Amica Homeowners Insurance Review

Best-in-class claims handling. A good reason why Amica is the most decorated company in the world of homeowners insurance is because their impeccable reputation when it comes to handling insurance claims. Amica policies may be a little more expensive than other major carriers, but you’re paying for a level of service and expertise that’s unmatched in the industry.

Outstanding perks, including a dividend program and network of contractors. Amica offers several perks, like their “Contractor Connection” service and multiple discount opportunities. Another perk of joining up with Amica is their dividend program — a perk that's offered by very few, if any, other insurance companies. With the Amica dividend program, you pay more for your policy up front, but since the payment is invested as a dividend, a portion is refunded to you at the end of your policy term.

Personal belongings are insured at their replacement cost. With Amica, the stuff inside (and outside) of your home is automatically insured at its replacement cost, meaning if your watch is damaged or stolen, you'll be reimbursed for the value of a new watch (up to the item sublimits) rather than for its depreciated value. Most companies charge extra for replacement cost coverage, but with Amica it's included in the base policy.

Certain types of additional coverage offerings and perks (like dividend policy payments) aren’t available in some states. If you live in California, Florida, Missouri, and North Carolina, you can't take advantage of Amica's dividend program. Certain coverage endorsements are also limited depending on the state your home is in. In New York, for example, Amica won't give you the option (at least in the online application) to add valuable items coverage, loss assessment coverage, or business property coverage. That said, we must stress that it's pretty common in the home insurance industry for companies to be choosey about where they offer specific types of coverage.

Coverage endorsement offerings are rather limited. As good and reliable as Amica's coverage is, they don't offer some of the more popular coverage endorsements — like equipment breakdown coverage, service line coverage, and guaranteed replacement cost dwelling coverage.

While the price of homeowners insurance with Amica will depend on factors like where you live, your home's construction type, and the age of your home, you can expect to pay in the ballpark of $2,000 annually for coverage with Amica — according to the average rate for 10 homes we ran quotes for on the Amica website. That means Amica home insurance rates are about 20% higher than the average quoted policy with Policygenius.

Rates are particularly impacted by your home's replacement cost, or the insured value of your home. Below is the average cost of homeowners insurance at different levels of coverage with Amica.

Average annual homeowners insurance premiums for each coverage level were calculated by taking the average rate for 10 homes we ran quotes for through Amica.

Discounts

A great way to keep your homeowners insurance costs down is to take advantage of discount opportunities.

Some common discounts include protective devices discounts, claims-free discounts, and new home-buyer discounts. Amica offers all of those discounts, plus a multi-policy disount if you get more than just one type of insurance with Amica and a detection devices disount if your home is fitted with gas or water leak sensors or similar loss prevention technologies.

• Multi-policy discount - Save up to 15% when you have more than one policy with Amica
• Claim-free discount - You’re eligible for a claim-free discount if you’re able to go more than three years without filing a claim
• Loyalty discount - When you’ve been with Amica for at least two years
• E-discount - When you opt to receive policy information and billing electronically
• Auto-pay discount - When you put your insurance payments on auto-pay
• Alarm system discount - When your home is armed with burglar alarms, sprinklers, or fire alarms, and save even more if they alert police or fire departments
• Automatic detection devices discount - If you modernize your home with water and gas leak sensors
• New/remodeled home discount - If you’re insuring a new or remodeled home

Homeowners insurance protects your most important financial assets, so you'll want to be sure you're insuring your home, your personal possessions, and other assets with a company that will be able to pay out your claim in the event of a disaster.

Amica has been around for over 100 years and has well-established financial strength with A.M. Best, the leading insurance company credit rating agency. With Amica, you can insure your home with confidence that they'll be able to cover your assets.

• Year founded: 1907
• Standard & Poor's rating: N/A
• Moody's rating: N/A
• A.M. Best rating: A+

Standard & Poor's measures companies' creditworthiness and is used primarily by financial investors and other market stakeholders. S&P is also valuable in measuring the long-term financial stability of insurance companies. An AAA rating is the highest issuer credit rating assigned by S&P.

Moody's is very similar to Standard & Poors, except rather than measuring a companies ability to remain financial stable and creditworthy, Moody's measures what the expected losses would be if a company were to go into default. It's particularly valuable in analyzing the value of stocks and bonds with certain companies. An AAA rating is the highest possible score you can receive from Moody's.

A.M. Best is the most reliable credit-rating tool insureds can use to gauge the financial health of a particular company. Unlike S&P and Moody's, A.M. Best is focused exclusively on the insurance marketplace. A good score with A.M. Best means a company is more likely to fulfill their financial obligation to you when it comes time to file a claim. With a score of A+, Amica has the second highest rating a company can receive with A.M. Best.

It's important to know what experts think about homeowners insurance companies - but it's also good to know what actual customers and consumer sentiment sites are saying, too.

Amica has a perfect 5 out of 5 with leading consumer insights company J.D. Power. It also has stellar ratings with the Better Business Bureau, Consumer Affairs, Consumers Advocate, and Trustpilot.

• J.D. Power: 5 / 5
• BBB: A+
• Consumer Affairs: 4 / 5
• Consumers Advocate: 4.7 / 5
• Trustpilot: 3.5 / 5
• NAIC complaint index: 0.22

J.D. Power provides studies that rate insurance companies across policy offerings, price, clarity of billing and policy information, interaction, and claims. An overall satisfaction score, "based on how customers view every experience of their experience with homeowners insurance providers," is reflected here and used for our ranking.

The Better Business Bureau ranks companies across a large swath of criteria. While consumers can submit ratings to the BBB, these scores are not taken into account in their rating, although tangential metrics that take into account customer experience are.

Consumer Affairs is a platform that lets consumers directly rate companies, while Consumers Advocate rates companies based on stability, reputation, and policy coverage.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners tracks the number of complaints submitted to state insurance departments with their national complain index. A score of 1 is the baseline average, and a score of 0 means there weren't enough complaints to count.

Amica offers two homeowners insurance coverage packages that provide all of the primary coverages: dwelling, other structures, personal property, loss-of-use, personal liability, and medical payments coverage.

Amica's base policy includes replacement cost for your personal belongings and gives you the option of adding a number of additional coverage endorsements — like personal computers coverage and identity fraud coverage — to your policy. Amica also features a higher tier of homeowners insurance that includes extended replacement cost dwelling coverage and a number of additional coverage endorsements.

Here's some of the highlights of each of the two coverage tiers offered by Amica:

Standard coverage

• Replacement cost dwelling coverage
• Other structures coverage
• Replacement cost personal property coverage
• Loss-of-use coverage
• Personal liability coverage
• Medical payments to others coverage

Platinum Choice

• Everything that's included in the standard coverage option
• Enhanced dwelling coverage, extending your coverage up to 30% if rebuild costs go up
• Extended valuable items coverage for lost or stolen items like jewelry or furs
• Computer coverage
• $300,000-$500,000 in personal liability coverage
• $5,000 in medical payments coverage
• $5,000 in water backup coverage
• $5,000 in credit card coverage
• $5,000 in business property coverage

Note: The information above represents potential policy options and may not be available for every applicant. Speak to a licensed expert for a personalized look at your coverage options.

Amica is available in every state except Hawaii, has exceptional claims handling and numerous digital tools to manage your policy, file claims, and pay your bill.

State availability

Amica homeowners insurance is available in 49 states and the District of Columbia. Hawaii is the only state where Amica doesn’t currently offer policies.

Digital tools

• Amica mobile app
• Online application
• Instant quote
• Online bill pay and policy management
• Online and mobile claims

The application

Amica may not promise you a quote in five seconds, but they still make the process fairly easy. Most of Amica’s application process can be done online.

You simply answer a form that asks basic questions about your insurability and if you’d like to bundle home and auto policies, and then you’re led to a page where you input information about your home’s specs, your proximity to fire stations and hydrants, and other applicable information.

You then select how much, if any additional coverage you’d like, like if you’d like water backup coverage, or computer coverage, or identity theft coverage, for instance. Amica then runs your quote, which they provide within seconds, along with instructions to call an agent to discuss your plan further. The entire process took about five to 10 minutes.

Ease of claims

Amica excels mightily in the claims department, an area that seems to be the Achilles’ heel of so many other companies that sell home insurance. As we've already pointed out, Amica received a five out of five claims satisfaction rating with J.D. Power — the highest in the industry. Amica has also earned high marks from Consumer Reports, which is a reputable consumer insights website in its own right.

Amica offers an easy claims filing process, allowing you to submit losses through the insurers mobile app, on the web through their “claim center”, or over the phone. You can also check on how Amica is handling your claims through their claims tracker, which you can easily monitor through their app, on the web, or over the phone.

Once your claim is accepted, Amica can put you in touch with a contractor through the company’s network. One perk of going through Amica for repairs is that they’re paired with a warranty.

Additional claims service

• 24/7 claims service
• Catastrophe claims center
• Web and mobile app claims
• Home repair assistance program ensuring you licensed and prequalified contractors in the event of a claim

Payment methods

• Checks
• Money orders
• Electronic funds transfer (EFT) from checking or savings accounts
• Over the phone or by mail
• Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express credit and debit cards
• Autopay feature from a checking or savings account or credit card (which also gets you discount with Amica)