Thursday, July 31, 2008

If you are a renter, you need renter's insurance.

I went an entire year in my apartment without taking out a renter's insurance policy. Paying premiums seemed like yet another drain on my already tight budget so I managed to keep putting it off. It was pretty idiotic since replacing all of my stuff if there had been a break-in or a fire would have been a much bigger expense and a huge hassle.

My roommate is a musician with some fairly valuable instruments so insurance was a priority for her, and I agreed to handle it since my mother works at an insurance agency and all. Getting renter's insurance was much cheaper than I'd expected. Our stuff is covered for losses up to $24,000, plus we have $300,000 in liability coverage in case we accidentally catch our house on fire or someone gets injured falling off of our deck, for the low cost of $215 a year. We'll even get a further discount once we get our security system working. The whole process took less than half an hour.

So, seriously, no excuses. If you had to replace everything you owned, that would be a major pain. If you had to pay for everything you owned out of pocket all at once, that would be far, far worse.

3 comments:

Gypsie said...

The other great thing about renter's insurance (although this might depend on your policy) is that you are protected when you move between houses, locations, whatever as long as you do not drop your coverage.

A friend of mine had a computer break when he was in the process of moving. It turned out that his computer was covered for replacement cost since he didnt let his policy lapse. Plus, you can get additional coverage for things like computers, jewelry, etc.

Leah said...

I actually had something awesome work out: I've been with State Farm since I started driving almost 10 years ago. I don't have a ton of "stuff", but I have enough that would be freaking expensive. I pay $85/year for my renter's insurance. . . and get a $150/year discount on my car insurance for having both with SF.

O_o

Score!

Jim ~ mydebtblog.com said...

Renter's insurance is very important to have to protect your property and yourself. The point of insurance is that if something happens it insures that it will be covered. Back in college my wife had a pipe break in her apartment, top floor unit, and it soaked the carpet and the water drained downstairs. She had renter's insurance but the people below her did not. They were out of luck and even tried to come after my wife to pay for their damages. Don't let $10-15 bucks a month get in the way of protecting yourself if something were to happen.