Questions about insurance come in all day long at the Effective Coverage home office. We’re happy to answer them, because as renters insurance experts, that’s what we do.
Often, the questions tend to be about price, and sometimes about coverage. Frequently, someone is more concerned with one of those two than with the other.
Someone who was looking for Tucson, AZ Renters Insurance recently asked us:
How Can I Get The Best Rate On Renters Insurance?
How can I get the best rate on renters insurance? I don’t want to waste time asking for every possible discount that I may or may not qualify for, and I don’t want to waste money by paying more than I need to. So what’s the best price, and how do I find it?
Let’s look at a few of the factors in play here, because the question really depends on what you’re trying to achieve and what’s important to you in a policy.
What Is The Price Range Of Renters Insurance When You’re Trying To Get The Best Rate?
If we assume the same person, same location, and same coverage across the board, how much of a variance is there in the price of renters insurance? The surprising answer is, not all that much. The national average price of a policy is $187.00 a year, or about fifteen dollars a month. In other words, you could pay as little as $125 or up into the $250 range for a year of coverage. If you prefer to think monthly, most people will fall into an average cost of between ten and twenty dollars per month for a basic policy.
The price varies based on coverage, among other factors. We actually recently addressed whether you should raise your deductible to save money on renters insurance, which might also be of interest to you. A proper renters insurance policy is going to include the same types of coverage in most cases, and often in similar amounts. Price and service are the real questions.
But is it worth it to chase price?
What Is The Value Of Your Time?
If you click above, Effective Coverage can offer you a policy with strong coverage and a fair price, often the best rate available anywhere, in just sixty seconds. That’s fast. If you call, it might take three minutes or so, simply because of the nature of human conversation – a back and forth conversation about coverage takes a few seconds longer than you selecting options in a dropdown.
If you could save twenty-five dollars a year by trying every option available to you, would it be worth an entire day of your time spent on the phone and the internet? What’s a day of your time worth? If you work for at least minimum wage, a day of your time should certainly be worth more than the twenty-five dollars a year you might save by looking under every rock for the cheapest renters insurance policy you can find.
Is Your Goal Lease Compliance Or Coverage?
If your lease requires you to buy coverage, are you looking for the best rate on renters insurance because you don’t think the coverage is necessary and you just want to comply with the terms and conditions of your lease? Do you have an abstract desire to be generally covered if something happens? Or do you have specific risks in mind against which you’d like to protect?
If you’re looking for the cheapest renters insurance just to comply with your lease, be careful about the risk of just accepting what the leasing office says is the “automatic option.” Much of the time, the automatic option isn’t actually insurance – it’s a liability waiver that applies only to the property management.
That legal liability for renters option might be fairly affordable, but all it buys you is a promise that the property manager won’t sue you if you start a fire. It doesn’t protect you from neighbors suing you for the same thing, or from any other liability. It’s also not renters insurance! That means that waiver programs like RLL don’t provide you any protection and are not renters insurance!
If you end up with a liability waiver program, you’ll probably be paying around $11.00 a month as part of your rent. That sounds like a good deal for the RLL monthly rate, until you realize that it’s not covering your property or your liability to anyone except the property. In fact, $11.00 a month is $132.00 a year! You can often buy actual renters insurance that will cover your liability to many third parties including your landlord and neighbors, as well as your personal property, as well as your loss of use after a covered loss and even guest injuries for less than $132.00 per year.
It pays to know what you’re buying, of course, and it pays to add up that monthly cost and make sure you are comparing apples to apples. Sure, at fifteen dollars a month, renters insurance is $48 more a year than RLL or similar waivers, but it’s also providing significantly more coverage. For that extra $48 a year or so, you’re getting liability coverage if you spill your coffee on someone in the morning, and replacement cost coverage for your personal property if the neighbor starts a fire or a pipe bursts. Many other scenarios and perils are covered, as well – see What Personal Property Losses Does Renters Insurance Cover. Also take a look at what renters insurance liability covers as well as the covered perils for personal property.
How Do I Get The Best Rate On Renters Insurance That Covers Me?
That’s where Effective Coverage comes in. If you have specific questions about coverage, you can either chat online or call a renters insurance expert who can offer solid answers and even point you towards policy language that answers your questions. When you get a quote online or on the phone, all available discounts are applied because we’re able to pull in information about safety features of your building and other factors that will help get you the best rate.
Remember, as well, that Effective Coverage is one stop shopping. You don’t have to submit your information and wait for a ton of phone calls back. You can get the answers you need as part of the quoting process. Proof of coverage can be sent directly to your leasing office to ensure that they have all the documentation they need. The entire process is seamless and easy, and you’ll get solid coverage with a full HO-4 renters insurance policy that gives you and your family the protection you deserve.
To find out more, to ask a question about your renters insurance, or to get covered instantly, just call (800)892-4308 or click to get covered - whether you need Tucson renters insurance quotes online or coverage anywhere else!
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