In This Review: Pros and Cons | Cost & Discounts | Coverage | State Availability | Filing a Claim | Conclusion | Comparison | Company Information | FAQ | Methodology
Backed by Allstate, Esurance aims to simplify the insurance process, allowing customers to receive quotes, make payments, and see policy details all through one online source. The company provides customers with a personalized quote for their rental unit in as little as six minutes.
In this Esurance renters insurance review, the This Old House Reviews Team looks into the provider’s products and services to see how it compares to other renters insurance providers.
Read on to see if Esurance is the best renters insurance choice for you and your home.
Pros & Cons of Esurance Renters Insurance
Compare the advantages and disadvantages of Esurance:
How Much Does Esurance Cost?
To give you an idea of what the average policyholder would pay, we called an Esurance representative to receive a quote. Here’s a quote for a single-family home in Richmond, Virginia:
Cost of Esurance Renters Insurance
| Type | Amount |
|---|---|
| Deductible | $500 |
| Total Cost | $19.18/month or $253/year |
Your Esurance renters insurance deductible will be $250, $500, $1,000, or $2,500.
Before calling to get your quote from Esurance, have the following personal information ready for a quick quote process:
- Address
- Social security number
- Date of birth
- Email address
- Desired policy date
- Type of rental
- Number of people living in the unit
- Number of pets
Esurance Renters Insurance Discounts
Esurance only offers one discount, which is applied in some states where customers bundle renters and auto insurance with Esurance.
Esurance Renters Insurance Coverage
Esurance renters insurance coverage protects you and your home from the following:
- Fire or lightning
- Windstorm or hail
- Explosions
- Smoke
- Vandalism, theft, and burglary
- Falling objects
- Wright of ice, snow, or sleet
- Freezing
- Volcanic eruption
With a renters insurance policy from Esurance, you and your rental unit will receive coverage in the following four areas:
1. Personal Property Coverage: While your landlord has insurance to cover the building structure of your rental, this helps cover the cost of items inside the home that need repair or replacement due to a covered event. For example, if someone breaks into your home and steals some of your belongings, personal property coverage will cover the cost of the items.
In the quote we received, Esurance covered $30,000 for personal property.
2. Personal Liability Coverage: If someone is injured in your home, personal liability coverage provides protection from potential legal action taken against you.
In our quote, Esurance covered $100,000 for personal liability.
3. Coverage for Medical Payments to Others: If someone is injured on your property, this coverage helps pay their medical bills up to a certain limit. This coverage usually doesn’t extend to you or other members of the house.
Our Esurance quote included $1,000 per person for medical payments to others.
4. Loss of Use Coverage: Loss of use protection covers the additional living expenses you incur if you’re unable to stay in your current rental unit due to a covered event or disaster. For example, if an object falls on your home and renders it uninhabitable, loss of use coverage would help cover the costs of a hotel room while your home is being repaired.
Esurance Range of Coverage
Here’s how much coverage you can purchase for each protection category based on Virginia location information:
| Coverage Type | Range of Coverage |
|---|---|
| Personal Property | $15,000–$30,000 |
| Liability | $100,000–$500,000 |
| Medical Payments to Others | $1,000–$5,000 |
| Loss of Use | $6,000 |
Esurance Bonus Coverage
To make your renters insurance coverage more comprehensive, Esurance allows for the following two coverages to be added to your plan at an additional cost:
- Personal Property Replacement Cost: Replacement cost value (RCV) takes into account the value of your item at the time of purchase, ignoring depreciation. Actual cost value (ACV), on the other hand, takes the item’s value at the time of purchase minus depreciation. With personal property replacement cost coverage, the value of your items will not decrease with age.
- Special Computer Coverage: Although listed as optional coverage, Esurance doesn’t go into detail on what the coverage entails. For most renters insurance companies with similar optional coverage, customers can elect to receive increased coverage amounts on their home computer.
Esurance Renters Insurance State Availability
Esurance is available in the following 21 states. Click on your state to see more providers available in your area.
Alabama | Arkansas | Georgia | Idaho | Illinois | Indiana | Iowa | Kansas | Louisiana | Missouri | Nebraska | New Jersey | Ohio | Oklahoma | Oregon | South Dakota | Tennessee | Texas | Utah | Virginia | West Virginia | Wisconsin
How to File a Claim with Esurance
Esurance offers general customer service through the phone at 1-800-378-726 every day from 6am until 12am CT. Additionally, Esurance allows customers to reach out with general questions via email or social media.
For current customers who want to file insurance claims, Esurance is available online or through the phone at 1-800-378-7262, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Customers can also view claims information and contact claims representatives through the Esurance mobile app.
Our Conclusion
Esurance renters insurance offers policyholders run-of-the-mill coverage at an above average price. The quoting process is short and simple, giving customers pricing and coverage details within minutes.
However, Esurance doesn’t provide many optional coverage options or discounts and requires you to input your social security number when getting a quote. Additionally, Esurance didn’t handle our quote personally, but rather sent us to a third-party called Homesite, which underwrites some of their insurance policies.
If you’re not sure whether Esurance is right for you, consider getting quotes from a few different providers to compare coverage and pricing:
Esurance vs Other Top Renter Insurance Providers
If you’re not sure whether Esurance is right for you, compare it to other top-rated renters insurance companies below.
Companies |
Esurance |
Allstate |
|
|---|---|---|---|
Known for |
Comprehensive disaster coverage |
Low deductibles |
Multiple discounts |
Monthly price |
Around $19 |
As low as $12 |
Around $15 |
Customer service |
6am–12am CST |
24/7 |
24/7 |
BBB rating |
A– |
A+ |
A+ |
Company Overview
- Company Name: Esurance Insurance Services, Inc.
- CEO: Jonathan Adkisson
- Years in Business: 21
- U.S. States Covered: 21
- Address: 650 Davis Street
- City/State: San Francisco, California
- Zip Code: 94111-1904
- A.M. Best Financial Strength Rating: A+
*A.M. Best ratings accurate as of April 2023
Other Renters Insurance Resources
FAQs About Esurance Renters Insurance
Our Methodology
The This Old HouseReviews team is committed to providing comprehensive and unbiased reviews to our readers. This means earning your trust through transparency and having the data to back up our ratings and recommendations.
With that in mind, we created an objective rating system to score each home insurance company. Here’s what that review process looked like:
- We analyze the information on each company’s website. This allows us to determine what products and services are offered by each home insurance provider.
- We get a sample quote from the companies by either talking to a sales representative or by using the online quote tool. This tells us what a policy looks like and costs.
- We test customer service by talking to a company representative, finding out their hours of operation, and determining what technological features are available for customers.
- We update all of this information on a continuous basis, storing it in a proprietary database that allows us to compare dozens of home insurance companies against each other.
With this data, we created a rating methodology to score each home insurance company. Our rating system is a weighted, 100-point scale based on the following factors:
- Coverage (30): We rated home insurance companies higher if they offered the six main types of homeowner protection—dwelling, other structures, personal property, loss of use, liability, and medical payments to others coverage.
- State availability (7.5): Companies scored higher if they covered more states than their competitors.
- Customer service (15): This factor is based on our communications with the company representatives, as well as the companies’ claims and quotes processes, availability throughout the week, and customer service information found on their websites.
- Technology (12.5): Technology can increase the efficiency of filing and tracking home insurance claims. Companies scored higher if they had technology options like mobile apps and online chat functions.
- Reputation (20): We gauged trustworthiness based on years of experience and Better Business Bureau (BBB) ratings.
- Additional benefits (15): Companies that offered optional features, like discounts and endorsements, scored higher than competitors that didn’t.
Our Reviews team has a full-time researcher who collects and regularly updates data points from every company to help us compare them on key factors such as coverage, service, and dependability.
To share feedback or ask a question about this article, send a note to our Reviews Team at reviews@thisoldhousereviews.com.
Ratings listed in this article are accurate as of October 2022.