Get Affordable Renters Insurance in Minutes

From a legal perspective, renters are not required to have any degree of home insurance protection. This is different from the world of car insurance, where most states require liability insurance for all drivers.

It is common to compare car insurance rates, but many renters don’t think about it with renters insurance. With Freeway, you can compare rates with both auto insurance and renters insurance to find the most affordable option.

The fact that renters insurance isn’t legally required doesn’t mean you don’t have to have it since it’s pretty much the only way to protect what you own from floods, fires, and other unexpected threats.

So, the best way to answer the question “Is renter’s insurance worth it?” is with another question: How much do you care about the things you own?

How do you figure out how much coverage you actually need? First, do a home inventory to make a list of your valuable property. Try to get an idea of how much it would cost to replace these things.

Second, begin pricing out different rental insurance policies. Your goal is to find a policy with an overall coverage limit higher than the value of your belongings. The amount of coverage is an important consideration when choosing a policy.

Finally, you need to look at the liability coverage (if any) in those policies and decide if you need extra coverage. Liability insurance provides protection if someone injures themselves inside your home and decides to sue. If you don’t have enough savings to help fight a lawsuit, you should consider getting additional liability coverage.

Remember, a landlord’s insurance policy doesn’t cover these things on your behalf. You need your own insurance.

Make no mistake: Insurance for apartments and rented homes is worth the cost. The average rental insurance is less than $200 a year, or $16 a month, and there are easy ways to compare renters insurance rates.

The good news is that there are several potential ways to lower how much you pay. The first way is to take out a higher deductible. While this increases the amount you have to pay out of pocket if there is an incident, it will definitely lower your monthly premium.

Another way to save money on renters insurance is to install certain safety devices throughout the house. Things like extra smoke alarms and deadbolts serve to make your home that much safer. In turn, a safer home typically means the insurance carrier can offer you lower prices.

In some cases, simply improving your credit can lower your rate. As with car insurance, most states allow insurance carriers to consider your credit rating as a factor in how much you pay. By monitoring and repairing your credit as needed, you may be able to negotiate a better rate.

You may ask, “Is renters insurance paid monthly like my rent?” The answer is yes, but if you have the cash on hand, one easy way to reduce your premium is to pay annually instead of just monthly. It makes for a bigger payment upfront but reduces your overall cost.

Finally, the best way to lower how much you pay is to shop around for a new insurance carrier. We recommend contacting multiple carriers and getting quotes. This way, you can pick the price and coverage level that best meets your unique needs. Sometimes, the cheapest renters insurance is the right answer, while it’s best to choose better coverage in others.

Renters insurance is a great way to protect your belongings. But, like all insurance policies, your renters insurance is somewhat limited in what it covers. Therefore, it’s worth answering another basic question: What items does renters insurance actually cover?

Renters insurance personal property coverage will cover the following belongings:

The short answer is that you take a loss. If someone steals your property, there might be a lingering hope that you would recover your items. But if things like TVs and designer clothing get damaged or destroyed in a fire or flood, there is no way to get your things back.

Renters insurance allows you to cover the cost to quickly replace everything from personal computers to living room furniture without breaking the bank.

In many respects, renters insurance is very different from car insurance. But they do share some key similarities, including coverage limits. For example, your car is likely protected by liability insurance. If that limit is $10,000, your policy won’t pay anything above that amount. Renters insurance works the same way.

On top of that, the policy may specify specific limits on certain categories of items (such as electronics or furniture). These limits will be lower than your overall limit and spell out exactly how much insurance can pay out to cover items in this category.

As with car insurance, you can always increase the coverage limits or lower the renters insurance deductible on your policy. But this will increase the overall monthly insurance premium.