Safeco Renters Insurance Review
Safeco renters insurance is a straightforward option for customers looking to insure their apartments and the stuff in it at a reasonable rate. Though its coverage options and add-ons wont overwhelm, its website, app, and troves of resources are user-friendly, which provides first-time shoppers for renters insurance a relatively hassle-free experience. If you can look past its mediocre customer satisfaction scores, Safeco renters insurance might be a great option for you.
The Renters Insurance Factors we Analyzed
Customer Experience
When factoring in various components to an overall Safeco renters insurance customer experience score, we consider elements such as repair, estimation processes, perceived fairness of the claim settlement issued, and claim servicing, among other factors. In its 2019 property claims satisfaction study, J.D. Power took all of these factors into account to come up with an overall customer satisfaction score for 23 industry providers. Customers seemed to rate Safecos services as just average pretty much across the board, which led J.D. Power to do the same, giving Safeco a 3/5 rating.
Apart from their customer satisfaction score, we also took into account the ease of use for Safecos online services. Here, its customer experience is improved by virtue of a site thats easy to use, including straightforward claims tracking services, easy-to-get online quotes, and an app that lets you pay bills, manage your policy, and open a new claim.
In reviewing various renters insurance providers in its most recent home insurance study, J.D. Power assessed 14 different providers across different categories, ultimately leading to an overall satisfaction score for each. Though customers rated their interaction with Safeco agents as average, according to the study, every other aspect of their experience, including pricing, billing process, policy information, and policy offerings were all rated below average. As a result, overall customer satisfaction with Safeco renters insurance received a mere 2/5 rating, which is better than just two other industry peers and is reflected in its renters insurance score.
Coverage Information
Safeco offers standard homeowners insurance coverage that includes:
- Personal belongings protection
- Liability Coverage, in the event that youre held responsible for a guest getting injured while visiting your place.
- Living Expenses, which covers the cost of temporary housing for up to 24 months while your building is being repaired after a covered loss.
Additionally, renters insurance customers can purchase a few additional options, including:
- Identity recovery: helps a policyholder to restore their identity for just $1 per month if theyre the victim of identity theft by reimbursing them for expenses such as lost wages for time spent handling the incident.
- Valuable articles protection: allows policyholders to protect personal belongings that are near and dear to them by putting an agreed-upon dollar value on them. This coverage option has no deductible.
- Personal property replacement cost: helps you pay for the cost of a new item that is similar to the one you lost. This option is applicable to replacement costs on items that were damaged, lost or stolen, regardless of their age or condition based on the limits and deductibles selected by the policyholder.
Deals, Discounts, and Add-Ons
Safeco renters insurance policyholders can save even more by adequately equipping their dwellings or taking advantage of various other deals. These include:
- Safety Equipment Discounts for buildings that have fire alarms, sprinkler systems and burglar alarms installed.
- Policy Bundling for Safeco customers that are already insured on another Safeco policy, such as bike, boat or car insurance.
- Elevated Deductibles are a pretty standard option among all insurance providers, which lowers monthly premiums by shifting the payment responsibility to the person submitting the claim. The higher your deductible -- the amount you pay out of pocket in the event of an incident the lower your premium.
- Paying in Full for customers that opt to pay their insurance bill all at once instead of in monthly installments, overall costs will be lower.
Safeco Renters Insurance Overview: Financial Strength, Availability and History
- In business since: 1923
- S&P Financial Strength Rating: A-
- Moodys Financial Strength Rating: A2
- A.M. Best Financial Strength Rating: A
- States served (availability): 48 (Delaware and Hawaii)
The Competition
*All information accurate as of [12/15/2019].
The Bottom Line
Safeco renters insurance offers pretty straightforward coverage and discount options to its consumers. For customers looking for relatively low monthly premiums and the opportunity to save in a variety of ways, Safeco might be worth a look.
The drawback of Safeco is its sub-standard customer service. In just about every rating we looked at, customers consistently reported being disappointed with the claims process in its entirety, leading to customer satisfaction scores that were below the industry average.Having said all that, Safecos online tools, around-the-clock claim submission, tracking capacity, and agent availability in nearly all 50 states are factors that make it at least worthy of a further look.