Nationwide Review

Suitable For?

There are a few good reasons to choose Nationwide but the top reason is the On Your Side Review. This is a free annual review granted to all members. During your On Your Side review, a Nationwide professional will sit down with you and go over your policy to make sure you’re getting the most out of it. 

The professional will help you answer these questions: Do you understand your policy and benefits? Does your coverage protect everything you value? Are you making the most of the available discounts and benefits? And do recent life changes mean you should add additional coverages? If necessary, the professional will help you update your policy.

What Coverage Includes

Nationwide offers a one-size-fits-all basic policy with roughly the same features as the basic policies offered by its rivals. Policies are customizable, meaning you can increase or decrease the deductible and/or coverage limits to suit your needs.

Here’s what’s included:

• Protection for your home and additional structures not attached to your home, plus coverage for built-in appliances and wall-to-wall carpet.
• Coverage for your personal belongings, such as furniture and clothing.
• Personal liability protection, in the event damage is caused to someone or something due to an accident in your home.
• Coverage for medical expenses if someone is injured or dies on your property.
• Loss of use, which covers additional living expenses if your home becomes uninhabitable due to a covered incident.
• Coverage for extra costs if you need to rebuild to current building codes after a covered loss.
• Credit card coverage up to your selected limit for unauthorized transactions on your credit card or forged checks in your name.

Optional Add-Ons

Nationwide offers an impressive range of voluntary add-ons, ensuring you and your household are covered for all sorts of liabilities.

Here’s what’s on offer:

• Additional coverage for high-value items such as jewelry, antiques, and art
• Protection against depreciation of covered items
• Better roof replacement with safer materials if your old roof is damaged in a covered loss
• Identity theft protection
• Expanded coverage for sewers, drains, and sump pump overflows
• Earthquake coverage (with separate deductible)
• Flood insurance (as a separate policy with separate deductible)
• Up to an additional 20% on top of your property coverage limit if your home needs to be rebuilt after a covered incident

Discounts

Nationwide offers these discounts:

Bundling

New home

Continuous coverage

Living in a gated community

Going claims-free for a period

Home renovation

Protective device

Application Process

In order to save time, Nationwide separates applicants into two groups. When you click the “Get a Quote” button on Nationwide’s website, you’ll see a list of eight questions. If you answer yes to any of the questions, Nationwide will invite you to call it or to schedule a time for an agent to call you. If you answer no, you’re free to go ahead and fill out an online form. The form is similar to the one most other home insurance companies make you fill out. It consists of questions about you, any co-applicants, and the home itself.

If you answer yes to any of these questions, you’ll need to complete your application by phone:

• Has your property insurance been cancelled or not renewed for reasons other than non-payment in the past 5 years?
• Is the home registered as historic?
• Is the home under construction or renovation or is it vacant?
• Do you have a Pit Bull, Doberman Pinscher, Rottweiler, Chow Chow, Presa Canario, or wolf hybrid?
• Do you operate a farm or business from home?
• Do you have an unfenced pool or trampoline?
• Have you or any other member of your household been convicted of a felony in the last 10 years?
• Have you or any other member of your household been convicted of insurance fraud, arson, a crime for property damage, or had a claim denied due to fraud or misrepresentation in the last five years?

How Safe is It?

Nationwide is a large, trusted insurer with more than 90 years’ industry experience. Today it is the seventh-largest homeowners insurance provider by number of direct premiums written. It has an A+ (superior) financial stability rating from A.M. Best.  Nationwide is actually a group of dozens of trusted insurance companies specializing in everything from home insurance to other forms of property and casualty insurance, life insurance, and retirement and asset management.

Claims & Customer Support

Nationwide makes it easy and convenient to manage your homeowners insurance online. With a Nationwide online account, you get access to all your policies and to paperless documents and billing. You can set up automatic payments or open or track a claim. In short, Nationwide lets its users do virtually everything online.

J.D. Power surveyed Nationwide customers as part of its annual survey on homeowners insurance providers and it found that it was a little below average for customer satisfaction. According to the report, Nationwide received a score of 809 (from 1,000) for customer satisfaction, compared to an industry average of 818.

Summary

Nationwide offers plenty of great perks without offering anything particularly unique. The standout here is the free annual review, which suggests Nationwide cares about helping its customers get the most from their homeowners insurance. Nationwide offers plenty of optional add-ons and discounts, which is great if you’re the type of homeowner looking for more than just standard cookie-cutter coverage.