Like a bike helmet for your home, Lemonade will be there when you really need it | CNN Underscored

Like a bike helmet for your home, Lemonade will be there when you really need it | CNN Underscored

CNN
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Like a bike helmet, renters insurance is one of those things that you don’t think you actually need until you really need it — and that you don’t realize you really needed until it’s too late.

And just like how you put on a bike helmet even if you’re just going for a couple loops around the park — or at least make your kids put on their helmets — you don’t want to live in a rented apartment without the peace of mind that renters insurance brings, especially when it’s so affordable, and especially when the top-rated insurance company in America, Lemonade, can set you up with great insurance so easily. It’s just common sense.

Now, we’re not going to pull that cheap trick other companies do between sports and the weather on the local news where they want you to imagine an unshaven burglar lurking outside every window of your home. No, we’re going to lay it out for you honestly in dollars and cents so you can make such an important decision like you should any life decision: clear-eyed and carefully.

First of all, renters insurance isn’t a lottery ticket. It’s not about chance or “lucking out” and hitting a jackpot. It’s more like a rainy-day fund you invest in that’ll be there when the unexpected happens. In other words, it’s almost like a pension for accidents and mishaps — except that, instead of paying back a little more than what you put in, Lemonade adds in more funds and makes sure you get the amount of money you need for the crisis at hand.

Let’s say that one of the pipes in the ceiling of your bedroom bursts and turns your bed into a Noah’s ark of your childhood stuffies. The laptop you left on the floor by your bed? Now it’s a doorstop with an Apple logo. The shoes and winter clothes under your bed? Instant landfill. And a safe, comfortable place to sleep in your own home? You suddenly don’t have one of those anymore. We’re talking thousands of dollars in lost property and shelter.

Your first call is Lemonade, who can pay to put you in a hotel room while your landlord works on repairing the damage, then assesses the damage to your property and figures out how much it’ll cost to replace it all — no need for you to scramble to get an Amazon Prime account and look up every item one by one. Finally, you’ll get to move back into a repaired apartment with a reimbursement from Lemonade that makes everything whole again.

Plus, Lemonade works on a philosophy of benefiting the greater public, not just making money. They take a flat fee from all premiums paid in order to run the business, with the rest going to paying out claims — anything leftover, Lemonade donates to meaningful causes that you get to choose.

We’re talking thousands of dollars’ worth of value — and that’s not even mentioning the incalculable value of your mental and emotional well-being and knowing that Lemonade’s experts are taking care of everything for you. We couldn’t blame you for thinking that you’d have to pay hundreds of dollars or more and have to go through a grueling application process to get such a great deal.

But Lemonade starts as low as $5 a month — or $60 a year, about the price of a single video game — and takes only 90 seconds to get you covered. With Lemonade’s top-rated, seamless AI, all you have to do is enter your address and answer a few basic questions about your home, and the AI customizes a policy just for you. You can decide if you want to sign up for additional coverage for things not normally covered by renters insurance, like earthquake coverage. (Keep in mind that the basic renters insurance already covers many events outside the home, like when your bike gets stolen out on the street.) Then you can go about your day with the assurance that you’ve gotten renters insurance for about the price of one cup of coffee a month.

Before you go outside today, you’re probably going to do a few simple but essential things that could save you a major headache down the road, like checking the weather, putting on the right clothes, making sure the stove is off — or putting on a bike helmet. It’s the little preparations we make that can pay off in a major way when things go sideways — and Lemonade is there to make sure you get back on track as quickly and painlessly as possible.