Luko insurance review – my experience as a customer

What a difference a few years can make! Some time ago, if you had asked me for a recommendation for a convenient, all digital, 100% English speaking insurance provider, I’d have probably replied with a blank stare.

Thankfully, the landscape has changed for the better thanks to companies like GetSafe, Ottonova, Feather & … Luko.

At first glance, it seems like Luko combines the right benefits, when the traditional providers on the German market don’t cater so well to our needs. I thought as much and became their customer sometime ago. This Luko insurance review aims at giving you a first-hand report of their services in order for you to make a decision.

Should you trust Luko? How is customer service? Is coverage adequate? Let’s find out.

Quick reminder – Luko you said?

Luko (formely known as Coya) was born in 2016 out of frustration. Germany is notoriously afraid of innovation and everything related to being digital. This impacts insurance companies as well. They have struggled to provide an easy way to do insurance, fit for the 21st century.

This is Luko’s promess: Away with long phone calls, complicated terms & confusing representatives! Everything happens paperless, within a few taps/clicks right in the app. Be protected within minutes & cancel anytime. All of that at great price.

If you are used to the level of easiness that N26 or Revolut brought to the banking world, Luko tries to do the same with insurance. Everything is handled in English, including customer service & contracts.

In 2022, Luko bought local competitor Coya and ran its business under its current name.

Luko review: what’s different about it

No claim bonus for charity

If you have been incident-free during the past year, Luko gives you the opportunity to donate your no-claim bonus to a charity. You can also keep it. It’s up to you.

Signup in minutes, cancel anytime

In this Luko review, I can honestly say I never experienced such an easy sign-up process. The experience is indeed very easy, much like ordering something on an ecommerce website. A lot of the usual complexity is cleverly resolved thanks to good UI & clear explanations.

Many of us have experienced this in Germany. It seems like we are forever tied into contracts that we don’t really want anymore. In the insurance world, that’s sometimes 3 year contracts! For foreigners like us, it’s soothing to know we can just cancel anytime, no question asked. That’s also done within a few clicks and it’s not hidden in the deepest sub menus. There are no attempts to make you stay. Cancellation is as frictionless as sign-up.

Transparency

Each policy clearly states in simple English what is covered and what is not. It also further states any cover restrictions. It’s not hidden within an obscure “Terms & conditions” 45 pages document. It’s stated on the same page where you sign-up

Policies available

As of the writing of this post, Luko offers the following insurance policies

• Private liability insurance: covers you against physical or material damages you may have done to a third-party by accident. You can cover partners & kids too. You can subscribe to extras to cover rental vehicles. More details here.
  
• Dog liability insurance: Liability insurance for your dog, in case they do damage on other people or their belongings. You subscribe to extras to cover damages made to rented goods, or against bites.
  More details here.
  
• Home contents insurance: It protects your belongings at home against theft or damages. You can book extras to cover glass damages, bike theft & more. More details here.
  
• Pet health insurance: covers costs related to the vet. More details here.

My experience with Luko

I live in Neukölln, Berlin. Theft is a common occurence here. In the years I’ve been living here, I’ve had a bike trailer, garden furniture, a bike & a jacket stolen out of my backyard. Neighbors have had their bikes or their strollers stolen too.

When both my kids started to go the Kita, we treated ourselves with a long-tail electric bike, so we can easily drop them and pick them up again. That was the best decision we made. It improved our quality of life a lot. We love that bike every time we ride it. Totally worth the investment.

As you can imagine, we were pretty nervous about having it stolen. That’s when I decided to purchase insurance against theft with Luko (Coya at the time).

Sign-up process

I was very pleased with the sign-up process. I had some questions before-hand that were answered swiftly via email or chat. You can check in the gallery below screenshots of the process. It really felt they made it easy and I was super happy about the price. (Do note that since Luko doesn’t offer bike insurance at the moment, screenshots below are about other products).

Some months after, I bought myself another (cheaper) ebike because we loved the first one so much we wanted to go for longer rides in Brandenburg. I also purchased a policy for that bike. Unfortunately, I decided to sell it again after a few months because it didn’t match my expectations.

I was very surprised how little resistance there was in the cancellation process. No long notice periods, no hidden confirmation button, no call-backs from customer service. Just click, and stop paying for what you don’t need. Very refreshing for insurance in Germany! You can see screenshots of that below too.

I was also able to donate my no-claim bonus, as promessed:

Claim with process with Luko

It happened. Although it was secured firmly to a bike rack in my backyard, my electric bike got stolen. I simply could not believe it: in my own backyard! I was rather upset, especially it’s a large investment and my main mode of transport. This is how my claim process with Luko happened:

1. I logged into my account and picked “File a claim option”
2. On Oct. 6, I entered some details about the event, the original invoice for the bike, as well as the police report I got made. The form didn’t ask about accessories & equipement on the bike, so I had to manually email that information later instead (A bit frustrating). I immediately got an email confirmation that there could be some delays in processing the claim. I like the transparency here.
3. On Oct. 8, I got another confirmation that it was being processed and that I should be patient.
4. On Oct.11, I got a personal email from an agent giving the greenlight on my claim with a nice personal touch. It’s appreciated. I had to point out the accessories again and quite quickly they told me that they would covered too.
5. 3-4 days later, I had received the insurance money in my bank account.

As you can see, it was a pretty smooth process. I also assume it’s also because it was an easy case to process. That may vary on other policy types, as you can read in other customers’ experiences.

Negative points about Luko

My main grip with Luko is that it’s a mobile experience first. I get that it’s super convenient to have an app dedicated to your insurance stuff. However once you have signed-up for the policies you like, I’m never going to look at it again, unless I want to do a claim or get another policy. They constantly push you to download the app.

In general, I like to deal with important things like insurance on desktop, because it slows down my decision-making process (it’s a good thing). I don’t like that Luko is forcing me to download the app to file a claim. I like Luko because it’s cheap, transparent & fast. Not because it’s mobile first!

What do other customers say?

Scanning around reviews on other platforms paints a more complete picture of where Coya stands as a company. In general, it looks like Coya/Luko is having issues scaling up and dealing with their success. It’s too early to tell, but hopefully fresh investment from Luko might help resolved that situation.

Luko & Coya reviews on Trustpilot

There are not a lot of reviews, which can be normal for a relatively young company. The most recent reviews are all about very long processing times for claims, which can sometimes account to months! Many customers accuse Coya to do this on purpose. However, if you go back in time, you realize that most reviews were very positive until early 2021. It went downhill from there on.

I suspect Coya is victim of its success. It has attracted a lot of customers in a short amount of time. They currently struggle to cope with demand and scaling their claim processing team.

Luko customer reviews look a little better, it seems only Coya related business is lacking behind.

Luko & Coya reviews on Google

Checking reviews on Google also paints the same picture. Super positive reviews until early 2021, then negative reviews mentioning unresponsive customer service and difficult to resolve claims. Luko’s record looks better at this point.

Luko review conclusion

Luko is an insurance company for the digital age with a strong ambition & a glorious mission. As a foreigner here, one can only praise their attempt at shaking up the industry. They do deliver a transparent service, with friendly assistance and all in English.

However, ambition is not all. Execution is also key. It seems like Coya has been growing too big, too fast. Their customer service has not been scaling as fast as the customer base. This does a disservice to their reputation. I sincerely hope their manage to solve their issues fast. They deserve as much. The recent acquisition by Luko is a chance to improve on this service.

Until Luko resolve this situation, you can look at other options such as GetSafe or Feather. They provide the same policies & the same friendly approach.

Luko Review FAQ

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