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Sunday, February 16th
Nationwide Mutual Insurance (commonly shortened to Nationwide), is a group of financial and U.S. insurance services based out of Columbus, Ohio. They were founded in 1926 and have become one of the largest insurance companies in the world, ranked number 75 in the 2024 Fortune 500 list. They have about 25,000 employees and also rank number 21 in Fortune's "100 Best Companies to Work For.” They offer vehicle, property, personal, business, and investment insurance.
Basic coverage with solid add-on options
Nationwide warns that nearly half of the homes in the U.S. are underinsured. They boast that with their homeowners insurance, you should be able to get to at least 100% of the estimated replacement cost. Nationwide provides different policies to fit your needs that cover dwelling, other structures, medical payments to others, personal liability, ordinance or law insurance, credit card coverage, personal property, and loss of use. Some optional add-on coverage choices include identity theft, dwelling replacement cost, service line, equipment breakdown, umbrella, roof replacement, water backup, earthquake, and flood insurance. If you're questioning what any of these are for, Nationwide has a brief explanation on their website of all of them to make it clear why you may or may not benefit from a particular type of coverage.
Long list of potential discounts
Some of the other policies offered through Nationwide that you might consider (so you can save some money on all of them) are auto insurance, personal umbrella insurance, and pet insurance. Nationwide actually lists quite a few other ways you might end up saving money on your policy including:
Quick quotes
Straight from Nationwide's website you can change your coverage, get ID cards and policy documents, make payments, and manage a claim. But first, you'll want to get a quote from them to see if Nationwide is a good fit. To start, provide your zip code and you'll be taken to a series of questions. You will need to provide your address, how many people live in your home, when you purchased it, the construction type and features of the property, and even if you own a certain type of dog breed. In total we answered 29 "pages” of questions, but it only took a few minutes. And they never asked for our social security number.
Finalize with an agent
If for some reason you don't meet the requirements for Nationwide to offer you a quote, they'll supply you with a short list of companies you might be able to use instead. If you do receive a quote from Nationwide, you can review all the coverage details and pricing. To lock it in, you'll need to contact one of their representatives by phone. They do say that it's possible that your quote will change during the process, so even though you can get a quote online, it won't necessarily be the exact same dollar amount you end up signing for. The Nationwide customer service team is available Monday - Friday 9 am to 8 pm ET and their phone number is listed on the website.
Pay attention to detail
We're glad to see that Nationwide has an "A+” rating from the Better Business Bureau. Individual customer reviews vary greatly since everyone's policy and situation is different. Some people said that year over year they sometimes receive a price increase of up to 50% when they haven't made any claims the previous year and had no changes to their property. Others say they've had no issue with Nationwide and have been using them for years. Ultimately, if you pay close attention to all the details of your insurance policy and feel comfortable with the pricing, you should have a good experience with Nationwide. They're a huge company and reputable enough to be reassured about using.
If it checks the boxes, go with it
A lot of people choose their homeowners insurance policy based on the monthly or yearly price. If you get a competitive quote from Nationwide and see that the coverage will completely pay for your home in case of a total loss and give you plenty of money for any other event you may experience, then we see no reason not to go with Nationwide. If they do drastically raise their prices year over year, you could always try to get a better quote from another highly-rated company in this review.
No one wants to imagine their home getting overrun with water damage, enduring a natural disaster, having a fire destroy their property, or having to deal with theft, but it happens. Everyone should have homeowner's insurance for peace of mind and to be taken care of in case of an emergency or unfortunate occurrence. In fact, it's so important that you can't take out a mortgage anymore unless you can prove you have homeowner's insurance in place.
It makes sense that banks don't want to hand over a loan with the risk that something will happen to the property and render the owner unable to continue paying their mortgage. Since your home is such an important asset, you don't want to risk being responsible for thousands of dollars in costs if unexpected damage or destruction were to occur. Being uninsured in a time of crisis could result in total financial ruin.
Most people don't have enough cash in the bank to cover a major portion of or even the entire cost of their home. It's probably the last thing you want to spend your money on when you're already paying a monthly mortgage. Having good home insurance is the best way to stay financially protected and ensure that you always have what it takes to repair and maintain your house if something goes wrong.
If you're a new homeowner, it may seem a little overwhelming to find an insurance policy. Luckily there are lots of companies available these days for you to choose from. Companies have gotten better at using layman's terms and really spelling out all their policies for you, so that you know what you'll be paying monthly, what the policy covers, and how to make a claim if you need to. Usually a company will offer a few different price ranges you can choose from, depending on how much coverage you think you need, and you can easily compare them to decide what works best with your budget and covers the risks that most threaten your property and surrounding area.
We've done some of the heavy lifting for you here by going over the process different companies require for you to get quotes and reviewing what people have to say about their customer service and follow-through with claims. When it comes to a situation regarding insurance, you don't want to mess around. We can't overstate the importance of being able to rely on a company that's affordable and will hold your hand while you navigate stressful situations.
Since there are quite a few insurance companies to choose from that have different types of policies, keep the following things in mind when choosing who to go with:
Top Consumer Reviews has researched the most important things you'd need to know about choosing a home insurance plan. We hope this information helps you find peace of mind knowing that one of your most valuable assets is protected. We've tried to make things as easy as possible for you to feel confident in your decision about which home insurance company to go with.
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