I’m looking for some advice regarding renters/content insurance.
My friends house burned down and they have no insurance so it kind of brought home that I need to stop procrastinating and get my renters insurance.
A coworker passed along her insurance providers information and I got in contact with her. I was thinking of getting insured for about $10 thousand. I live in a small apartment, don’t have a lot of things and most of my furniture is from IKEA so I figured $10 thousand would about do it if I had to replace everything.
This is the reply back from her:
"We have one company, Peace Hills, that has a minimum of $25,000 for contents (our other markets are $40,000) and they would be $225/year with a $500 deductible and you can add $10,000 in identity theft coverage (which we recommend) for an additional $25/year bringing the annual total to $250.
Should you like to go monthly, your payments would be $21.56/month and they would require $41.92 (2 months) as a down payment."
One question I have is, if my apartment burned down and I lost everything, do I still get $25 thousand even though my things aren’t worth that? I don’t want to be paying for one amount but only able to collect a smaller amount if something happened.
Does this seem like a fairly normal sort of policy? I’ve only ever had homeowners insurance and contents were covered in it, so this is my first time getting insurance for just my things.
You can shop around some more but most companies don’t offer coverage much lower than that simply because most of the cost is administrative overhead regardless of the dollar amount of the policy. That said, you wouldn’t get $25,000 if you didn’t lose $25,000 worth of stuff. It isn’t a prize but it still a really good deal overall. Many have gotten burned by losing the same amount of stuff you have in a fire or burglary and dearly wished they payed for the fairly small cost of renter’s insurance. They will pay for what you lost if your building burns down with few hassles.
You need to read the policy carefully however. You probably won’t get replacement value for everything you own automatically although that may be a pricier option. The $10,000 worth of stuff you have may only be worth $5000 after depreciation is taken into account. Renters insurance the best deal in the world if you need it and waste of money of money if you don’t. Do you have thousands of dollars to set yourself up in a new place with reasonable accommodations if the worst should happen? That is something you have to decide for yourself. It is a good idea for most people because the cost is so low.
Thank you very much for your reply, that makes sense.
What about the identity theft coverage?
If you’ve got a car, check with your current company to see if they write renters insurance and what sort of multi-policy discount you’d be able to get.
I’ve got a quote here from my agent for $50,000 contents, $300,000 liability and $10,000 loss of use (eg: a temporary hotel or apartment if the place burns down) and the annual premium when linked up with my car insurance is $143.00.
No vehicle here. I live right downtown so no need. I’ll make sure to remember about liability and loss of use when I look at the policy.
I don’t really know if I should get the identity theft coverage and don’t want to ask the agent about it. I know they want to make the sale so I’d rather get opinions from people who aren’t trying to sell me something.