Home Insurance And Your Personal Belongings
If you have home insurance or are shopping for a home insurance quote, you may be wondering if your personal belongings -- furniture, computers, bicycles -- are also covered.
The answer is yes, but to a limit.
Most standard home owner insurance policies also provide coverage for your personal possessions.
Usually, this coverage is a certain percentage of the coverage you have on the actual home.
For example, you may have $200,000 coverage on your home -- or "dwelling" -- and 60 percent coverage on personal property.
Thus your coverage for personal property would be $120,000.
Now, what you have to decide is if that's enough coverage.
Make a list of your personal belongings and what you estimate it would cost to replace them if they were stolen or destroyed in a disaster.
If you think you'll need more coverage,you can get higher limits on your policy.
Here's another thing to keep in mind.
You can get coverage for personal property on an actual cash value or replacement cost basis.
Actual cash value will pay to replace your possessions minus any depreciation -- up to the limits in your home owner policy.
So if you have bicycle that is stolen and it's nine years old, actual cash value will pay for a percentage of the cost of a new bicycle.
That's because the bicycle stolen is worth less than the original cost.
You can get replacement cost coverage which will pay for the actual cost to replace an item -- up to the limits in your policy.
Adding replacement cost options to your policy will increase your premium.
When you're shopping for a home owner insurance quote, you should always get at least three quotes to make sure you're getting the best rate.
It's always a good idea to know approximately the personal property coverages you want ahead of time so you can get the most accurate comparison quotes.
The answer is yes, but to a limit.
Most standard home owner insurance policies also provide coverage for your personal possessions.
Usually, this coverage is a certain percentage of the coverage you have on the actual home.
For example, you may have $200,000 coverage on your home -- or "dwelling" -- and 60 percent coverage on personal property.
Thus your coverage for personal property would be $120,000.
Now, what you have to decide is if that's enough coverage.
Make a list of your personal belongings and what you estimate it would cost to replace them if they were stolen or destroyed in a disaster.
If you think you'll need more coverage,you can get higher limits on your policy.
Here's another thing to keep in mind.
You can get coverage for personal property on an actual cash value or replacement cost basis.
Actual cash value will pay to replace your possessions minus any depreciation -- up to the limits in your home owner policy.
So if you have bicycle that is stolen and it's nine years old, actual cash value will pay for a percentage of the cost of a new bicycle.
That's because the bicycle stolen is worth less than the original cost.
You can get replacement cost coverage which will pay for the actual cost to replace an item -- up to the limits in your policy.
Adding replacement cost options to your policy will increase your premium.
When you're shopping for a home owner insurance quote, you should always get at least three quotes to make sure you're getting the best rate.
It's always a good idea to know approximately the personal property coverages you want ahead of time so you can get the most accurate comparison quotes.
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