Lemonade
- May offer lower rates for drivers with low mileage.
- Pet injury protection may be included in full coverage policies.
- Lemonade offers home, condo, renters and life insurance if you’re looking to bundle multiple products.
- Your driving will need to be monitored at all times.
- Has far more complaints than expected compared to other companies of a similar size.
- Likely not a good option for people who drive longer distances regularly.
NerdWallet's take on Lemonade auto insurance
Lemonade earned 3.5 stars out of 5 in our analysis for its digital experience and list of discounts, two areas we rated better than some other insurers. Lemonade was hurt in our ratings for the high number of complaints it receives relative to its size.
Best for: Drivers who are comfortable managing their insurance policy online using Lemonade’s app.
Not ideal for: Drivers looking for a company more highly rated for customer experience than Lemonade.
Where Lemonade car insurance stands out
Lower rates for some drivers. Lemonade exclusively sells pay-per-mile and telematics-based car insurance policies. It may be a good fit if you have a history of safe driving, or if you don’t drive much — but only if you’re comfortable having your driving behavior monitored remotely.
Coverage for pet owners. A full coverage policy from Lemonade includes some insurance coverage for your cat or dog. If your pet is injured in a car accident while driving with you, your policy will help pay for veterinarian bills.
Where Lemonade car insurance falls short
Customer experience. Lemonade receives far more complaints to state regulators than expected for its size. This led us to rate its customer experience score lower relative to many other insurance companies.
Coverage options. Lemonade offers only a few optional types of car insurance, such as roadside assistance, temporary transportation and extended glass coverage. Other insurers may offer more coverage options.
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How Lemonade car insurance works
Lemonade is a usage-based insurance company. As you drive, Lemonade uses your phone’s location services to collect details about your driving behavior, including your mileage, handling, braking, phone usage and the time of day your drive.
These factors feed into your Safety Score, a main factor determining your rates. You get a discount for signing up for Lemonade and agreeing to share details about your driving with the insurer. Lemonade will adjust your premium at renewal based on the data it collects.
In a few states, your rates depend instead on the number of miles you drive each month. Here’s how this works: you have a base rate and a per-mile rate, typically a few cents per mile. At the end of the month, your car insurance rate will equal your per-mile rate multiplied by the number of miles you drove, added to the base rate.
Your mileage determines your rates in: Arizona, Washington and Oregon.
Your driving behaviors determine your rates in: California, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas.
Lemonade car insurance discounts
Lemonade auto insurance discounts vary by state. Depending on where you live, you may be eligible for a discount for:
Bundling two or more policies through Lemonade.
Driving an environmentally friendly car, such as an electric vehicle or hybrid.
Driving a car with smart technology features.
Completing a defensive driving course.
Driving fewer than 9,000 miles per year.
Insuring more than one car with Lemonade.
Paying your premium in full at the start of your policy.
Signing up for car insurance before your policy’s start date.
Being a homeowner, even if you don’t buy home insurance from Lemonade.
Your Safety Score, which Lemonade calculates using details about your driving, is tied to your insurance rates. With good driving habits, you could see discounted rates compared to someone with a poor Safety Score.
You may have to buy the minimum amount of car insurance your state requires for the absolute cheapest rates. We recommend getting more coverage if you can afford it. Minimum coverage could leave you without enough insurance to cover the damage caused by a serious accident.
Lemonade car insurance coverage
Lemonade's full coverage car insurance includes the standard types of coverage offered by most insurers:
- Liability insurance
Liability car insurance pays for others’ injuries or property damage you cause in a car accident, up to your auto policy limits. There are two types:
Bodily injury liability covers others’ medical expenses after an accident where you are at fault.
Property damage liability covers the repair costs to other vehicles, fences, mailboxes or buildings from an accident.
Is it required? Yes. Every state, except for Virginia and remote parts of Alaska, requires drivers to have a minimum amount of liability car insurance in order to drive legally.
- Personal injury protection
Also known as "no-fault insurance," PIP covers your own injuries and medical expenses after a crash, regardless of who's at fault, up to your policy limits. Depending on your state, PIP could also help pay for:
Lost wages if you're unable to work due to your injuries from a car accident.
Services you can't perform because of an accident, such as house cleaning or child care.
Funeral costs if an injury from an accident leads to death.
A small death benefit as a cash payout.
Is it required? Personal injury protection is required in the following states: Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Oregon and Utah.
- Medical payments coverage
Medical payments coverage, or MedPay, helps pay for your medical expenses or funeral costs after a car accident, no matter who's at fault, up to your policy limits. It also pays for medical bills if you or one of your family members is hit by a car while on foot, riding a bike or traveling as a passenger in someone else’s car.
Is it required? MedPay is required in Maine and New Hampshire, and can be purchased as an optional add-on in most other states. In a few states, MedPay can't be purchased because personal injury protection is required.
- Uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage
Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage pays out if you're in an accident where the at-fault driver has no liability car insurance, or not enough to cover your injuries or property damage. It can also be used to pay for your passengers’ and household family members’ injuries.
Is it required? Uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage is required in Washington, D.C., and the following states: Connecticut, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
- Collision insurance
Collision insurance reimburses you to fix or replace your car if you crash into another car or object. It can also pay for hit-and-runs, rollovers and damage caused by uninsured or underinsured drivers.
Collision insurance becomes less useful the older your car is. That's because it reimburses you for repairs only up to the actual cash value of your car, minus your deductible.
Is it required? Collision insurance isn't mandatory in any state, but most lenders require it if you finance or lease your car. And when you buy collision insurance, you'll likely have to also get comprehensive insurance, which pays for damage to your car from non-traffic-related causes.
- Comprehensive insurance
Comprehensive insurance reimburses you to fix or replace your car after non-traffic-related causes, such as:
Weather events, like hail, floods or tornadoes.
Falling objects, such as tree limbs.
Fire or explosions.
Hitting an animal.
Car theft and broken windows.
Earthquakes.
Vandalism or civil disobedience, such as a riot.
Comprehensive insurance becomes less useful the older your car is. That's because it reimburses you for repairs only up to the actual cash value of your car, minus your deductible.
Is it required? Comprehensive insurance isn't mandatory in any state, but most lenders require it if you finance or lease your car. And when you buy comprehensive insurance, you'll likely have to also get collision insurance, which pays for damage to your car from traffic-related causes.
Optional coverage
If you have a full coverage policy with comprehensive and collision coverage, you may receive coverage for your vet bills after an accident injures your cat or dog.
Lemonade offers a few other optional types of car insurance:
Temporary transportation. If you have collision and comprehensive insurance on your policy, you can add this coverage to pay for the cost of a rental, public transit or rideshare services up to a certain amount every day your car is in the shop for a covered repair, for up to 30 days.
Who might need it? You may need temporary transportation coverage if you rely on your car to get to work or school. If you have another option, you might be able to skip it.
Extended glass coverage. This coverage reduces or eliminates your deductible for repairs to your windshield, windows or sunroof after a covered incident, as long as your policy already includes comprehensive coverage.
Who might need it? Extended glass coverage could make it easier to use your car insurance to pay for glass damage. Since the cost to repair your car’s glass would ordinarily have to be greater than your deductible to receive any coverage, extended glass coverage may be worth it if you have a high deductible.
Roadside assistance. This coverage would help you pay for a tow, fuel delivery, battery jumpstart, lockout services and other similar forms of roadside assistance after your car breaks down.
Who might need it? Roadside assistance could be worth having if you don’t already receive coverage like this from another source, like a credit card or a AAA membership.
It's important to understand what coverage you want and what you’re required to buy. We recommend comparing car insurance quotes from multiple companies before buying a policy. You’ll see which one offers you the best rates, regardless of the coverage you need.
Is Lemonade a good insurance company?
Lemonade could be worth checking out if you’re comfortable with sharing real-time details about your driving with your insurer. In our analysis, the area where it scored the weakest was for customer experience.
Complaints: Lemonade receives far more than the expected number of complaints about auto insurance to state regulators relative to its size, according to three years’ worth of data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.
See what you could save on car insurance
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More information about Lemonade auto insurance
Customer service: You can contact Lemonade by calling customer support at 1-844-733-8666.
Website: You can find a fairly comprehensive FAQ on Lemonade’s website that should give you answers to most of the questions you have about the company, your coverage and how Lemonade works.
Mobile app: The Lemonade app is important, since you need to download it and enable tracking features to share details about your driving. You can use the app to file a claim, access your policy documents and more.
Other Lemonade insurance reviews
How we review auto insurance companies
Our editorial team considers these factors when reviewing auto insurance companies:
- Financial strength
We use AM Best ratings to confirm an insurer’s long-term financial stability and ability to pay claims. NerdWallet does not recommend companies with a rating lower than a B.
- Complaints
These ratings are based on complaints to state regulators relative to a company’s size, according to three years’ worth of data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. The best auto insurance companies have fewer than the expected number of complaints.
- Ease of use
This category looks at how easily consumers can interact with an insurer through its mobile app and website. This includes how much coverage information is offered online, whether a user can start and track a claim online and get a quote and mobile app scores based on the Apple and Google Play store ratings.
- Discounts
We look at the kind of discounts a company offers and the total number of discounts available.
Read our full auto insurance methodology.
We nerd out on car insurance
Our goal is to give you what you need to make smart decisions about your car insurance.
Here’s why you can trust NerdWallet:
We do our homework. We regularly evaluate and review many of the insurance companies we write about. And all of our content is fact-checked before publication. This means the star ratings you see on our reviews are accurate and up-to-date.
We analyze the data. We update our average car insurance rates every month. To do that, we analyze more than 500 million rates from across the country. These rates are provided by Quadrant Information Services.
We are unbiased. NerdWallet’s content is never influenced by our business partners and advertisers. Learn more about how we write in our editorial guidelines.
Frequently asked questions
In which states does Lemonade sell car insurance?
In which states does Lemonade sell car insurance?
Lemonade sells auto insurance in Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas and Washington.
How do you file a claim with Lemonade?
How do you file a claim with Lemonade?
You can file a claim through the Lemonade app. You may contact Lemonade about a claim you filed via email at carclaims@lemonade.com.
Does Lemonade sell other insurance products?
Does Lemonade sell other insurance products?
Yes. In addition to car insurance, Lemonade sells home, renters, condo, life and pet insurance. The company also offers discounts for bundling its policies.
Methodology
Insurer complaints methodology
NerdWallet examined complaints received by state insurance regulators and reported to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners in 2022-2024. To assess how insurers compare to one another, the NAIC calculates a complaint index each year for each subsidiary, measuring its share of total complaints relative to its size, or share of total premiums in the industry. To evaluate a company’s complaint history, NerdWallet calculated a similar index for each insurer, weighted by market shares of each subsidiary, over the three-year period. NerdWallet conducts its data analysis and reaches conclusions independently and without the endorsement of the NAIC. Ratios are determined separately for auto, home (including renters and condo) and life insurance.
Auto insurance ratings methodology
NerdWallet’s auto insurance ratings reward companies for customer-first features and practices. Ratings are based on weighted averages of scores in several categories, including financial strength, consumer complaints and discounts. Our “ease of use” category looks at factors such as website transparency and how easy it is to file a claim. Using our editorial discretion, we also consider customer satisfaction surveys. These ratings are a guide, but we encourage you to shop around and compare several insurance quotes to find the best rate for you. NerdWallet does not receive compensation for any reviews. Read our editorial guidelines and full ratings methodology for auto insurance.
