Here’s the brutal truth about Select Quote Life Insurance.
While Select Quote is a massive agency and has helped thousands of people buy life insurance, they have some secrets you must know before buying from them.
(A good friend of mine sells life insurance for Select Quote here in San Diego, so I know!)
… and I’ll reveal them to you in this SelectQuote review.
So when it comes to their pricing, service, and the pros & cons of SQ, you’re in the right place!
There are some advantages in using an agency like Select Quote. In this article, we’ll cover some of them, as well as what I see as the negatives.
Everything you wanted — The good, the bad, and the ugly. Let’s get started.
Advantages of SelectQuote
Probably your greatest advantage of dealing with Select Quote is they are an independent agency, meaning they offer coverage from a variety of different life insurance companies.
This is particularly important for someone with a health impairment such as diabetes.
Why is this important?
That’s because some companies are more lenient than others when it comes to certain medical issues, so it’s highly beneficial to share your health history with an agent, like at Select Quote, who can recommend the company that will offer you the best rating.
I know Select Quote is very thorough in the use of their medical questionnaire, so this is a big plus.
Some other benefits to consider in our Select Quote Review is their agents are very knowledgeable and well trained.
They’re a huge agency, licensed in 49 states, and have streamlined the underwriting process as much as possible.
The best part?
From the beginning of your application process to your policy delivery, you can conduct 100 percent of your business with Select Quote by telephone.
This saves time and is convenient not having to go to an agent’s office. So it’s easy to understand why they’re the number one seller of term life insurance online.
Select Quote Pricing Comparison
Select Quote can’t offer a lower premium than any other agency or agent.
So say you’re purchasing a $500,000, 30-year term policy through Banner Life…
The premium purchasing this through Select Quote will be exactly the same as buying it through an agent who just got his license yesterday.
Life insurance premiums just are what they are, so there’s no benefit in working with Select Quote here.
But there’s a catch…
I highly recommend using an independent agent for the reasons discussed above, especially with any special risk factors.
You certainly don’t want to go to an agent who works for State Farm, or some other “captive” agent who must only sell his own company’s products.
Bottom line:
My agency can’t offer lower pricing than Select Quote. The difference you’ll get with us is service, and we’ll work harder to be sure you’ve got lowest rate available to you based on your unique personal and health history. Call us to compare quotes at 888-603-2876.
3 Undeniable Problems Working With SelectQuote
I only have a few issues with Select Quote.
1) The Agents Have Little Time for You
Select Quote agents have the luxury of working for a company with seemingly unlimited leads, so they can make calls all day long and sell, sell, sell.
[imagine 100 monkeys on the phone in a call center]
The trade-off for this luxury is, on average, Select Quote only pays them about a quarter of the commission that an agent would make who owns his own agency and gets 100 percent of the commission.
Here’s the problem…
Select Quote agents have to sell dozens of policies per month to make a good living, so their agents aren’t able to dedicate the time necessary to each client during the initial call.
My agent friend says he has been trained to always give a quote the first time he speaks to a new prospect.
Why You Should Care
One of the problems with this is sometimes I’ve heard the agents can be “short” or “rude” so they can get to the next call.
Life insurance is a serious matter…
If you’re going to be paying into a policy for 20-30 years, don’t you want to speak to an agent who can spend 30 minutes (or even an hour) with you, if need be, to make sure all your questions are answered?
Simply read a few Select Quote reviews on ComplaintsBoard.com
See what I mean?
That’s what you have here at Huntley Wealth.
2) “Up-Selling” (They Try to Sell You More Than Just Life Insurance)
In 2014, Brookside Equity Partners purchased a portion of SelectQuote.
The word amongst the agents there is since then, things have gone downhill at SQ.
They say that because SQ is so focused on making money for their investor now, the focus has shifted more on the bottom line and less on the customer.
Select Quote Call Monitoring – Agents Must Upsell Home & Auto
One agent that recently left SQ told me that he was forced to upsell home & auto to anyone who called in for life insurance.
He said he had mentioned the home & auto upsell 3 times during his call or would be at risk of getting his best leads taken away from him for a week if he didn’t.
… so say you call in for a term quote.
The agent says, “I’m happy to help you with that! Can I also interest you in a home & auto insurance quote?”
You decline, saying you’re “only interested in life insurance today.”
My agent friend said at that point, he would have to ask you two more times about home and auto.
… so he gives you a quote and then says, “Now how about that home and auto quote?” (The one you already refused)
Geez – Talk about pushy!
As a result of agent compensation, rude service, and upselling, here’s a recent comment on my site:
I’m not sure if SQ is still upselling home and auto like this, or threatening to take their agents lead volume away from them if they don’t sell it, but it does show you what can happen when a company is beholden to investors and “the bottom line.”
And if an SQ employee would like to comment below, I’ll be happy to remove that critique from my Select Quote review.
Casualties of Underpaid Agents
Besides the occasional report of rude agents (because they’re hustling to their next call), there’s another casualty of hurried agents.
… lack of service.
The problem here is that many people have medical problems, or a combination of problems that require calling around to different underwriters and checking on the rating before you should quote the prospect.
And that takes a lot of calls and emails sometimes… (aka – good service)
Here’s the deal:
Since SelectQuote agents are trained to sell as many policies they can as quickly as they can, the unfortunate truth here is that sometimes the client is disserviced in this process.
It makes me feel like Select Quote agents don’t always have the very best in mind for their client, but just want to sell them any policy that they can talk the client into.
For example:
Here’s a life insurance FAQ – “Should you buy a policy that requires a medical exam or not?”
Let’s say you’re 43 years old and you call SQ for a 20-year term policy. If you’re in excellent health, the agent can quote you the absolute lowest rating anywhere, which would be a policy that requires an exam, and may take 4 to 6 weeks to get approved.
The insurance company also pulls medical records. All these things equal, that’s extra work for the Select Quote agent.
… Keep in mind they have a sales quota of 5 policies sold per week.
And that’s why I’ve heard that their agents try to push no exam policies.
They get approved more quickly, and with less trouble, but frequently it costs the client an additional 20%-40% in premium.
3) SelectQuote Uses Fewer Life Insurance Companies
Another disadvantage that I see with Select Quote is that they tend to use a much smaller number of insurers than you would find at an independent agency such here at Huntley Wealth.
Overall, this company only has access to 11 life insurance companies including:
- Banner Life
- Transamerica
- American General
- Pruco Life
- United of Omaha
- Globe Life
- William Penn
- AIG
- Voya Financial
Now, all of these companies are highly regarded and have stellar reputations in the life insurance profession. Some of them are even rated in the top 10 best.
The only difficulty is that this is just a small sampling of the several hundred companies available.
If you are healthy, then you are likely going to get very competitive rates. However, if you have a health issue then you are going to be more restricted in what is available and may either be declined or get rated a premium which is perhaps more expensive than you can afford.
Independent agents, on the other hand, generally have access to dozens of life insurers. Here, at Huntley Wealth, we have access to over 70 companies.
Why is this important?
Representing more companies allows us to find those insurers who are more liberal, especially when it comes to certain health issues.
Not only can we help you find a policy, but we are also more likely to find a company which has lower rates.
Complaints About Select Quote Service
The other issue I have with them is related to their sales techniques, and that is poor service. When you buy a policy through Select Quote, the person you will probably know and remember the best was the agent who sold your policy to you.
However, the unfortunate truth is after your policy goes in force, you will almost certainly never speak to that person again.
They simply don’t have time to call to “check up” on you or conduct routine service checks like I do with my annual reviews. Follow up is so important though.
Let’s say you’ve changed addresses, or changed banks and need to switch the account your payment comes from, or you’ve had another child, and need to add him as a beneficiary.
Also, keep in mind that your life insurance needs can change over time. You may have added onto your family, and no longer have sufficient coverage and need to buy more insurance.
You may need additional life insurance when your child goes to college and you have to co-sign for their student loan – realistically, you should have this covered by an appropriate policy in case something were to happen.
Other areas where we can provide assistance include those situations where your family matures or you have paid off your mortgage and don’t need as much life insurance as you previously needed, so you may be over insured.
Many people these days are becoming self-employed and are starting their own companies. Folks like these people will need some form of business life insurance, or you may need a policy quickly to insure a business loan or SNL loan.
You want an agent that is available and can quickly provide all the services you need when you need them. This is not the type of service you are likely to find through a Call Center life Select Quote.
That’s why we like to emphasize the personalized service we provide for all our clients because we like to keep in touch and be there to help you out with all your special needs.
It’s little things like this that don’t get done unless you conduct annual reviews.
*Update as of 5/23/17 – Since I’ve first published this article in 2011, you can see I’ve received multiple comments below, mostly from people who agree with me about their service being a problem.
What Is Their Rating?
Many insurance companies are rated by financial rating companies such as S&P, Fitch, or A.M. Best.
However, Select Quote is not an insurance carrier.
… They are an independent agency, like us.
In other words, if you get a policy through them, the actual insurer will be some other company such as VOYA or Met Life. Since that’s the actual company that will be cutting the check upon the death of the insured, that’s the company you will want to check for their financial rating.
Is SelectQuote a Scam?
Absolutely not.
They are legit and help a lot of people.
Some of the complaints I’ve seen about them being a scam are just plain ridiculous. Here’s one comment from my site:
Note: every life insurance agent has to collect banking info and social security number. This is how you pay your premiums. And the SSN identifies you as being who you say you are, and helps insurance carriers collect medical records on you.
Should You Get Life Insurance with SelectQuote?
I really do like what they do over at Select Quote for the most part. In no way do I feel that Select Quote is a scam, as some websites claim.
A lot of the complaints I have about them are issues that a lot of huge online life insurance agencies deal with — for example, I wrote a similar review about Intelliquote complaints recently, who in many cases, are in the same boat as SQ, since they are just so big.
However, I do feel if you use an independent agent like me who has been in business for a while, that’s the absolute best way to go, since you get all the benefits of working with an agent who can take your case to any carrier, but you also will get an agent who can take his time with you up front during the sales portion, and will then be able to offer you service after the sale.
*While we make every effort to keep our site updated, please be aware that "timely" information on this page, such as quote estimates, or pertinent details about companies, may only be accurate as of its last edit day. Huntley Wealth & Insurance Services and its representatives do not give legal or tax advice. Please consult your own legal or tax adviser.
Why would you highlight in bold print “Select quote is a scam”? Jumps write off the page and if you are scrolling through you would probably dismiss as a scam if you haven’t read the whole article. You need to remove that. It looks like a shady trick to slight Select Quote. And it makes your article look shady. I’m a 35 year licensed agent and that’s my impression. I have several friends that work there and have encouraged me to come on board. So I’m not a novice in insurance. The bold print makes you look shady. I’d remove that if I were you. Otherwise the article was helpful in making a job decision.
Hey Leigh, thanks for your comment and good luck with your decision. We have friends there too, and we consider this to be a very fair review of SQ. Sometimes we use bolding for SEO value.
I just sign up with Select Quote to purchase Plan G health insurance policy with Cigma. After reading the comments I now believe I have being Scammed. It looks like SQ sells everything. That is not good. They are very invasive and use every tactics in the world to get your money. I believe that the world and the United States have a cesspool of fraud and corruption. The agent send me a copy of what I agreed to on the phone sounds like a disclaimer. I did not know that come a stage in my life where I became so vulnerable. I gave my SSN and my bank account number to someone I don’t even know. I feel like a fool.
Hey Caleb,
Thank you for your comments. First I want to let you know SQ has been in business for years and they’re a massive company. Our critiques are more about the service you’ll get there. I seriously doubt you have been scammed.
You confused me when you a trusted company when a lot more Insurance companies are guiding consumers into whole life policies and never tell the consumer what they are really in for. Not sure a policy that will be too expensive to own and accumulating “extra saving” is really the purpose of life insurance. I agree with you that the added service once your policy is in force does make a big difference. Look up non payment to beneficiaries by the insurance industry and you will see why cheap is not always best.
We feel strongly that Whole Life is simply not a good investment for our clients. Once upon a time, it worked, but in this day and age, folks just lose their shirts and end up with nothing as they approach old age. It’s a sad situation, no matter what agent sells it!
I’m trying to get life insurance for my mother. she is 67 and had congestive heart failure. She also smokes. I had Selectquote call her and talk to her. She says the agent on the phone told her it would cost her $38/mo for $7000 of coverage or $51/mo for $9000 coverage. This coverage only covers her for accidental death until two years have elapsed with the policy. Does this sound reasonable to you? I need so]me guidance here.
Hi Tim,
One of our agents will be in touch with you to help you with your Mother’s insurance needs.
Chris,
How close of ties do you have to SQ, as in current employees there? I am a Paramedical Examiner. I would love to elaborate on this but I don’t want to lose my job either. Also, will be calling for quotes for a 10 year term on my 51 YO husband.
Not too close. I know a bunch of people that used to work there, but I never did.
Select Quote just called and harassed me even though I told them to cancel the policy. Saying I should just throw $15 every month into the trash because that’s how much I will be wasting with another company. They do not listen when you say “please cancel the policy”. Finally I just asked “Did you just call to harass me?” Then he hung up on me. Very unprofessional!
I would say that’s not common over there. The point of my article was not to slam SQ but to question their service after the sale. I’m sorry you had a bad experience there. Give us a call at 888-603-2876 for a good one!
Hi. Different question of sorts. I am dearly trying to break into the insurance world and looking for an entry level foot in the door position. SQ has a job fair coming up in San Diego advertising some pretty big numbers for base to start. I would be interested to know if your friend can tell me if those are legit? Or perhaps you know of an opportunity for me.
Thanks!
Yes, I’m sure they’re legit. You can make good money there. It’s just that based on some conversations I’ve had with employees there you’ll hate your job and hate the company.
I would like to add a comment about the service portion of your review. While it is true that you do not work with the original agent once your policy is active, having more people and more departments who can focus on the ins and outs is a huge plus in my book. A whole department of case specialists whos only area of focus is getting the policy from “sold” to “in force” is nothing but beneficial for everyone involved. This means the person working on your case in that area has extremely specific knowledge, a specialized skill set, and perhaps most importantly, has built up special contacts within the underwriting department of each agency who can help expedite and troubleshoot problems. The same goes for the “policy holder services department”. The complicated ins and outs of each separate agency being what they are (Banner may allow face amount decreases after a year, while prudential may allow some policies to be decreased at any time, Banner charges $25.00 for a duplicate copy of your policy but the “PHS” has an email buddy in Banners customer service department that can usually email the policy copy, etc) having someone who is dedicated to doing nothing but inforce service can only be a good thing. Perhaps a little frustrating when you call one person and are transferred to someone else, but in the long run it is much better to have a team of specialists on your side who know their stuff in and out rather than having just one agent to call. Obviously I work for selectquote but I don’t make any extra money just for giving my opinion on this article, I just really do think I work for a great company and want to put in my two cents about the opinions in this review.
Hey Jen,
Thanks so much for your comment. It’s great to hear you love SQ. I am also a fan, in most cases.
Notice in my article I didn’t say that “you’ll never get any service.” I said that you will most likely never speak to your “agent”, the one who sold the policy to you, again after your initial purchase.
Why does that matter?
Well, it goes back to service. I simply don’t think that service representatives are qualified to make these calls… an experienced agent should do it. Sure you guys are trained to ask about life events such as changing jobs, adding a baby, getting married, moving, etc., and can help them with common stuff like changing address or beneficiary, or offer to transfer them to an agent if they need more coverage, but a review should go in much more depth than that.
Every review should include a discussion about the client’s health, their need for insurance, (both amount and timeframe), and often, especially with higher net worth individuals or business owners, our discussion might involve business planning, estate planning, tax planning, etc.
This needs to be done by a qualified, experienced agent.
I just spoke to an agent from Select Quote regarding a Non owners car insurance policy. He was very polite and gave a quote from Progressive for $365 with a five month payment plan. I had called a few other places and I think this is a good rate, but what do I know. I’m just waiting to receive my cards. Hopefully, I have a good experience. I’ll report back with my experience.
Hi Tony,
That sounds great. We don’t compete with them on auto insurance, but I would expect some of the things I said in this article still to be true… you may not get much “service after the sale” from your agent.
I have been shopping term insurance for myself and my wife. Banner Life keeps coming up as the best price for 500k and 1M for 20 and 30 years. There are several bad reviews online about their billing and for lapsing policies for 1 or 2 missed payments. Banner has pretty good ratings though. Should I be concerned or just go for best price? For the record, I don’t plan to miss any of my annual payments but I don’t want my wife to have problems in the event the policy needs to pay out. HELP!!
Hey Eric,
They’re a great company. If you’re worried about lapsing, go with a company like Transamerica who allows you to designate a third party addressee on the policy. I recommend adding this person in case you and your wife were to become mentally incompetent and stop paying your bills. This way another person has the chance to be aware of the fact you stopped paying your premium and may be notified prior to them terminating your policy. A form will accompany your policy where you can write in the secondary addressee. I’m not sure if Banner has this feature. I think it’s a great feature.
i just stumbled on to this site. reason being i lost my dad a few years back. but he had a little change$$. wasnt that hard on the family finacialy but my mother is still with us. my siblings have their own families so i know it would be up to me to take care of my mothers espensises when she passes. she 66 still getting around but with issues. term life insurance seems to be the way to go. but open for other opinions..b
Select Quote will “do the shopping and I as a customer will save”? Let me see if I am missing something.Select has to pay thousands for the commercials,and the people they hire,and they shop for free and still save me money as opposed to me doing my own shopping?
That’s right! Agencies don’t charge for their services. The insurance carriers pay us when we get a new client. Isn’t that awesome!
Can you tell me what you think of SBLI? My husband and I are both healthy- 50 years of age- should we both get life insurance? Thanks!
Lorna,
I would need more information to be able to counsel you on whether or not you need life insurance.
Please call me directly at 888-603-2876 for a quote, as I cannot provide this information to you without knowing what state you are in.
For curiosity’s sake, what does an agent stand to make on, say, 20 years of term insurance at $400/year? It’d help me understand how much effort the sales agent is really going to put forth.
An independent agent like me makes between 60% to 100% of the first years premium, so if I were to sell you a policy for $400 bucks, I might make around $300 to $400. Select Quote agents make less than half of that, since Select Quote takes the majority of the commission. Your agent make be making about a hundred dollars.
I want to correct a few things on your website. First of all, if you google my name and select quote you’ll see I was an agent for the company. They are a great company to use. Yes, their agents have to sell a lot of policies but they simply compete by trying to provide the best rate that someone actually qualifies for. I can’t tell you how many times I lost a policy because another agent who did not understand underwriting underquoted a client and then they later called me back because the policy they actually qualified for was much more expensive.
We had very clear guidelines on rates for people with specific conditions. If we did not know, we would in fact shop it around in anonymous “what if” emails to numerous carriers to see who would offer the best rate. Many times, we would know a carrier like banner is the best with people(they used to be but these things change) who had heart bypasses and we would write a policy and inform the client that this is where we think they qualify but often we don’t know for sure until after the insurance company has reviewed all of their medical records and performed a brief medical test. In fact, many insurance company underwriters would provide us a quote but inform us that it is pending a review of the clients medical records. THe only way to do this is to apply for the policy. However, after the final price is determined the person has the option to accept the policy or reject it. Select Quote Agents like myself would try another company if we thought the price is unfair.
Anyways, with a brief e-mail a select quote agent can shop someone’s information to numerous companies if their rating and price for life insurance in unclear. It’s anonymous, quick, and much more thorough than a normal agent.
Hey Brent,
Thanks for the comments, although I really don’t see what you said here that contradicted anything I wrote in my review of Select Quote. My biggest critique was about their service after the sale. I personally know many Select Quote agents and know a lot of them do a good job selling, and know their stuff. I would question how many agents request email quotes like you described, though. I can’t tell you how many people have come to me that I have gotten approved after a SQ agent told them they couldn’t help. Just sayin’…
I am a Mom of 6 who needs to find a reputable life insurance policy. HELP!!!
Hi Angela,
Yes, please give us a call. We’ll be glad to help if we can. 888-603-2876
You wouldn’t believe the experience I had with Select Quotes auto and home insurance operation. First, I thought I was filling out information for them, but all of my info went out to what seemed like 10 different insurance agencies all wanting to sell me auto and home insurance. Now all of these lead companies or agencies have all of my info and they keep selling it to other companies. I had to change my phone number because they never stop calling. Also, during the quote with the SelectQuote agent, I got the feeling that he really didn’t know what he was doing, or didn’t care. He said he was licensed for 4 months. I don’t know if that is a long time or not, but he said there were only 3-4 people who have worked there longer. It just seemed like people who didn’t quite know what they were doing. Theytalked about credit reports, and drivers license numbers and my social security number. Now I feel like a fool for giving it to them, but I thought it would be OK because it sounded like this huge loud call center in the background. I think some people call it a boiler room? My agent has been with me for 12 years, and I just didn’t think I should do all of this important business on the phone just to save $90 a year. My agent is a pretty good guy and I think he would take care of me the best he could. After all, he is just an agent and can only do so much. He does not own the company. Switching to an agent I will never meet just didn’t seem right, especially since it would only save me about 7.50 a month. Even 20 a month isn’t enough for all the emails and faxes and phone calls back and forth just to get some paperwork done. Just a hassle I think. I have not done the life insurance yet. Maybe my guy does it, or I could just call you.
I called select quote to check on 500,000 of life Ins,
The agent called me back while at work, I told him call me after 5
I can not talk at work, he called me everyday at work never after 5
The service is deplorable! The excuses for bad service is just that–excuses. It is almost two months since first contacting an agent (who was gone the following week) and I still do not have confirmation of insurance. Select Quote is over-extended and under-staffed…”under-staffed” with qualified people that is. I have spent several dollars faxing my application–THREE TIMES, and still no action in spite of phone calls assuring me that my application is being considered. I am thoroughly disgusted with the quality of their organization.
Irene,
That’s really sad to hear. They have very deep pockets, so their service should really be better. If it doesn’t work out with them, feel free to give us a call. 888-603-2876
The service at Select Quote is deplorable and someone should have an opportunity to say it.
Select Quote sent my former spouse a beneficiary change form at his request even though I own the policy. They weren’t supposed to even communicate with him about this policy.
Hi Mary,
Yeah, that’s a pretty big slip up. Very unfortunate. Thanks for the comment.
I found them to be very helpful and fair and they ran plenty of tests to assess my health at the time of application-was very impressed.
Now for those out there in the expect everything and pay nothing mindset as with everything else you are wrong. We pay a bit more than expected but its fine and fair and we have no roblem.For the record we got policy in 2009 and our agent that was so helpful named Steve Hine is still there so people should not worry these guys are gone after you get the policy.I will be looking to increase my policy coverage in the near future. I recommend them because they also provide excellent comparrisons and came up with the policy I needed at the time.
I questioned Select Quote tactics. They appeared to be very aggressive and rude. The agent that contacted me insisted on taking my banking information before any further communication.
He also needed my social security number. I was not sure if this is a part of the interviewing process. I plan to report him to the better business bureau. He clearly has intentions of selling people personal information and scamming.
Hello Brooke,
No, not necessarily a scam. Select Quote is a legitimate operation. Every life insurance application will require your SSN. They have to have it to order your medical records. I sometimes question Select Quote’s service, but would never suggest they are doing anything illegal or scamming anyone. Thanks for your comments.
I HATE their *&#@*& commercial featuring someone who calls himself Dan Tullis speaking to someone else who calls himself Joel Clark. I H-A-T-E tha %$#@#$ commercial and would NEVER consider Select Quote because of it!
Funny. I like the part that says “his price… just $18 dollars per month.” As if everyone can qualify for that rating.
Can I purchase life insurance in theU.S. If I’m not a resident?
If you are currently in the U.S., it’s very possible. Call us at 888-603-2876. Depends what country you are a resident of and when/if you plan to head back.
CAN NOT SET UP APPOINTMENT TO HAVE BLOOD DRAWN FOR POLICY PLEASE CALL ME.
Hello Jeff,
I removed your phone # from your comment. Giving you a call in a few minutes.