Bamboo Insurance

We submitted a claim from hurricane Hillary on August 21st…it's October 10th! We have still not had any communication whether or not this claim will be covered and in the meantime our walls are probably growing mold! We've contacted Mark, who is supposedly supposed to be the manager overseeing claims and have only received a text saying he will get back to us, but hasn't. This company is a scam. If I could rate zero stars, I would. Pay for a legit company like all state or farmers. Now we can't switch insurance because we have an existing claim. This company is a joke.

I started the quote process on January 4,2024. I have had to continuously follow up with my assigned insurance representative to make sure that everything is moving along to make sure my policy goes into affect by February 5,2024. This should not be my responsibility. It is January 30, and the process to add my Trust on the policy and finalize the California Fair Plan for fire insurance still have not been completed due to the lack of responsibility on the part of the Agency Sales Producer. He's very nice, but I need more than that.

It started out well but totally fell apart when it came time to pay. I requested monthly payments for Bamboo and gave my account #. The agent said a payment of 369.50 would be withdrawn. When I checked my account the whole premium of 1268.00 had been taken out. I said I would send a check to CFP for the initial payment, she said fine. I promptly sent the check from a different bank but the next day that payment was also withdrawn from my account. I contacted the agent who said she would look into it, but apparently she had left the building. I never heard back. I also left voice mail, no response. I am not happy about the whole situation. Next year I may be shopping for insurance that has better customer service.

After my insurance carrier left the state I was stuck buying state insurance through California. It was Expensive and miserable with terrible customer service …so I started looking for a new carrier after being with my new carrier for only a few months. A friend of mine recommended Bamboo. I was happy to see that we have an insurance carrier here in California that is Local to California. My representative Cooper was helpful, kind, easy and Facilitated my exchange quickly. What a relief it is to not be stressed out over my hazard account.

I'm in Southern California, and I'm moving house. It's November 2023, and several large insurers have stopped writing new policies in the state, I think mainly because of wildfire risk. I've had our current home insured with Farmers for about 30 years, without a single claim. So I asked them for a quote. They were very reluctant, and slow. After ~2 weeks of back and forth, they eventually provided one based in the California FAIR plan (which isn't great). In the meantime, I had kept looking, and a couple of companies refused coverage because of "fire risk". Note that our soon-to-be new home is NOT in a high risk fire area (according to the official map), so who knows what their decisions are based on.
But then Bamboo came through, with good coverage at a reasonable price. The agent, Jay, was very responsive to questions. Obviously, I can't comment on what happens if I have a claim (I hope not to find out:-)) but certainly the experience has been excellent so far.

I live in the Southern California Mojave Desert. My home insurance provider increased my rates 30% last year. This year the rate increase was 52%. So, I went shopping for new home insurance and spent the day doing so. After contacting about 9 providers, a third of which wouldn't consider writing a policy because of my California residency (Fire hazard, even though I live in a desert), I came across Bamboo Insurance. Not only would they write me a policy, but the premium was 30% less than the nearest best policy I had otherwise found.
So, my new home insurer is Bamboo, and I no longer need to contemplate the prospect of forgoing home insurance and simply "self-insuring" (an option without a mortgage).