If you are in the market for a new home warranty provider, you may have come across Secure Home Warranty. Unfortunately, his provider is no longer in business. Our team has researched a long list of the best home warranty providers and have several recommendations for you to consider instead.
We’ll give an overview of what Secure Home Warranty offered, then show you what other companies we suggest you contact for free quotes.
Table of Contents:
- Secure Home Warranty Background
- Secure Home Warranty Plans
- Secure Home Warranty Cost
- Secure Home Warranty Claims Process
- Final Notes on Secure Home Warranty
- Reputable Alternatives to Secure Home Warranty
Today’s Homeowner works with an independent reviews team to create evidence-based research that helps our readers make informed decisions. The reviews are always independent. For transparency, we may be compensated if you purchase through a link.
Secure Home Warranty Background
Based in Philadelphia, Secure Home Warranty was established in 2015 as Secure Home Warranty LLC, and it wasn’t long before issues came up.
Home Warranty Resources
Secure Home Warranty Plans
Secure Home Warranty offered three plans with many add-on options:
| Plan | Covered Items |
| Core Plan | – Plumbing stoppage – Heating – Water heater – Plumbing – Ductwork – Air conditioning – Electrical |
| Appliance Plan | – Clothes washer – Refrigerator – Clothes dryer – Stove/oven – Garbage disposal – Built-in microwave oven – Dishwasher – Cooktop |
| Elite Plan | – Plumbing stoppage – Water heater – Heating – Ductwork – Plumbing – Air conditioning – Electrical – Clothes washer – Clothes dryer – Garbage disposal – Refrigerator – Stove/oven – Built-in microwave oven – Cooktop – Dishwasher |
Secure Home Warranty Cost
Both the Core Plan and Appliance plan cost a total of $419.99 per year, which can be broken down into payments of just $38 per month. The Elite Plan has an overall cost of $499 per year or $42 per month. The service call fee is $75.
The extensive list of add-on options ranges from $3.33 per month to $8.33 per month. This allows you to add the specific coverages you need and avoid the items that don’t apply to your home.
Secure Home Warranty Claims Process
When Secure Home Warranty was in business, its claims process was convoluted and prompted many complaints. Ideally, the customer would submit a claim, Secure Home Warranty would arrange for the service to be handled and the client would be charged the service call fee.
What our research revealed was that numerous customers were given the runaround for several days when attempting to schedule a service appointment. They were also often told they would need to cover the expenses out of pocket then be reimbursed by the company.
After this, when customers called Secure Home Warranty to arrange the reimbursement, they were either put on hold for several minutes and then returned to the automated menu, or were given instructions to fill out a form and send it to a certain email, to which they never received a reply. In nearly all cases, no money was ever given back to customers, and the warranties were rarely honored.
Final Notes on Secure Home Warranty
Secure Home Warranty faced litigation for defrauding over 160 customers out of thousands of dollars. It’s no surprise that Secure Home Warranty customers have been very vocal about their negative experiences with the company. Looking them up provides a myriad of complaints and problems that former customers of Secure Home Warranty have faced.
Reputable Alternatives to Secure Home Warranty
If you’ve been scammed by Secure Home Warranty, or if you’re hesitant to find a new home warranty provider because of stories like this, know that there are several reputable home warranty companies out there. We’ve researched many providers to find the best ones. American Home Shield is our top choice.
Best Coverage: American Home Shield
The industry founder, American Home Shield, has been in business for nearly 50 years. This amount of time should give you confidence in the company and its ability to support customers. As we’ve learned from Secure Home Warranty, it’s hard to pull off a scam for very long. American Home Shield has paid out more than $2 billion in the past five years.
American Home Shield has three plans with increasing levels of coverage. Its base plan, the ShieldSilver Plan™, covers 14 major systems, including plumbing, heating and cooling, and electrical systems. The ShieldGold Plan™ covers the systems covered by the ShieldSilver Plan™ and adds coverage for major kitchen and laundry appliances up to $3,000. The ShieldPlatinum Plan™ covers all 23 systems and appliances in the ShieldGold Plan™ and adds $1,500 of roof-leak coverage. It also increases the coverage limit on appliances to $6,000.
We like that you can pick your service fee ($75, $100 or $125). The company is currently BBB accredited with a B rating. It averages a three-star rating from almost 6,000 customer reviews.
Home Warranty Rating Methodology
To help you find the best home warranty, our reviews team researched numerous home warranty companies, analyzing their coverage plans, pricing and customer service, among other factors:
- Coverage: Home warranty companies that provide extensive coverage and protect important systems and appliances, including your air conditioning, refrigerator and heating, scored higher than companies with minimal coverage.
- Plan variety: A provider with more coverage plans allows for more flexibility among customers. In general, most home warranty companies provide an appliances-only plan, systems-only plan and combination plan.
- Pricing: We scored providers based on their monthly plan prices and service call fees compared to the industry average pricing. Companies with more affordable coverage received more points than companies with more expensive plans.
- State availability: Where you live will determine what companies are available in your area. Home warranty companies that covered more states received more points than companies with a limited state availability.
- Trustworthiness: There are some home warranty companies that are scams and don’t follow through on their service agreements. We rated companies based on their years of experience, ratings on the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and customer reviews.
To keep our data current, our team regularly updates the data points for each company to ensure their coverage offerings, pricing and availability are accurate.
Reviews of Other Home Warranties
All extended warranties, whether for home repairs or electronics, are almost always a bad financial product. It is generally considered wise by personal finance folks like Suze Orman and Dave Ramsey to have a good emergency fund to cover things like appliance repair so that you are not spending so much income on premiums. Get insurance for big stuff – health, long term disability (not short term), and good term life insurance – and use your emergency fund to cover the little stuff like a water heater going out.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, David.
Everyone uses their household budget differently, and learning from each other helps everyone.