A South Carolina homeowners insurance policy protects you if your home or personal belongings are destroyed by fire, wind, theft, or another unexpected event. To help you determine which company will offer the best home insurance for you, read our guide the top providers in the Palmetto State.
To get home insurance quotes in your area, call 855-948-5219 or enter your zip code in our free quote tool:
South Carolina’s Top 4 Home Insurance Companies
The highest-rated homeowners insurance companies in South Carolina are:
- State Farm: Best Endorsements
- Travelers: Most Experience
- Liberty Mutual: Best Discounts
- Amica: Best Customer Service
State Farm
- Our Take: Best Endorsements
- J.D. Power Rating: 835/1000
- A.M. Best Rating: A++
If you are looking to bundle your home and auto insurance, State Farm is the best provider for you. You can customize your policy with their over 10 endorsements to get a plan that meets your insurance needs.
Benefits of State Farm Homeowners Insurance
✔ Strong financial strength
✔ User-friendly online resources
✔ Largest homeowners insurance company in the country
Get a Quote: call 1-360-262-2561 to get your free quote today!
Learn More: State Farm Homeowners Insurance Review
*A.M. Best ratings accurate as of January 2023
Travelers
- Our Take: Most Experience
- J.D. Power Rating: 800/1000
- A.M. Best Rating: A++
Travelers is the most customizable home insurance provider compared to the other companies listed in this review. While Liberty Mutual and Amica have a set percentage of dwelling for other structures, personal property, and additional living expenses coverage, Travelers gives you at least five options for each type of coverage that go up to 100% of dwelling coverage.
Benefits of Travelers Homeowners Insurance
✔ Cheapest quote in this review
✔ Five discounts to lower insurance premiums
✔ More than 160 years in the home insurance business
Get a Quote: Travelers Homeowners Insurance Quote
Learn More: Travelers Homeowners Insurance Review
Liberty Mutual
- Our Take: Best Discounts
- J.D. Power Rating: 806/1000
- A.M. Best Rating: A
Liberty Mutual has been in the insurance industry offering affordable homeowners insurance policies for over 100 years.
A Liberty Mutual home insurance policy stays affordable because of the company’s homeowner discounts, which is typically more than what Amica® and Travelers provide.
Example Discounts You May be Eligible For:
- Claims-free
- Safe homeowner
- Early shopper
- Newly purchased home
- New/renovated home
- New roof
- Multi-policy
- Insured to value
- Preferred payment
- Paperless policy
Benefits of Liberty Mutual Homeowners Insurance
✔ Online quotes
✔ Over 100 years of experience in the insurance industry
✔ Hurricane endorsement for South Carolina homeowners along the coast
Get a Quote: Liberty Mutual Homeowners Insurance Quote
Learn More: Liberty Mutual Homeowners Insurance Review
Amica
- Our Take: Best Customer Service
- J.D. Power Rating: 854/1000
- A.M. Best Rating: A+
While Amica doesn’t offer 24/7 customer service for all insurance questions, it does have a 24/7 claims center, mobile app, customer portal, and online chat. On top of that, J.D. Power has ranked Amica number one for its claims process nine years in a row.
Benefits of Amica Homeowners Insurance
✔ Claims center open 24/7
✔ More liability coverage options than Liberty Mutual and Farmers
✔ Catastrophic coverage endorsement for damage caused by hurricanes
Learn More: Amica Homeowners Insurance Review
South Carolina Homeowners Insurance Coverage
Home insurance policies in South Carolina provide six types of coverage:
- Liability—Liability coverage protects you if you’re responsible for causing bodily injury or property damage to another person. You should purchase enough protection to cover all of your assets, which may include your primary residence, business, vacation home, and car, so that your property is protected during a lawsuit. For most homeowners, this means you need at least $300,000 of liability coverage.
- Medical payments to others—If a guest is injured in your home, your policy will pay for their medical bills. Most companies offer $1,000–$5,000 of coverage per person.
- Dwelling—If an event like a fire destroys your home, your insurance provider will pay to rebuild it with the same features.
- Other structures—This covers detached structures on your property, like a shed or fence. You usually get 10% of dwelling coverage for other structures coverage.
- Personal property—This part of your policy protects your personal belongings and replaces them if they’re damaged. Most policies come with at least 50% of dwelling for personal property coverage.
- Loss of use—If your home is temporarily unlivable due to repairs, you can file a claim to have your insurance company cover additional living expenses, like a temporary rental or meals. You usually get 20% of dwelling coverage for loss of use coverage.
How Much Does a Homeowners Insurance Policy Cost in South Carolina?
In 2019, the average cost of homeowners insurance in South Carolina was $1,303 per year, or $108.58 per month, according to the Insurance Information Institute (III). When compared to the national average, insurance rates in South Carolina were about $31 more per year at the time, making it the 17th-most expensive state in the country.
Note: The cost of your home insurance policy will depend on where you live, the provider you choose, and a variety of other factors, including how many claims you’ve filed in the past, how many pets you have, and whether or not you have safety features in your home.
Factors to Consider Before Buying Homeowners Insurance
Before starting your home insurance search, think about these factors and how they could affect your policy:
- Hurricanes—While natural disasters aren’t typically covered under a policy, you can usually buy an endorsement to receive coverage for them. Both Liberty Mutual and Amica offer endorsements that will cover hurricane damage.
- Lender requirements—Home insurance is not required by law, but it may be required by the lending institution that gave you a home loan. Check with your lender before buying a policy to make sure you meet their minimum coverage requirements.
- ACV vs. RCV—When you see the terms actual cash value (ACV) and replacement cash value (RCV), it usually pertains to personal property coverage. ACV policies pay for your belongings’ replacements based on their current value, while RCV policies pay based on their new value. Most homeowners insurance policies start out as ACV, but you can usually buy an RCV endorsement that will slightly increase the cost of your policy.
- Budget—Home insurance costs more than other types of policies, like renters and auto insurance. We recommend examining your monthly budget and determining how much room you have for an insurance premium before looking at policies. Additionally, consider going for a home insurance company like Liberty Mutual that provides a variety of discounts to lower your monthly premium.
Comparing the Best Homeowners Insurance in South Carolina
Our Conclusion
State Farm, Liberty Mutual, Amica, and Travelers are our top picks for home insurance policies in South Carolina because of their affordable premiums, strong customer service, and customizable levels of coverage. To compare coverage and pricing from all three companies, call 855-948-5219 or use our tool below and input your zip code to get quotes:
Frequently Asked Questions
Our Rating Methodology
The This Old House Reviews 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 ratings.
- Additional benefits (15): Companies that offered optional features, like discounts and endorsements, scored higher than competitors that didn’t.
The This Old House 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.