American Family Renters Insurance: The Basics
American Family is a strong option for renters because it offers wraparound customer service resources, accessible quotes, and American Family Insurance agents. It’s tech-friendly, too: the MyAmFam App is a place where customers can connect with agents, find quotes, pay bills, and view documents in one place.
But when it comes time to file an insurance claim, that’s where American Family Insurance wants to be the best. In the event that you do file a claim, the company provides 24/7 phone support, an option to submit your claim online, and a claims specialist to handle your case alongside your local American Family Insurance agent, who you ideally would already know.
This attention to customer service, especially as it pertains to the claims process, is where AmFam tries to stand out from other insurers. If you’re a car insurance customer of AmFam, you may also qualify for a bundling discount.
What does American Family renters insurance cover?
With American Family, you can expect the typical insurance coverage options according to the industry standard. It starts with a core set of basic coverage options and with add-ons that help enhance your renters insurance coverage for your specific needs.
Personal Liability Coverage: A key component of every renters insurance policy covers medical bills that result from bodily injury sustained either by you or a visitor on your rental property. Think of a bad burn from a baking accident or a broken wrist from a slip in the shower.
Personal Property Coverage: As a renter, you don’t own the walls or the floors of the apartment you live in—but you own all the stuff that you brought into the place. That’s what personal property coverage is designed to protect. Events like theft, property damage from vandalism, and natural disasters are the types of covered losses under personal property coverage.
A lot of people don’t know that personal property coverage on a renters insurance policy travels with you. That means your stuff is covered whether or not it gets damaged or stolen inside your apartment. If you lose things often, this is another reason to consider renters insurance.
American Family Insurance reimburses the full replacement cost of your belongings, which is often an extra expense or unavailable from other insurance companies, which will only reimburse you for the current value of the belongings you lost or damaged.
Loss of Use Coverage: Every standard renters insurance policy, including policies from AmFam, offers what’s called loss of use coverage, which reimburses your additional living expenses if you ever need to vacate your home and temporarily live somewhere else.
Fire and natural disasters are common examples of a covered event that would qualify under your policy, but make sure you talk to your agent and find out exactly what’s covered and what isn’t.
Identity Theft Protection: Credit card fraud and other forms of identity theft are also covered on renters insurance policies. It might seem a bit random, but it adds a nice degree of peace of mind. Having your identity stolen can be a time-consuming and expensive debacle, so it can be great to know that should you be so unlucky, you’ll have support.
In addition to this standard slate of policies, American Family Insurance offers six add-ons, optional coverage that you might buy to meet particular needs. These include coverage for valuable items, like jewelry and watches, and electronics that might break down for electrical or mechanical reasons.
Two add-ons can beef up your liability coverage. One provides you pet insurance, which reimburses veterinary bills and ensures liability for covered events. Another protects you from personal injury, which sounds like medical expenses but actually pertains to things like libel and slander, wrongful arrest or eviction, and other legal mix-ups.
American Family renters insurance also offers add-on travel protection, which can help with medical insurance abroad and trip cancellation, as well as extra business coverage if you own your own business and work out of your home.
Special Deals and Discounts
Renters insurance discounts from American Family Insurance are abundant. To chip away at the cost of renters insurance, it can help to buy from a company that offers auto insurance as well so that you can take advantage of bundling policies together to save money. This is a key perk with AmFam.
AmFam advertises that by bundling, “on average, you could save 29 percent on your auto coverage and 15 percent on your renters coverage.” But that’s no guarantee. Coverage and pricing range significantly according to location and other factors.
American Family Insurance rewards customers with discounts when they install a smart home security system and when they pay the bill in full instead of monthly, set up autopay, or go paperless.
As a legacy company with generations of customers, American Family also gives back when you stick with them over the long term. They have discounts for young adults whose parents are also American Family members, and they will lower your rate after you’ve spent a year on a renters insurance policy.
Where does American Family offer renters insurance?
Only residents of 19 states can access American Family renters insurance. Those states are:
Arizona
Colorado
Georgia
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Minnesota
Missouri
Nebraska
Nevada
North Dakota
Ohio
Oregon
South Dakota
Utah
Washington
Wisconsin
