Renters insurance is cheap — the national average is about $168/yr. The real question is how much personal property and liability coverage to carry, and what to skip. Tell us a few things and we'll show you what to buy and roughly what it should cost.
Carriers ranked by estimated renters premium for your state and the coverage you picked — carried over automatically.
This pays to replace your belongings — furniture, electronics, clothing, kitchenware — when they're stolen or destroyed by a covered peril (fire, theft, most water damage, windstorm). It follows you off-premises too: a laptop stolen from your car or a hotel is usually covered.
Add it up faster than you'd think: a couch, a TV, a laptop, a phone, a bed, and a closet of clothes already clears $15–20k. Most renters under-insure here. Walk through each room and total the replacement cost — that number is your Coverage C.
Set it to what it would cost to re-buy everything new, not what you paid or what it's worth used. That's only true if you carry replacement-cost coverage (below) — otherwise you're paid depreciated value.
Liability covers you when someone is hurt in your unit or you damage someone else's property — a guest slips and breaks an arm, your dog bites someone, a kitchen fire spreads to the next apartment. It pays their bills and your legal defense.
The standard limit is $100k, but the jump to $300k or $500k costs only a few dollars a year. Rule of thumb: carry at least as much as your net worth — a judgment above your limit comes out of your savings and future wages.
If you have real assets to protect, a $1–2M umbrella policy (~$150–300/yr) stacks on top and is the cheapest liability you can buy per dollar of protection.
If a covered loss makes your place unlivable, Loss of Use pays for hotels, restaurant meals above your normal grocery bill, and other extra living costs while you're displaced.
It's bundled into nearly every policy at roughly 20–40% of your Coverage C, so there's usually nothing to buy — just confirm the limit is there. After a fire, this is the coverage that keeps you off a friend's couch for three months.
This pays minor medical bills for guests hurt in your home, regardless of fault, without anyone having to file a liability claim. Think a friend who trips and needs stitches.
Limits are small ($1k–$5k) and the cost is trivial. Bumping it to $5k is usually a few dollars and avoids turning a small injury into a liability dispute.
Actual Cash Value (ACV) pays what your stuff is worth used — a 5-year-old TV gets you maybe $80. Replacement Cost (RCV) pays what it costs to buy new. The difference on a full apartment can be thousands.
RCV typically adds only ~10–15% to the premium and is almost always worth it. On a cheap policy that's $15–25/yr to turn a depreciated payout into a full one. Don't buy ACV to save $20.
Standard policies cap certain categories — jewelry, watches, cameras, bikes, firearms, fine art — often at $1,000–$2,500 total, and theft of jewelry may be capped even lower. A scheduled endorsement (a "rider") insures a specific item for its appraised value, usually with no deductible.
If you own an engagement ring, a nice camera kit, or a high-end bike, schedule it. If you don't, skip this entirely — it adds cost for protection you don't need.
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