Anyone have renters insurance?

[Peter Vincent]

I figured it couldnt hurt to check out some prices. I live in a flood zone so the best I could do is $30000 worth of coverage for $399 a year. Is this good, and is renters insurance worth it???

Thanks,

Peter

 

[J Piroth]

If you own anything of significant value, renters insurance is DEFINITELY worth it.



Should your apartment/townhome/rental home suffer major damage for any reason, renters insurance is the only chance you have to recover any of your stuff. The homeowners policy that the owner probably has on the place will protect the dwelling, but will not cover your possessions.



If you're in a flood zone, however, you may want to make sure that you don't need renters insurance AND flood insurance. Here in FL, I've heard many stories of people who've been caught off-guard when their homeowners/renters policies covered hurricane damage from falling water, but not flood damage from rising water.

 

[Frank Marano]

I have $15,000 worth of insurance for $100 a year.

 

[Wes Davis]

Renters insurance is very important if you have people above you. If their unit has a burst pipe it will flood all units below. $15,000 for $100.00 is a good deal and will cover most renters personal effects.

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Last time I had renters insurance was '90 and we paid about $80/year and that was for $10K if memory serves.



As for "is it worth it?" No insurance is "worth it" if you never have a claim. Most insurance will never pay for itself because if it did, then most people that have insurance would be ahead of the game and the insurance companies would got out of business. But, IF, and its a big IF; IF you ever have a significant claim, you will be glad you had insurance.



So, yes, shop around, get really cheap rates to cover only the amount of stuff you have. Stick with national companies and look at it as a sunk cost for piece of mind. You don't WANT it to pay for itself, if you know what I mean.



TJR

 

[Bill V]

If you have any specific items of significant value that you're wanting covered, be sure to mention them to the agent and verify that they get listed--and find out if there are any additional riders required for any of those items. For example, many policies will only cover jewelry if the individual items are specified and a value listed--and then, they often require an additional premium.

 

[2]

To add to what Bill V said,



I had to get extra coverage to cover my laptop. My desktop was covered under the renters insurance policy, but the laptop was extra. It isn't much, I think 40 bucks a year, but something to be aware of. Mileage may vary.

 

[Bill V]

One other note--I don't know this for sure with regards to renters insurance, but I suspect that it's like auto or home owners insurance, where rates can vary widely depending on where you live. This is the result of natural differences (higher cost in regions of more natural disasters), manmade differences (higher cost in regions of higher crime, as well as in buildings that have more units, etc.), and legal differences (differing state laws affect how much they have to reimburse to cover various losses).



So if you shop around, find the best rate available to you, and then find someone posting a rate here that blows it away, it might be more a matter of the factors I indicated, rather than you getting gouged.

 

[user 62394]

I would suggest getting the insurance, but the rate that you are mentioning sounds high. When I rented, I paid about $100 per year for somewhere around $15-20k of coverage. That was not in a flood area though. I would check out the rules regarding that.



Rocks