Pennsylvania renters insurance protects you from liability claims and covers your personal belongings if they’re damaged from destructive events.
To help you find the best renters insurance policy, the This Old House Reviews Team wrote an all-inclusive review on renters insurance in the Keystone State. To see what companies offer the best coverage and learn how to buy a policy, keep reading.
3 Best Renters Insurance Companies in Pennsylvania
Here are the top providers of renters insurance in Pennsylvania.
- Allstate: Best Coverage Options
- State Farm: Best Endorsements
- Nationwide: Most Customizable Coverage
Allstate: Best Coverage Options
Allstate offers standard liability, personal property, loss of use, and medical payment coverage, but what brings the company to the next level is its customer service. Allstate is the only provider in this review that provides 24/7 customer service for all policy questions—not just claims.
If desired, customers can make their insurance policy more comprehensive by adding the following endorsements:
- Extended coverage on jewelry, watches, and furs
- Scheduled personal property
- Identity theft restoration
- Increased coverage on business property
- Uninsured/underinsured motorist
If you’re still not convinced that Allstate is right for you, here are a few additional benefits:
- A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau (BBB)
- Discounts of up to 25%
- Tool to help you calculate the value of your personal belongings
Learn More: Allstate Renters Insurance Review
State Farm: Best Endorsements
State Farm offers the most affordable renters insurance out of the providers listed in this review. The company provides an average policy that costs $12 per month, but our team received a quote for even lower at $7.58 for liability, additional living expenses, medical payments, and personal property coverage.
If a base policy isn’t enough for you, here are a few additional coverage options you can add to your plan:
- Earthquake damage
- Jewelry
- Computers
- Waterbed
- Identity restoration
- Additional liability coverage
- Additional business property
- Incidental business liability
Here are some more benefits of a State Farm policy:
- Allows up to $1 million worth of liability coverage
- Discounts for bundling insurance policies or for having safety features in your home
- Doesn’t typically charge a cancellation fee
Learn More: State Farm Renters Insurance Review
Nationwide: Most Customizable Coverage
Nationwide offers personal property, loss of use, liability, and medical payments to others like the other two providers, but it also includes credit card, building alterations and additions, and ordinance or law coverage in all of its policies.
You can even customize your policy with one of the nine endorsements below:
- Personal injury
- Limited water backup
- Increased building additions and alterations
- Refrigerated property
- Earthquake
- Scheduled personal property
- Flood insurance
- Personal liability umbrella coverage
- Additional insureds
When you purchase a Nationwide renters insurance policy, you’ll enjoy the following perks:
- Claims center open 24/7
- No limit on personal property coverage
- Add-ons for residents in states susceptible to natural disasters
Learn More: Nationwide Renters Insurance Review
Our Conclusion
We recommend Allstate, State Farm, and Nationwide renters insurance to any renter in Pennsylvania looking for a policy because of their affordable and comprehensive coverage. Before buying a policy, we encourage you to get quotes from all three companies to see which works best for your home and budget.
Enter your zip code in the tool below or call 855-948-5219 to compare quotes from renters insurance providers in your area:
Compare Renters Insurance Companies
| Companies | Allstate | State Farm | Nationwide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Types of coverage | Personal property, loss of use, liability, medical payments to others | Personal property, loss of use, liability, medical payments to others | Personal property, loss of use, liability, medical payments to others, ordinance or law, building additions and alterations, credit card |
| Personal property coverage limits | $25,000–$150,000 | No limit | No limit |
| Liability coverage limits | $100,000, $200,000, $300,000, or $500,000 | $100,000, $300,000, $400,000, $500,000, $750,000 or $1,000,000 | $100,000, $200,000, $300,000, $400,000, or $500,000 |
| ACV or RCV | ACV or RCV | ACV or RCV | ACV or RCV |
| Monthly price | About $16 | About $12 | About $20 |
| Discounts available | 5 | 2 | 3 |
| Unique add-ons | Scheduled personal property, uninsured/underinsured motorist | Waterbed, computer | Limited water backup, additional insureds |
| Customer service | 24/7 | Hours vary by department | 24/7 for claims; limited for sales and service |
| BBB rating | A+ | A | A+ |
Pennsylvania Renters Insurance Coverage
You can expect to find these four types of coverage in your renters insurance policy:
- Personal Property Coverage: This part of your renters insurance covers your personal belongings. To determine how much of this coverage to buy, you should take an inventory of your belongings and estimate their value. Purchase at least that amount of coverage so that you won’t have to pay any replacement costs out of pocket when your items are damaged.
- Loss of Use Coverage: If a fire or other major event forces you out of your apartment for repairs, your policy will cover living expenses that exceed how much you usually pay. For example, your provider will cover the cost of a hotel room.
- Liability Coverage: Your insurance policy covers the costs associated with events that cause bodily harm to your neighbors or damage to their belongings if you’re responsible for the event. An example of this would be if your dog bites your neighbor and they need stitches.
- Coverage for Medical Payments to Others: If someone is injured in your home, your policy will pay for their medical bills.
How Much Does a Renters Insurance Policy Cost in Pennsylvania?
In 2017, Pennsylvania renters insurance cost an average of $158 for the year, according to the Insurance Information Institute. That’s about $13 per month, which was lower than the national average of $15 per month.
Factors to Consider Before Buying Renters Insurance
Consider these factors to find the best renters insurance for you and your home:
- Actual Cash Value (ACV) vs. Replacement Cash Value (RCV) Policies: ACV and RCV policies are two types of personal property policies. An ACV policy replaces damaged items based on their value today, while RCV policies cost a little more because they replace items based on their new value.
- Weather: Pennsylvania’s temperature drops in the winter, making several feet of snow common. This extreme weather can cause frozen pipes and damage from the weight of snow, sleet, or ice. Make sure that the policy you purchase covers these events so that you don’t have to pay out of pocket for the damage they cause.
- Budget: While Pennsylvania has lower than average renters insurance rates, certain providers can charge up to $30 per month, which may not be reasonable for someone on a tight budget. State Farm offers policies for as low as $7.58 per month.
- Discounts: Most insurance companies offer renters insurance discounts for bundling your renters insurance with auto insurance or homeowners insurance. You may also receive a discount for having certain safety features in your home, like security systems and fire alarms. To get the lowest rate possible, look at companies like Allstate and Liberty Mutual that offer a wide range of discounts.
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 renters 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.