or more on a typical online form.

Customers get the right cover at the right price, removing the fear that incorrect answers could potentially void cover. Homelyfe has collaborated with insurance underwriters to streamline the buying process without compromising the integrity of the policy. With a single login, customers will be able to easily add new insurance lines without leaving the app, a feature that many of the existing mobile insurance platforms do not offer. It can integrate seamlessly with insurance companies and partners to offer customers a wider range of insurance products.

A survey conducted by Homelyfe through CitizenMe – the leading personal data and insights platform – showed that 95.6 percent of respondents cannot accurately answer one or more of the typical questions necessary for purchasing home insurance, without having to leave the buying process. Based on these findings, only four percent of respondents would have been able to complete the home insurance buying process the first-time round without guessing and invalidating insurance claims by providing misinformation.

The survey asked respondents five common questions that are required in the process of buying home insurance, such as “what type of lock do you have on your front door”, and an estimate of the rebuild value of the home. Homelyfe found that only 44 out of the 1000 respondents felt confident that they could accurately answer all five of these questions, just a fraction of the questions that are typically asked in the process.

The same survey found that the vast majority – 61 percent – go to price comparison websites for their home and contents insurance in comparison to just 18 percent that go direct to this insurer. This shows a lack of investment in improving the insurance buying process and is resulting in customers going to price comparison websites, which drives prices down for insurers and, in turn, quality down for customers.

Peter Goodman, CEO and co-founder of Homelyfe, said:

“Homelyfe has been built from the ground up, and is unique in its capabilities. With far too many other insurance providers and comparison websites, the number of questions required to take out home insurance are completely unnecessary but remains the industry norm. In the data-rich world we live in today, we should not have to rely on the consumer knowing these answers.

“Adding new insurance products to your existing agreement with many providers also remains a challenge, both for the customer and for the providers. Even for existing customers, there’s a lot of information they needlessly repeat because of the architecture of many insurance providers. Ultimately, the result is that insurers are not looking after the consumer’s best interests, which is what we’re looking to change. While other industries – such as retail banking – have completely transformed in recent years, the insurance industry is only just starting to catch up.”

Find out more at www.homelyfe.com or download the app from Google Play and Apple App Stores.