May 11, 2022

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travels home insurance coverage

Travelers Insurance has earned the reputation of being a well-established company that offers one of the most customizable home insurance policies available. With Travelers home insurance, you start with a basic policy, then choose from an abundance of add-ons unique to your home and budget.

Founded in 1864, Travelers continues to innovate with modern policies, like green home protection. They also offer multiple discounts and leading-edge digital tools to enhance your customer experience. Travelers is also among the top-rated insurance companies by A.M. Best, Moody’s, and Standard & Poor’s.

In this post, I will discuss Travelers home insurance program and everything that comes along with it. I will cover:

  • What comes in a Travelers homeowners insurance standard policy
  • What additional coverage options are available
  • What Travelers home insurance discounts are available
  • Customer experience, satisfaction, and consumer complaints
  • Where Travelers home insurance is available

Let’s get started with this post.

Travelers Homeowners Insurance Standard Policy

Travelers Homeowners Insurance Standard Policy

Homeowners insurance exists to give you peace of mind if something happens in or to your home. If you own your home, your mortgage lender usually requires you to have a homeowners insurance policy. Even if they don’t, you’re strongly recommended to have one. If someone gets injured, or if there’s property damage or theft, your insurance policy can cover legal fees, repairs, and more. 

Like many homeowners insurance companies, Travelers homeowners insurance covers the standard types of coverage you’d expect from your insurance provider. These include:
  • Dwelling coverage
  • Other structures coverages
  • Personal property coverages
  • Loss-of-use coverage
  • Personal liability protection

Dwelling Coverage

Dwelling coverage is insurance protection for the structure of your home. If a fire burns down your kitchen, or if your roof is damaged in a sudden hail storm, this coverage pays for the costs of repairing or rebuilding your home. 

Your home’s structure includes your floors, walls, roof, doors, windows, and foundation. Dwelling coverage usually also includes structural attachments, like your porch, deck, garage, and fixtures. 

Dwelling coverage is sometimes referred to as “hazard insurance,” - they’re generally considered the same thing. Here’s what’s usually covered, and what isn’t:

Covered

Not Covered

Wind and hail

Flooding

Vandalism/theft

Poor maintenance/upkeep

Fire, smoke, and lighting

“Earth movement” (Landslides, mudslides, and earthquakes)

Weight of ice or snow

Water backup

Volcanic eruptions

Infestations

Freezing of plumbing, air conditioning, heating, or other household systems

Home vacancy

With Travelers home insurance, the coverage you get should be enough to repair or rebuild your home, or come very close to it, with an add-on that can cover the rest (more on that later). There is no minimum or maximum requirement.

Other Structures Coverage

While dwelling coverage protects the structure of your home and its attachments, other structures coverage insures other parts of your property. These structures include your:

  • Fence
  • Driveway
  • Dock
  • Detached garage
  • Shed
  • Barn
  • Gazebo
  • Pool house

Like dwelling insurance, this coverage only pays for any damages done to the structures themselves, not for their contents. In other words, if your guest house catches fire and burns everything inside, the rebuilding of your guest house will be covered, but not everything inside. 

In general, this coverage includes and doesn’t include the same things as your dwelling insurance.

Personal Property Coverage

If your home was completely destroyed tomorrow, how much would it cost you to replace all your personal belongings? Hopefully, you never have to find out, and with personal property insurance, those costs are covered up to the limit of your policy. 

Personal items covered under Travelers homeowners insurance include:

  • Most clothing
  • Most electronics
  • Furniture
  • Jewelry
  • Appliances
  • Sports equipment
  • Books and music
  • Serveware

The term “personal property” can be pretty broad, so it’s important to note that some items usually aren’t included, such as your car. You should look into Travelers auto insurance for that. Personal items that aren’t included or have coverage limitations include:

  • Electronics
  • Jewelry
  • Gold, coins, and money
  • Silverware and goldware
  • Business-related items
  • Firearms
  • Furs

It’s also important to note that there are some coverage limitations and sublimits within your personal property coverage. 

For example, you might have up to $250,000 in total coverage, but only $3,000 of coverage for your jewelry. If someone robs your home and steals $5,000 worth of jewelry, you’re only covered for the first $3,000. You’ll need to get special coverage for the rest. More on that later.

Loss-Of-Use Coverage

If your home is destroyed in a fire, tornado, or something else that you have coverage for, loss-of-use coverage helps you pay for some of your expenses while your property is being repaired. 

Commonly, loss-of-use covers the cost of your home rental or hotel, pet boarding, moving and storage costs, and meals. 

Loss-of-use coverage is designed for you to maintain your typical standard of living. If you’re living in a one-bedroom condo, Travelers insurance will not cover you if you’re renting out a five-bedroom house with a hot tub and a pool. 

There are a few exceptions where this coverage pays for expenses beyond your normal living cost. For example, if your family’s food budget every week is $200, but you spend $500 in restaurants because your hotel doesn’t have a suitable kitchen, Travelers insurance will cover the $300 difference. Make sure you keep all your receipts so that Travelers insurance will reimburse you.

Personal Liability Protection

Personal liability insurance protects you if someone gets injured on your property. Liability coverage can pay for the expense you’d otherwise be responsible for. Personal liability coverage usually covers everyone living on your property, including your kids and pets. 

If you have your neighbor over and your dog bites them, your personal liability coverage will pay for your legal fees, medical expenses, and other fees you could be sued for, up to your policy’s limit. 

Here’s what’s included in personal liability protection, and what is not:

Covered

Not Covered

Injuries on your property

Auto accidents

Injuries caused by one of your kids or pets

Business liability

Damage someone else in your household causes

Injuries to someone within your household

Injuries you cause (accidental)

Injuries you cause (intentional)

Damage on your property that also impacts other people's homes


Additional Coverage Options Available

Additional Coverage Options Available

What makes Travelers insurance stand out compared to other home insurance companies is the number of add-ons they offer, and how tailored these additions can be. As I mentioned earlier, Travelers home insurance is known for its customizable policies. Here are a few coverage options to consider:

  • Special personal property coverage
  • Replacement cost and additional replacement cost protection
  • Extra coverage for jewelry and valuables
  • Water backs and sump pump discharge or overflow
  • Identity fraud
  • Green home discount

Special Personal Property Coverage

Special personal property coverage further protects your personal belongings. Travelers’ special property coverage protects items in your home in every instance, except for specific exemptions listed on your policy. You can usually get special coverage for many items that you can’t get coverage for in your standard policy. 

Special coverage also includes situations that wouldn’t be included in your standard policy. For example, if you destroy your laptop by spilling a drink on it, you’d be considered “at fault” in your standard policy, and you’d have to buy a new laptop out of pocket. However, with special personal property coverage, you can get a laptop replaced even if you’re at fault.

Additional Replacement Cost Protection Coverage

Travelers insurance also offers additional replacement cost protection. If the cost to fix your home is higher than your payout, this protection coverage pays for the remaining costs. 

Think of additional replacement cost protection coverage as an enhanced version of dwelling coverage. While your standard policy covers the costs of repairs and rebuilding your home, it’s based on the estimates decided on when you purchase your policy. However, there are instances where the actual cost ends up being more. Your additional replacement cost protection usually provides an extra 10% to 25% of coverage. 

Let’s say that when you first purchase Travelers home insurance, the cost to repair or rebuild your home is $300,000. However, when your home is burned down, the real placement cost is $325,000. Additional replacement cost protection is meant to cover the extra $25,000.

Extra Coverage For Jewelry And Valuables

Remember the earlier example where you have $250,000 in personal property coverage, but your jewelry coverage is limited to $3,000? If you get burgled and someone steals $5,000 worth of jewelry, you’re not covered for the remaining $2,000. 

That’s where this extra coverage kicks in. With Travelers insurance, you can purchase extra protection so you’re fully covered if your stuff gets stolen.

Personal Articles Floater

The personal articles floater highlights how customizable Travelers insurance can be. It’s itemized coverage specific to whatever you’re trying to insure, whether it’s your wedding ring, collector’s items, or sporting equipment.

Water Backup And Sump Pump Discharge Or Overflow

This endorsement to your Travelers homeowners insurance gives you added protection from water damage caused by backed-up drains or failed sump pumps. Coverage for the losses incurred by these types of water damage is taken care of up to the amount specified in this add-on. 

However, it doesn’t include surface water backup or coverage for floods. Usually, homeowners insurance companies have specific water damage policies for those situations.

Identity Fraud

Identity fraud can wreak havoc on your life. It can tarnish your reputation, destroy your credit and assets, and damage your medical and financial history. 

Travelers offers identity fraud expense reimbursement coverage. With the identity fraud add-on, you can receive up to $25,000 to cover expenses if someone steals your personal information.

Green Home Discount

Travelers home insurance emphasizes their “green” coverage. Their green home add-ons can cover:

  • Up to $25,000 for the cost of recycling debris
  • Up to $1,000 for a dwelling to meet the requirements to be green certified
  • Additional expenses incurred when rebuilding or repairing with green materials and methods, with up to 10% of the amount paid for the loss

Let’s say there’s a kitchen fire that destroys $10,000 worth of your covered appliances. With green home coverage, you can get an additional 10%, or $1,000, if you choose to use “green” appliances, such as those with the “Energy Star” logo.

Travelers Home Insurance Discounts

Travelers Home Insurance Discounts

In addition to the green home discount, Travelers insurance offers several other ways to save:

  • Multi-policy discount - With the multi-policy discount, you can save an average of 12% on home insurance when you also purchase a car insurance policy, and three additional policies.
  • Home buyer discount - To qualify for the home buyer discount, you must have purchased your home within 12 months of the policy effective date.
  • Loss-free discount - If you have no prior claims, or a low history of claims, you can qualify for an insurance discount.
  • Protective device discount - You can save money by further safeguarding your home. Install a sprinkler system, smoke detector and fire alarms on every floor, and consider getting a home security system. 
  • Early quote discount - If you shop far enough in advance, you can save up to 10% when selecting a Travelers home insurance policy. 

Customer Experience, Satisfaction, And Consumer Complaints

Travelers’ website makes managing your policy easy online. When visiting their site, you’ll have very little difficulty navigating their home insurance options, finding an agent, making updates to your policy, paying your bill, and submitting or tracking your claims. They also have a Travelers app available on both Android and iOS devices. 

According to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, or NAIC, Travelers had fewer consumer complaints than expected for a home insurance company of their size, but still more than the national average. Travelers also scored a 3.7/5 with Consumer Affairs, and a 4.8/5 with Consumers Advocate

However, their overall customer service ratings were considered “below average,” according to J.D. Power and Associates. Travelers received low marks for their billing process and policy information, which includes company timeliness, billing statement accuracy, and policy information.

Where Is Travelers Home Insurance Available?

Where Is Travelers Home Insurance Available?

You can purchase a Travelers home insurance policy anywhere in the U.S. However, specific rates, discounts, and customizations vary or are limited in certain states. 

For example, one of their primary offerings is Quantum Home 2.0, which dives deep into Travelers insurances’ customizations. Quantum Home 2.0 helps you personalize your home insurance policy by following three simple steps:

  • Pick your base policy coverage. This includes your dwelling coverage, and then certain percentages of over types of coverage highlighted in the standard policy. For example, you can select how much personal liability insurance you want: either $100,000, $300,000, or $500,000.
  • Choose your coverage limits. There are three plans available, depending on what you need. The basic plan is “Travelers Protect.” The intermediate plan is “Travelers Protect Plus,” and their top-tier plan, which provides more coverage than many other insurance companies, is “Travelers Protect Premier.”
  • Select optional coverage “bundles.” Here, you can add auto insurance, or select from one of the many add-on policies available.

While previous Travelers products are still being phased out, Quantum Home 2.0 is not yet available in the following states:

  • Alaska
  • Delaware
  • Florida
  • Hawaii
  • Louisiana
  • Michigan
  • New York
  • North Carolina
  • Rhode Island
  • West Virginia

Final Thoughts On Travelers Insurance

Travelers insurance is great for its numerous coverage options and their “pay for what you need” attitude. They should also be commended for having eco-friendly coverage, which is still uncommon in the insurance world. 

While other companies offer better discounts and have higher consumer satisfaction scores, I think Travelers home insurance is definitely worth exploring. Their coverage is so customizable that you can definitely find a way to make their insurance work for you. Also, their green home policies and the extra coverage you can get for specific items are sure to satisfy many of their customers.

About the Author

As a native Washingtonian, Carlos Reyes’ journey in the real estate industry began more than 15 years ago when he started an online real estate company. Since then, he’s helped more than 700 individuals and families as a real estate broker achieve their real estate goals across Virginia, Maryland and Washington, DC.

Carlos now helps real estate agents grow their business by teaching business fundamentals, execution, and leadership.

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