Nationwide Homeowners Insurance Review

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The Details

The Good

Flexible policies for a wide range of homes and budgets. Nationwide's many coverage options and endorsements can help almost any homeowner find the type of protection they need without accidentally overinsuring themselves.

Multiple discount opportunities. Nationwide also has a wide range of discounts, including for having a newer roof (or one that's wind and hail resistant), for living in a gated community, and a discount if you were insured by your previous carrier for a number of consecutive years.

Simple online application and claims process. Nationwide's online quote generator is intuitive and easy to use. The claims process is similarly streamlined. While Nationwide only scores about average for claims satisfaction, it wins convenience points for making it easy to submit claims online or through the mobile app.

The Bad

Expensive water backup coverage. When we included water-backup coverage to our sample policy, an important addition that covers damage from a drain or sump pump backup, Nationwide added $100 a year to the cost of our insurance. Typically, this coverage should only add about $15 or $20 to your annual premium.

Lacking claims satisfaction ratings. Nationwide scored just below industry average on the 2021 J.D. Power Property Claims Satisfaction Study. Its claims process is simple but the overall satisfaction rating leaves room for improvement.

The Breakdown

Nationwide is relatively affordable, although the average quoted Nationwide premium with Policygenius was $1,736, slightly over the industry average premium. But with a wide array of discounts offered, Nationwide can still be a good choice for the budget-concious homeowner.

Keep in mind: Your homeowners insurance rates depend in large part on the amount of coverage in your policy. Below is the average cost of homeowners insurance at different levels of coverage with Nationwide.

Average annual homeowners insurance premiums for each coverage level were calculated using Policygenius quoting data.

Discounts

As mentioned, Nationwide offers several discounts to help you save on homeowners insurance. These discounts can be a great way to help bring down your costs.

Typical discounts offered by most major carriers include protective devices discounts and claims-free discounts. Nationwide offers these, as well as a bundling discount for combining your home and auto policies with Nationwide.

• Protective device discount. A discount for having security and safety features like smoke detectors, burglar alarms, fire alarms, and sprinklers

• Claims-free discount. A discount for going a certain amount of time without filing a claim

• New home purchase discount. A discount if you've purchased a home within the last 12 months.

• Multi-policy discount. Savings for bundling your homeowners insurance policy with auto or another type of property insurance offered by Nationwide.

• Roof rating discounts. Discounts if your roof is newer or built to withstand wind and hail.

• Gated community discount. A discount if you live somewhere where vehicle entrances are all protected.

• Home renovation credit. You can get a discount if you renovate elements of your home like plumbing or electrical.

• Prior insurance. If you’re a new Nationwide member, you can get a discount based on the amount of time you were insured before becoming a member.

Since homeowners insurance is such essential protection, you want to make sure that the insurance company you choose has the financial stability to be able to pay out your claim on time, and in full, in the event of a covered loss. Nationwide is a major carrier that's been in business for nearly a century, and it has the strong financial strength ratings that will put you at ease.

• A.M. Best rating: A+

• Moody's rating: A1

• Standard & Poor's rating: A+

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 when it comes time to file a claim. With a score of A+ (effective November 10, 2021), Nationwide has the second-highest rating a company can receive.

Moody's measures the value of stocks and bonds with certain companies. A AAA rating is the highest possible score you can receive from Moody's, so Nationwide's A1 rating, while a few rungs from the absolute top, is still very high.

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. A AAA rating is the highest issuer credit rating assigned by S&P, so Nationwide's A+ rating puts them near the highest tiers of insurance companies in terms of financial confidence.

Nationwide has fairly good scores when it comes to customer experience and satisfaction, although its overall satisfaction score from J.D. Power isn't stellar. Still, considering just how many people Nationwide protects, solid scores mean many, many satisfied customers.

• Consumer Affairs: 3.9 / 5

• Consumers Advocate: 4.2 / 5

• NAIC complaint index: .42

Consumer Affairs is a platform that lets consumers directly rate customers. Nationwide Homeowners Insurance has a score of 4 out of 5, which indicates that customers are overall satisfied with their Nationwide experience.

Consumers Advocate rates companies based on stability, reputation, and policy coverage. They’ve given Nationwide Homeowners Insurance a rating of 4.2. This is considered an “excellent” score.

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. Nationwide's 2021 score of .66 means they received fewer complaints than the average company.

Nationwide offers a standard HO-3 base policy that includes what most homeowners need, like replacement cost coverage for your home and personal belongings and flexible coverage limits for other parts of your policy. Some unique base policy features through Nationwide are ordinance or law coverage (helps cover rebuilds due to building codes)  and credit card coverage (to protect against theft and fraud).

Nationwide also offers a myriad of endorsements and optional coverages you can add on to your policy. Those other coverages include:

• Identity theft. This coverage would help in the instance of fraud by covering certain costs incurred.

• Valuables plus. If you’ve got high value items like fine art or jewelry, you can add this coverage to better protect them in the case of a loss. 

• Replacement cost plus. This adds up to 20% of extra property coverage if you have to rebuild your home.

• Water backup. Your home would be covered in the case of a backed up sewer or water line.

• Earthquake. In the event of an earthquake, this additional coverage would help cover costs. However, there is a separate deductible for this added insurance.

• Flood insurance. If you add this to your policy, your home and belongings would be protected in the event of a flood. Like earthquake coverage, this has its own deductible associated with it.

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.

Nationwide is a popular home insurance carrier, available across the U.S., and its online tools make it easy to get a quote for coverage.

State availability

Despite its name, Nationwide homeowners insurance is available in all states except: Alaska, Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, Massachusetts, and New Jersey.

Digital tools

Nationwide has a number of digital tools, including an online application and quote generator, online policy management, and online bill-paying and online claims-filing. There's also a Nationwide mobile app where you can manage your policy, or start a claim and record damage.

The application

Like most major insurance companies, you can apply for Nationwide homeowners coverage over the phone or online. Their online quote generator is easy to use: You simply go to their website, plug in both personal information and information about your home, select potential discount opportunities, and out comes a quote.

From the quote page, you can adjust your coverage limits and add various endorsements to your policy, where you can see in real time how adding or subtracting coverage can increase or decrease your rates.

After finalizing coverages, you select a local agent to answer your insurance questions and assist you with claims. From there, you move on to the payment portal and choose whether you’d like to pay yourself or through your mortgage company. The entire process takes around 10 minutes.

Ease of claims

When it comes to claim responsiveness and payouts, Nationwide is slightly below the industry average, according to a 2021 survey by consumer insights leader J.D. Power.

The claims process is fairly easy. You access Nationwide’s claims portal from their homepage, and once you get there, they have a number of instructional resources for what to do in the wake of a loss. Once you’re ready to go, you begin the claims process, where you can either file a claim as a Nationwide policyholder or on behalf of a policyholder.

Additional claims service

In addition to filing claims online or over the phone, Nationwide allows you to start a claim through its Nationwide mobile app, where you can also upload photos of damage to your home or property.

Claim satisfaction

Nationwide earned a little below industry-average score on the most recent J.D. Power Property Claims Satisfaction Study, putting on-par with many competitors when it comes to claims happiness. That includes all aspects of the claims process, from how easy is to reach an adjuster to satisfaction with the payout.

However, Nationwide wasn't quite in the top-tier for claims satisfaction, and homeowners looking for the most premium customer service and claims handling may not be satisfied.

Payment methods

Nationwide offers a handful of options to pay your bill. You can pay by:

• Mail

• Phone

• Text

• Online

• App

Policygenius offers insurance policies from many of the nation's top insurers, who pay us a commission for our services. However, all editorial choices are made independently.