State Farm Renters Insurance Review

Evaluating State Farm’s renters insurance – the 7 factors to consider
How expensive is State Farm renters insurance?
What does State Farm renters insurance cover?
Can you bundle State Farm renters insurance with other policies?
How easy is it to buy a policy and file a claim?
What are State Farm’s consumer satisfaction ratings?
Is State Farm financially stable?
Does State Farm operate in your state?
Recap: Should you choose State Farm renters insurance?
State Farm renters insurance: Our final rating

Evaluating State Farm’s renters insurance – the 7 factors to consider

Reviews of insurance companies often hit you with dozens of factors to consider, such as the company’s AM Best and Moody’s ratings. The truth is that many of these metrics aren’t relevant to the average customer, and you don’t need to worry about them.

When evaluating State Farm’s renters insurance, you really only need to consider the following seven questions:

How expensive is State Farm renters insurance?
What does State Farm renters insurance cover?
Can you bundle State Farm renters insurance with any other policies?
How easy is it to buy a policy and file a claim?
What are State Farm’s consumer satisfaction ratings?
Is State Farm financially stable?
Does State Farm provide renters insurance in your state?

State Farm measures up fairly well against its competitors in most of these categories.

How expensive is State Farm renters insurance?

We collected data on every major renters insurance provider and found that State Farm’s policies were about 25% cheaper than their competitors’ in most states.

On average, State Farm’s standard policies cost a little under $15 per month, as compared with the industry average of $20 per month. (Many sources cite $15 as the average price of renters insurance, but the data we’ve collected shows that the average price is actually around $20.)

Takeaway: Overall, we found that State Farm’s prices were better than average.

What does State Farm renters insurance cover?

State Farm provides the same 4 types of coverage that all renters insurance companies provide:

Personal property coverage: If your property is stolen or destroyed by a covered peril, State Farm will reimburse you for the damage, minus your renters insurance deductible (a fixed amount that you have to pay yourself).
Personal liability coverage: If you injure someone, break their property, or somebody sues you, State Farm will cover your legal expenses, including any damages the injured party is awarded.
Guest medical coverage: If someone is injured or gets sick in your home, State Farm will cover a portion of their medical bills, even if you’re not held legally liable.
Loss-of-use coverage: If a covered peril temporarily forces you out of your home, State Farm will cover your living expenses, such as your hotel fees.

Renters insurance coverage is fairly standard, so it’s rare for providers to differ significantly in this respect. However, State Farm’s coverage gives them several edges over their competitors:

State Farm offers replacement cost coverage

By default, State Farm’s policies all provide replacement cost coverage, which is much more comprehensive than the alternative, actual cash value coverage. This is good news — it’s almost always worth getting replacement cost coverage if you can, and some insurers don’t offer it, or only offer it for an additional fee.

State Farm renters insurance covers earthquakes

State Farm is one of just a few renters insurance providers that allow you to add earthquake coverage to your plan with an insurance rider for an extra fee. (Normally, renters insurance doesn’t cover earthquakes, so this is a big deal.)

State Farm offers this option relatively cheaply, usually for around $1 extra per month. Unfortunately, they don’t offer it in California, although they do allow you to purchase separate earthquake insurance through the California Earthquake Authority (CEA). For more info, read our overview of renters insurance in California.

State Farm’s coverage is dog-friendly

Additionally, State Farm’s coverage is great for dog owners, as they’re the only major insurer that has pledged to never ask about your dog’s breed when you buy renters insurance. This means they’re a great choice if you need renters insurance that covers pit bulls.

Takeaway: Overall, we found that State Farm renters insurance coverage was significantly better than average, especially if you live in an earthquake-prone state or have a dog.

Can you bundle State Farm renters insurance with other policies?

Most insurers allow you to bundle your renters insurance policy with another type of insurance, like auto insurance, for a discount. In many cases, the savings from bundling means you’re essentially getting renters insurance for free (or coming close to it, anyway).

Although State Farm offers several types of insurance, they only let you bundle renters insurance with auto insurance. That’s a bit disappointing, but not particularly surprising because auto insurance is much more common than the other types of insurance that State Farm offers, such as life insurance.

Our agent offered us a 9% discount on auto insurance if we bundled it with renters insurance, which is in line with what most other insurers offer. Bundling discounts vary, but you can expect yours to be roughly similar to that.

Takeaway: Overall, we found that State Farm’s renters insurance bundling options were about average.

How easy is it to buy a policy and file a claim?

Like most major insurers, you can buy a renters insurance policy and file insurance claims:

Through State Farm’s website
Via their mobile app
By calling and speaking with an agent

We tested all three options.

State Farm’s website has significant problems

State Farm’s website has most of the same features as its competitors. To buy renters insurance, you fill out a short quiz and receive an automatic quote. Once you buy your policy, you’re able to log into State Farm’s online portal to review your policy, make payments, and file claims.

State Farm’s website has several nice features. When you buy renters insurance, you can finalize your purchase on their site (most other insurers also let you do this, but a few require you to actually call an agent). State Farm’s website also gives you a lot of options when it comes to coverage; for instance, you can choose between $2,000 and $1,000,000 in personal property coverage, which is a broader range than most insurance companies offer.

Unfortunately, our overall experience with State Farm’s website was not very good. We found it clunky and prone to breaking.

Problems with State Farm’s website

State Farm’s website is unclear about many important details about its policies. As mentioned, State Farm offers replacement cost coverage — a significant perk — but does not mention this anywhere in their renters insurance questionnaire.
State Farm offers fewer choices than their competitors when it comes to your renters insurance deductible. The lowest deductible their website allows you to select is $500, whereas some of their competitors offer deductibles starting at $250.
If you attempt to buy insurance in a state they don’t operate in, such as Massachusetts or Rhode Island, their website doesn’t tell you immediately. It waits until you’ve already filled in several screens of personal info, wasting your time.
It’s easy to break State Farm’s website when buying a policy. It doesn’t recover well if you enter unexpected information, like an unusual coverage amount, or an invalid address. Instead, it tends to prompt you to speak with an agent, or redirects you back to the first page of the quiz.
It’s also easy to break State Farm’s website when filing a claim. For example, we began filing a property claim and then stepped away for several minutes. When we returned, State Farm’s website had logged us out. That’s a common security measure, and we expected it; the problem is that we were unable to log back in because we received an “access denied” error on every page of State Farm’s website for the rest of the afternoon.

State Farm’s app is more polished

Fortunately, State Farm’s mobile app is much more robust. We experienced no problems signing in or using the claims feature. It has largely positive reviews on Google Play and the App Store, and received a Webby Award in 2020 and 2021 for excellent design.

If you prefer to handle claims and payments online, we strongly recommend using State Farm’s app instead of their website.

Calling an agent also is a positive experience

State Farm’s in-person and over-the-phone customer support is also much better than their website. We called State Farm and bought a renters insurance policy, and their agent was polite and fielded all of our questions competently.

State Farm has an extensive network of agents and a lot of locations, so if you don’t mind handling things over the phone or in person, you’ll probably have a good experience. (As good as dealing with insurance can be, anyway — it’s nobody’s favorite way to spend a Saturday.)

Takeaway: State Farm’s user experience was a very mixed bag. We found their online portal to be below average; we found their mobile app and customer service to be above average.

What are State Farm’s consumer satisfaction ratings?

To gauge how responsive an insurer is to claims and how well they treat their customers in general, it’s helpful to look at their consumer satisfaction ratings. Specifically, we looked at State Farm’s J.D. Power ratings, Better Business Bureau customer reviews, and the number of complaints they’ve received via the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC).

State Farm’s J.D. Power rating: 836/1000 (average)

Every year, J.D. Power conducts a survey to see how satisfied consumers are with their homeowners and renters insurance. They ask respondents how they would rate their company’s pricing, insurance coverage, and customer service, as well as what their experience was with filing claims.

We find J.D. Power’s insurance surveys to be fairly reliable (in contrast to their more famous auto ratings, which are notoriously sketchy).

In J.D. Power’s 2020 survey, State Farm earned a score of 836/1000, which places it in the middle of the pack. For context, the two highest-rated renters insurance providers had scores of 888 and 866, and the lowest had a score of 805.

State Farm’s Better Business Bureau customer reviews: 1.3/5 (slightly above average)

State Farm has an average rating of 1.3 out of 5 stars on the Better Business Bureau’s website, and around 1330 complaints. (Note that these figures come from reviews left by actual customers, unlike the BBB’s own ratings, which, as CNNMoney noted, are questionable.)

A rating of 1.3 might seem low, but it’s important to put that number into context. It’s actually better than average — for example, Allstate is rated 1.14 stars with 1300 complaints, and Progressive is rated 1.1 with a staggering 2870 complaints.

The reasons behind this aren’t too mysterious. People only deal with insurers when something is wrong, and are more likely to leave online reviews when they’re unhappy. This means that most insurers have poor scores on the BBB’s website. Overall, State Farm’s rating is slightly (but not overwhelmingly) better than their competition.

State Farm’s NAIC complaints: 21 (below average)

In 2020, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners received 21 complaints about State Farm’s renters insurance. Although that number is low in absolute terms, it’s much higher than some of its competitors’ — for instance, Progressive received 3 complaints, and Allstate received just 1.

However, it’s also important to put that number into context. The NAIC’s 2020 report looked at the homeowners and renters insurance market, and found that State Farm’s share of the market (17.87%) was more than twice the size of Allstate’s (8.16%) and more than 10x the size of Progressive’s (1.72%). Moreover, we surveyed several insurance agents who have worked at both companies who noted that State Farm was less likely to decline to provide insurance to renters, which means that they wrote more policies overall.

Takeaway: State Farm’s consumer reviews are broadly similar to its competitors. Overall, we found them to be about average.

Is State Farm financially stable?

Some renters insurance reviews look at various metrics of the insurance company’s financial health, such as their AM Best rating, which is a measure of creditworthiness.

In theory, this is a good idea, because an insurer’s finances affect their ability to settle claims (in other words, to pay you money).

In practice, this isn’t something you need to worry about when it comes to insurers like State Farm. Smaller, regional insurers sometimes struggle with insolvency, but a huge, national insurer like State Farm realistically will never have trouble paying out any claim you could possibly make on your renters insurance policy.

Takeaway: State Farm’s financial stability is no cause for concern.

Does State Farm operate in your state?

Not every insurer operates in every state. State Farm does not operate in Massachusetts or Rhode Island, so if you live there, you’ll obviously need to choose a different insurer.

Recap: Should you choose State Farm renters insurance?

As a major renters insurance provider, State Farm is a safe and reliable choice.

State Farm: Advantages

State Farm offers similar coverage to other major insurers for a slightly-better-than-average price.
State Farm offers replacement cost coverage by default. They also offer an earthquake endorsement, and never ask about dog breed.
State Farm provides a well-designed mobile app.
State Farm has a large network of agents and many locations across the country.

State Farm: Disadvantages

State Farm’s website is noticeably worse than most of its competitors’.

Why should you choose State Farm’s renters insurance?

You prefer working with an agent: If you prefer working with an agent instead of handling everything through the internet, State Farm’s large network makes them a good choice.
You have a “dangerous” breed of dog: If you have a dog that’s often regarded as dangerous, especially a pit bull, Rottweiler, or wolf-dog hybrid, State Farm might be your best option because their policy is to never ask about dog breed.

Why shouldn’t you choose State Farm’s renters insurance?

You’re from a military family: If you or one of your family members is in the military, you should look into USAA instead. USAA’s renters insurance is excellent, but only available to military families.
You prefer doing things online: If you’re phone-shy and hope to never have to call an agent, you should consider getting insurance from Lemonade, which has far fewer agents and pours most of their resources into their mobile app.
You have auto insurance from another provider: If you already have auto insurance from a different company that you’re reasonably happy with, bundling your renters insurance with them is probably your easiest and cheapest option. (This is assuming that they offer renters insurance.)

State Farm renters insurance: Our final rating

Overall, we rate State Farm’s renters insurance four stars out of five. (4/5)

Table of Contents

Evaluating State Farm’s renters insurance – the 7 factors to consider

How expensive is State Farm renters insurance?