Choice Home Warranty: Home Warranty Review (2024)
Perhaps there’s nothing interesting or exciting about purchasing a home warranty, but it’s an important decision for any homeowner. As a home-based creator, taking care of my home has always been a priority so that my family and I can be safe and comfortable. A good home warranty is so essential when you need it. In this article, I’m going to walk you through my personal experience with Choice Home Warranty over the past 4 years.
This article is not sponsored but it does my referral link at no extra cost to you if you decide to sign up. I’m glad to be able to share my own honest, transparent, and hopefully helpful reviews for Choice Home Warranty.
Updated as of 2024: While I had several positive experiences with Choice Home Warranty in the first few years, their services and support disappointed me in late 2023 and 2024. To clarify, I was able to file a few claims big and small (ranging from sink disposals to boiler malfunctions). But there’s no consistency in their services. Some contractors are great to work with. The others, not so much. In the winter of 2023, we didn’t have hot water for over a week! This was very difficult with my 72-year-old mom who lives with me. It turned out to be a simple fix (change of battery for one of the parts for the boiler). Still, their refusal to help you in a timely manner makes it questionable and unfavorable for us to renew the contract when it runs out.
Home Warranty vs. Home Insurance 101
As first-time homeowners, we can get confused easily by the different homecare and home improvement terminologies. Let’s clarify this first: A home warranty primarily covers the repair or replacement of major appliances and systems due to normal wear and tear, while home insurance protects the structure of your home and its contents against specific perils. Both can be beneficial in providing financial protection, but they cover different aspects of homeownership. In this article, we are talking about home warranty.
What types of plans and coverage are available for Choice Home Warranty?
Choice Home Warranty offers two simple plans: Total Plan vs. Basic Plan. Given the size of our home (2950 sqft), I decided to opt-in for the Total Plan. The exact cost does depend on your specific situation, how many years you will purchase the plan, and if you decide to pay in full vs. monthly. It’s best to get a quote first.
How do you sign up?
Sign up process is very easy. You can start here to receive a quote. Choice Home Warranty will respond quickly. As for me, I received a call immediately after I entered my home information. Three years later, I’m very glad I purchased the 5-year plan and know my home is in good care.
What does Choice Home Warranty cover?
Choice Home Warranty covers a big variety of items as seen below. I never thought I’d need this level of services given my home is in great shape, built in 2014, and without any visible issues in and outside of the house. The appliances were also taken great care of by the previous owner. But let me tell you – things do break in the most unexpected and inconvenient moments. This is obvious to experienced homeowners, but I urge any newbies to understand this unavoidable consequence (things do break) and why a home warranty really isn’t optional when you own a home.
How to file a claim? (Good news: the steps are easy and take minutes)
After the initial 30-day waiting period, you can use your Choice Home Warranty coverage plan. To file a claim, call its claims department at 888-531-5403, or you can also file a claim online through your Account Center portal (highly recommended).
Filing a new claim with Choice Home Warranty is very easy. All you need is to specify:
- The system you are having issues with
- Last time the system/item was working properly
- Describe in detail the problem that is occurring
- Then hit “Submit”
You’ll immediately get a confirmation from Choice Home Warranty. Then usually within 24 hours, they will assign a technician with a confirmed date and time to visit your home.
With that said, I highly recommend that you include as many details as possible so they can diagnose and address the issue quickly and accurately.
Honestly, the process is so easy, I found myself submitting claims in between watching Netflix. It takes minutes to enter the details. Home repair no longer feels like a drag. Because of Choice Home Warranty, I now have the confidence to address any home repair issues right away, while working as a home-based creator.
Claims I’ve submitted and how they turned out (real scenarios!)
Each visit including the technician’s time and parts (if any) is covered by the service call. Each visit is $65 for us.
Claim #1. Broken dishwasher
If Choice Home Warranty isn’t able to repair the issue, or if your system is too old to have parts ordered and shipped, they will offer to replace the unit. When our older dishwasher broke, Choice offered to pay a portion of the replacement. My new dishwasher ended up costing around $800 and Choice offered a check for around $250 which definitely helped.
Claim #2. Broken in-sink garbage disposal
A few months later, our in-sink garbage disposal stopped working completely. It was making a humming noise and the reset button was no longer able to restart the unit. I submitted a claim and Choice Home Warranty sent a technician within the next day who helped us install a brand new unit.
Claim #3. Broken boiler water feeder
Fast forward a year later, our boiler was working fine but we noticed water on the ground. So I called Choice Home Warranty. The issue had to do with the water feeder for the boiler. At the time of my call, there was a severe shortage of technicians due to the ongoing pandemic. Choice gave me the option to call up local plumbers who provided a quote of $500 to fix my water feeder. I was able to submit the claim and received a check from Choice within just a few weeks.
Claim #4. Broken freezer seal
Most recently I noticed ice accumulation around the edges of my freezer. I couldn’t figure out the cause so all I had to do was to describe the situation in detail. Choice Home Warranty confirmed a technician’s visit within hours of my submission and someone was at our home to diagnose the freezer the very next day. After that, the technician ordered a brand-new seal that was shipped to us in days, and she stopped by again to complete the installation in one week.
Customer service, technical expertise, and follow-up
All the tehcnicians who have set foot in our house because of Choice Home Warranty have been very professional. Sometimes they are in a rush, but they always do their best to address our questions and offer helpful suggestions.
Coverage Caps and Limitations
While Choice Home Warranty offers extensive protection on numerous systems and appliances, the full cost of a repair or replacement isn’t always covered as discussed in my real scenarios above. According to the agreement, Choice Home Warranty states that its liability will not exceed $3,000 per covered item for access, diagnosis, and repair or replacement. That means that once a repair or replacement reaches the $3,000 limit for a certain item, customers are responsible for paying any expenses past that limit. Note that the coverage caps differ for optional coverage items. For example, septic systems, stand-alone ice makers, and trash compactors max out at $500 per claim.
Optional Coverage
There is a list of optional systems Choice Home Warranty will cover for additional fees. I have listed them here below. Personally, I have not submitted claims outside of the covered systems and won’t be able to share much of my experience here. If you have done so in the past, please share your thoughts in the comments below.
Conclusion: Is Choice Home Warranty Good?
Owning a home is a huge responsibility and it inevitably comes with many risks. Broken systems occur more often than we’d like even for new homes and appliances. My experience was quite positive in the first few years but Choice Home Warranty slowed down in their response time and willingness to accommodate repairs. While some of my friends and family members are still customers of Choice Home Warranty, we aren’t thinking about renewing once our contract runs out. In the future, we’ll be exploring more premium home warranty companies – or simply paying out of pocket for repairs as they come up through our trusted network of contractors.
Are you a home-based creator? Please let me know how you take care of and upgrade your home over the years!
I had a contract with the Choice Home Warranty several months ago because the Goofle showed this company was number one in 2024, Unfortunately my ceiling fan needed to fix and I called to this company used different telephone numbers many times, but I could not through to talk one of their company. Also, I left my telephone number several times which they promised to call me back, but nerve happening, and I left Requirement on their online service they recommend me to do twice, but no answer so far. Later on I want to stop our contract but unable contact anyone in their company. I have been very frustrated and felt I was deceived, it is possible this is a shelf company for stealing money, I hope that thinking was wrong, but so far I still do not know how to contact any one in their company.
Hi Mike, I’m very sorry to hear about your experience. While we had several repairs done quickly, we had other experiences where we were completely ignores for weeks. It was not OK given their lack of communication. i.e. after a case is fired, it sat there for a long time without any response.
Therefore I decided to update this blog post to include:
Updated as of 2024: While I had several positive experiences with Choice Home Warranty in the first few years, their services and support disappointed me in late 2023 and 2024. To clarify, I was able to file a few claims big and small (ranging from sink disposals to boiler malfunctions). But there’s no consistency in their services. Some contractors are great to work with. The others, not so much. In the winter of 2023, we didn’t have hot water for over a week! This was very difficult with my 72-year-old mom who lives with me. It turned out to be a simple fix (change of battery for one of the parts for the boiler). Still, their refusal to help you in a timely manner makes it questionable and unfavorable for us to renew the contract when it runs out.