Average Cost Of Renters Insurance?

A renter’s insurance policy protects the policyholder’s personal belongings within a rented property. This can be an apartment, condo, loft, duplex, or even a studio; if a person is renting it and living there, they can be covered under the renter’s insurance policy.

This policy covers the cost of personal belongings if they have been stolen or damaged due to theft, vandalism, or natural hazards. The list of belongings with their actual cash value and receipts is submitted to the insurance company, and then they offer a check to the policyholder to revive all those things back.

Renters Insurance Coverage

There are mainly three types of coverage options with renter’s insurance.

• Personal possessions
• Renter’s liability
• Loss of use

Explained with Examples

Personal possessions: If the policyholder has faced any loss of personal possessions and assets due to reasons beyond their control, the insurance company will cover for the loss.

For instance, there is a break-and-enter in the rented apartment, and your TV, laptop, and camera was stolen. The insurance company will cover the cost of the lost items and give the policyholder a check. Having receipts of the actual cash value helps speed up the process and proves that you’re a genuine case.

Renter’s Liability: This is usually done to cover the policyholder’s negligence if it affects any third party. Liability during negligence doesn’t cover personal losses.

For instance, your dog gets loose and runs around the neighborhood, bites your neighbor’s son, and now he has stitches. You will be asked to pay for his medical bills.

Loss of use: This is usually when the rented property gets damaged or contaminated that you have to relocate until it is fully repaired. So while you’ve been relocated, the insurance policy will cover your hotel, food, and clothing.

For instance, fire breaks in your apartment, and it’s fully damaged. You can’t move back in unless it is repaired, and in the meantime, you live in a hotel. The insurance coverage pays for your hotel stay and food during the time you’ve been relocated.

Average Cost Of Renters Insurance

Renter’s insurance cost varies significantly in every State. This is an average rate of the annual and monthly cost of renter’s insurance.

States with the most expensive renters insurance

States with the cheapest renters insurance

Note: Sample rates have been extracted online, courtesy of Business Insider.

Cheap Renters Insurance

Companies that offer the cheapest renters insurance in 2020 are ranked to see how much is renters insurance monthly:

• Travelers- monthly cost of $11.08.
• State Farm- monthly cost of $13.75.
• Lemonade- monthly cost of $15.42.
• Nationwide- monthly cost of $16.08.

Renters Insurance Cost Calculator

To manually calculate the average cost of your renters insurance, you need to have an estimated amount of all your possessions and the value of your personal property.

Categories of items to include are:

• Clothing
• Furniture
• Appliances
• Dishes and cookware
• Tools and landscaping equipment
• Sports equipment and bicycles
• Electronics (computers, TVs, video game systems, cell phones)
• Media (books, music, movies, games)
• Jewelry, art and other valuables
• Other

Knowing the cost of your items and personal property, you should be able to estimate exactly how much liability insurance you need. Liability insurance for renters is typically sold in increments of $100,000, and $100,000 or $200,000 is likely sufficient for most renters. To get a close estimate of the amount you can resort to an online renters insurance calculator and see what the figure is.

Many factors may influence the cost of Renter’s Insurance that a policyholder is liable to pay. Some of these factors may increase the cost because they pose a higher risk for the insurance company to invest in.

Dog ownership: Even though owning a dog may not increase the number of premiums; you might need more coverage to pay for the liability that comes with it.

Credit History: This is an essential factor because people with a good credit score are likely to receive better coverage options. Your insurance company will invest in someone with proper insurance and credit history. A lower credit score may result in higher premiums.

Fire alarm: Having such precautions will affect insurance coverage because such things limit the chance of damage or theft. So the insurance company will consider the precautions that you take and offer you a cheaper plan.

Other than this, the coverage amount you want for each of the options in renter’s insurance will decide what amount of premiums you have to pay each month. So you have to keep in mind that a full coverage option will result in higher premiums.

Here is a basic breakdown of what premiums you should expect with each coverage option.

Note: Sample rates have been extracted online, courtesy of ValuePenguin.

Conclusion

Having a renter’s insurance is indeed a necessity, especially for people who can’t afford to bear losses. The insurance company will cover any loss or damage to the policyholder’s possessions on the rental property, so this policy gives people peace of mind that their belongings are at least financially safe.

Luckily, renter’s insurance is one of the policies that have the least complicated process and takes very little time to confirm. When a policyholder wants to apply for renter’s insurance, all they have to do is contact their insurance agent and fill out an application.

The application is simple; it asks only a few personal questions that are important to determine what sort of policy is needed, and the process takes less than fifteen minutes. Once the application is fully approved, you can go back home and sleep in peace because now you’re covered under the policy.

All you have to do now is pay your premiums on time to keep the policy in force and make a list of all your possessions and their actual cash value. Keeping a proper record is very important, and it would be great if you would have receipts of the valuables as proof too.