[lmf22]

I'm looking to purchase some renter's insurance.  Do you guys think it's a good idea, especially since I have a lot of audio equipments?  All my audio equipments are replaceable if damaged in fire or gets stolen, but will take me a long time to buy them all again because I'm on a grad student budget.  My apartment complex small and has a gate, and I live on the second floor, so theft is probably not very likely but I still like to have a peace of mind. 
 
Any recommendations on which insurance company to go with?  A Google search for "renters insurance" came up with State Farm, esurance, Progressive, All State... basically the big insurance companies.  Is it important to have an insurance agent to talk to?  If that's the case, State Farm might be the best. 

 

[Eee Pee]

I've had renter's insurance through Nationwide (and car insurance too) for 20 years.
 
I've needed it three times.  Theft can happen to anyone, at anytime in any neighborhood you live in.
 
I pay $100 a year for it.

 

[El_Doug]

We pay $65/year for ours - it is quite a small investment for saving potentially thousands worth of possessions, no reason not to get it

 

[mulveling]

It's cheap as hell. If you have a decent amount of gear, you SHOULD NOT be without it. Make sure you get enough. Most apartments and homes don't have anything in the way of physical security that will stop a couple of delinquent teenagers with too much idle time, much less a serious thief.
 
I've had it for years and it covered my butt years back when a couple kids broke in and (fortunately) left most of the valuable gear strewn about. They didn't know what an ATH-L3000 nor a Meridian CD player was - all unharmed. They didn't vandalize the speakers or anything of that nature, other than making a complete mess, which was at least nice (silver lining). They did take ~$4.4K in stuff, almost half of which was an AT W2002/HA2002 combo - I'm sure because it had gold knobs and was right by the window they broke into. They took a ton of DVDs. They did take a really nice gold coin which would be worth a ton now - that's the one I'm most miffed about. Fortunately I now live in a place with GOOD physical security, PLUS some wonderful "security through obscurity". 
 
The insurance co. reimbursed me for about $3.8K of it, after some hassle and back-and-forth. I did have photo evidence of owning this stuff (with my picture ID), along with some boxes/manuals/etc. That helped A LOT. Receipts would be even better. Keep as MUCH of that around as you can! Also - and this should go without saying - make sure you always lock doors and windows! An unforced entry is going to be much harder to argue.
 
I feel like I get a great deal for my renter's insurance (the peace of mind is great), unlike car insurance which is a complete ripoff for me, now @ 10 years driving with a completely unblemished record. I guess I'm subsidizing the drunk drivers.

 

[Eee Pee]

Quote:

 unlike car insurance which is a complete ripoff for me, now @ 10 years driving with a completely unblemished record. I guess I'm subsidizing the drunk drivers.

I was the in the same boat, then smashed up a 4 door M3.  That pretty much equaled things out.

 

[Lazarus Short]

It's a no-brainer.

 

[fatcat28037]

Buy the insurance, it's cheap. Also keep receipts for expensive stuff and on at least an annual basis take photos or video of you apartments interior to document your possessions. Keep the documentation some place other that your apartment. Dealing with insurance companies is so much easier when you can prove you had a $2000 bicycle and a 1000 CD collection. 

 

[lmf22]

Thank you all for the input.  I will head to a local State Farm agent in the next few days and get everything set up.  I just like having a person there to deal with and State Farm has two agents with a few miles of my apartment.  According to State Farm's website, the annual premium is less than $200 for the $30,000 insurance.  Pretty inexpensive I think.
 
mulveling, when you said "photo evidence of owning this stuff (with my picture ID)" did you mean photos of all my stuffs with my photo ID next to it? 
 
I have boxes, manuals, and receipts for most of my equipments.  I can keep the photos on an Dropbox and the receipts in a safe-deposit box (good idea?)  Also, in addition to photos individual equipments, should I just take as many photos of the apartment's interior as possible (e.g., overview of my equipment rack, computer desk)?

 

[Uncle Erik]

Yes, get it. It's cheap.

You might want to talk to AAA. I've found the least expensive car insurance through them and you get additional discounts for adding other policies. I also like AAA because they provide DMV services. The time saved is worth every cent of membership. AAA agents are significantly more helpful than DMV agents, too.

(This is only for California. AAA in other states isn't quite the same.)

 

[beerguy0]

Quote:

I'm looking to purchase some renter's insurance.  Do you guys think it's a good idea, especially since I have a lot of audio equipments?  All my audio equipments are replaceable if damaged in fire or gets stolen, but will take me a long time to buy them all again because I'm on a grad student budget.  My apartment complex small and has a gate, and I live on the second floor, so theft is probably not very likely but I still like to have a peace of mind. 
 
Any recommendations on which insurance company to go with?  A Google search for "renters insurance" came up with State Farm, esurance, Progressive, All State... basically the big insurance companies.  Is it important to have an insurance agent to talk to?  If that's the case, State Farm might be the best. 

 
Yes. Don't hesitate, just get it. It's cheap, and will come in handy if you get ripped off. I got burgled once without renters insurance, and it sucked.
 
Also, keep good records of what you have. Back in the mid 80s, I was into audio very heavily, and had mostly audiophile recordings (MFSL, Japanese imports, etc.) I kept receipts for every record, and a list of all my albums (Artist, title, label, catalog number). My insurance company actually paid me 1/2 the value of my records, even though they typically didn't cover records at all. I picked up an additional $800 from my records, which I put towards my replacement stereo.
 
 

 

[Borgbox]

Yes without a doubt you need renters insurance. Mine was only about 10 bucks a month and I had paid on it for only six months then my apartment burnt down and I lost everything. Without the insurance I'd have just about nothing right now. It's so worth it.

 

[Mkubota1]

+1 on taking pictures of everything.  It's easy especially in the digital age.  You can store the pics on the cloud, email to yourself, whatever.  And yeah- not sure if you drive a car.  But you usually do get a discount when you have both renters and auto from the same company.

 

[rexg]

it's always good to have renters insurance. you will never know what will happen when you tally the value of your stuff, you will be surprised how much the cost is to replace them.

 

[lmf22]

Update: I ended up getting renter's insurance from AAA.  It's $130 a year.

 

[The Monkey]

Now you need to do what most people don't: read your policy.  Make sure that which you expect to be covered is, both in terms of property and events.  It is possible that for some of your more esoteric, but valuable, stuff, you will need some sort of personal articles floater.