Nationwide Home Insurance Policies and Pricing 2023

When you own a house, there are a few things you need to be absolutely sure of. Topping that list are the safety of everyone in your home, the protection of your belongings, and the coverage you have in case of a disaster. While some folks might think of home security and their homeowners insurance as two separate things, the fact of the matter is home insurance is home security. It protects your biggest investment against all kinds of perils.

With that in mind, we’re going to look at the offerings, rates, and specific details about one of the biggest names in the insurance industry — Nationwide. Before we get into it, though, let’s take a quick look at their primary protections.

Key Coverage

• Dwelling
• Brand New Belongings
• Personal liability
• Ordinance insurance
• Loss of use
• Better Roof Replacement
• Inflation protection
• Credit card protection
• Smart home

Nationwide’s online quote generator is an easy way to draft your home policy in minutes.

Nationwide’s Home Insurance Coverage Up Close

Nationwide does a pretty good job of simplifying its policies, but there were definitely times I wasn’t sure if the coverage I was considering was standard or extra. This breakdown should help if you find yourself scratching your head before you reach out for a quote.

Don’t forget bundling will likely save you a lot. It knocked over $40 off my quote when I reviewed State Farm’s home insurance plans. Check out Nationwide’s homeowners and auto insurance bundles below.

Nationwide Home Insurance Coverage

Basic Coverage

• Dwelling: Nationwide covers your home and any “structures” built on your property (fences, driveways, gazebos, etc.). Default coverage for additional structures is 10 percent of your total property coverage.
• Contents: Basic contents coverage replaces your lost or damaged belongings at their actual value. If you have a 10-year-old couch, for example, Nationwide will reimburse you for a fraction of what you originally paid for it. You know, wear and tear. For a safer — but slightly more expensive — option, check out Nationwide’s Brand New Belongings coverage in the Extra Coverage section below.
• Personal liability: A guest trips on a loose floorboard and sues. Your cat rips your brand-new Nomad sofa to shreds. Your son chucks a baseball through Old Man Doherty’s window. Three situations, one outcome. Without Nationwide’s standard liability coverage, you could be stuck with humongous repair, legal, or medical bills.
• Loss of use: You’re rebuilding your home after extensive damage or loss, and you need somewhere to stay. Nationwide has you covered up to the limit of your property coverage.
• Inflation protection: Inflation protection covers the difference between the value of your home at the time you purchased or built it and the amount it costs to rebuild in the future. The only hitch: Like most insurance providers, Nationwide doesn’t advertise exactly how it calculates its inflation coverage. If there’s any conversation to have with your agent before you commit to your policy, this is it.
• Credit card protection: Nationwide covers all your fraudulent credit card transactions, whether you’re the victim of digital fraud or old-fashioned, brick-and-mortar theft. Credit card protection is standard with most best-in-class ID monitoring services, but it’s rarer for a home insurance policy to have your back here.

Extra Coverage

• Replacement cost plus: Inflation protection might not always cover the costs of rebuilding in the future, especially with today’s supply-chain roller coaster. Nationwide’s extra replacement cost coverage boosts your property coverage by a flat 20 percent.
• Brand New Belongings: Nationwide’s trademarked possessions coverage reimburses you for the current market value of your belongings, but keep in mind that your premium will go up and the reimbursement process is a little wonky. First, you’ll get a check for the depreciated value of your lost or damaged items. After you buy the replacements and send in the receipts, you’ll get the balance.
• Better Roof Replacement: An excellent, surprisingly cheap add-on to consider if your home has an aging roof or you plan to revamp for better efficiency.
• Valuables Plus: If you’re a collector, checking off extra coverage for your prize possessions makes sense. It won’t necessarily get your favorite stuff back, but it will give you the funds to start rebuilding. (Got a bike, camera, or piece of art you consider valuable? Check out our Lemonade home insurance cost guide.)
• Weather: Weather damage coverage (for wind and hail) is an extra deductible with Nationwide. This isn’t ideal, but at least you get to choose exactly how much weather insurance you want, as a percentage of your coverage or a flat amount. Keep in mind: the lower your deductible, the higher your premium.
• Water backup: When you see “water backup” coverage in a homeowners policy, your provider is talking specifically about sewer blockages, sump pump fiascos, and plumbing damage (not, for example, a tree root poking through a pipe). This isn’t the same thing as flood insurance, and, importantly, flood insurance won’t cover you if you experience a backup.
• Earthquake and flood insurance: These two are, understandably, extra deductibles. Whether you need them depends entirely on where you live.

Nationwide Home Insurance Rates

The least expensive Nationwide policy might not be the safest option for your household.

Generalizing home insurance quotes is impossible, but I can give you a pretty good idea of how the average U.S. home — valued at $250,000 and built in 1985 — looks to a Nationwide insurance calculator (see above). I can also show you how tweaking a few values can give you a lighter (or heavier) monthly bill. Just remember, lighter doesn’t always mean safer, as we’ll see below.

But first, a quick look at how Nationwide’s rates stack up against national averages and the rest of the competition.

Nationwide Premiums vs. the Average U.S. Premium

Here’s how my Nationwide quote looks against the national average. Not bad at all.

Nationwide Premiums vs. the Competition

Nationwide holds its own against our other top homeowners insurance picks of the year too. Now back to that quote.

Average Monthly Cost – Nationwide

Tweaking Your Nationwide Policy

The factors that affect premiums the most are the property’s condition, age, value, and location.

Here’s a quick example: The basic quote we looked at a few paragraphs ago was for a home in an Ohio suburb, which has low rates because it’s considered safe — very few natural disasters, low crime, etc. I also stripped out replacement cost value coverage for my possessions and extra roof replacement coverage to arrive at that ultra-light premium — two choices I may regret down the line.

If I take a house with about the same price tag and homeowners profile and try to get it insured in Omaha, Nebraska, a state at high risk for tornadoes? My base insurance has just jumped almost threefold!

Nationwide plans in Nebraska are nearly three times the cost of plans in Ohio.

Location is one factor. Everyone’s needs are different too. To bring this point home, let’s see what happens when I add some extra weather coverage to my Nebraska policy. Remember, tornadoes are filed under “wind damage” and that’s an extra deductible with Nationwide.

A higher Nationwide deductible means a lower monthly bill.

Bullseye! A $5,000 deductible (about 2.8 percent of my coverage) drops my premium by $85 a month. Of course, you may be willing to pay more up front for a lower annual bill, but you get the idea.

Other Types of Insurance

Nationwide’s insurance menu is extensive. It offers everything from travel and wedding insurance to dental and life insurance. The company will even insure your golf cart! Here are three of Nationwide’s most popular plans, any of which you should be able to bundle with your homeowners policy.

Auto

I don’t think you’ll be able to spring a leak in a Nationwide auto insurance policy. It covers just about every scenario, for whatever vehicle you’re driving. You’ll also find gap insurance (think Brand New Belongings coverage, but for your car) and my personal favorite: accident forgiveness, which locks your rate against future accidents.

Life

Nationwide writes wallet-friendly term life policies and permanent options with more flexibility but higher premiums. If you like a little more risk in your life (insurance), then you can also enroll in a variable plan, in which part of your policy’s cash value is invested in stocks.

Pet

Pets are living longer these days, which means more bills for their owners. The average yearly tab for man’s best friend runs between $580 and $875,3 and an unexpected illness can carve a chunk out of anyone’s savings. Nationwide’s pet policies are a few dollars less than most of the competition we’ve reviewed — a pretty good incentive to consider bundling.

Bundling With Nationwide

Bundling your Nationwide auto and home insurance could save you as much as 20 percent.

Bundling policies cuts down on paperwork, even if it’s digital. But if you opt to package your Nationwide policies together, it’s likely because you want to save. Nationwide’s biggest saver is its auto and home bundle. You could trim as much as 20 percent off your bill that way.

Nationwide also has an auto bundle for renters, which is no accident. In the last census (2019), renters were 36% of the U.S. housing market.4

A third option is a life, home, and auto bundle. That may be a lot of insurance to see in one sentence, but it could be a very attractive option for households already juggling three monthly bills.

Nationwide’s Special Discounts

Nationwide delivers standard savings for claims-free customers, new homeowners, and homeowners who have recently renovated. But it also offers a few stand-out discounts. Let’s start with my favorite: Nationwide’s smart home program.

• Smart home: Smart homes with water leak sensors, connected fire detectors, and home security systems cut down on claims. That’s a fact. If you’ve jumped on the smart-home train, Nationwide will hook you up with a five-sensor kit from Notion for $100.
• Multi-policy: Insurance providers are always happy to double their business. Bundling your auto and home policies is less paperwork and more savings too.
• Protective devices: If you don’t qualify for a smart-home discount, you can still save à la carte with a doorbell camera here and a window sensor there. The tighter your security, the more you’ll save on your Nationwide bill. Check out our roundup of the best home security systems before you get started.
• Claims-free: Nationwide doesn’t specify the number of years you need to be claims-free to be eligible for a discount like Liberty Mutual does. (See my Liberty Mutual review for the full story there.) But you will most likely get a discount if you haven’t filed a claim with your previous provider.
• Home purchase: Do you own a house built in the past year? Guess what: Your premium will be lower.
• Home renovation credit: Energy-efficient homes that are up to code are better for you (and your insurance provider), so you’re entitled to some savings on your monthly homeowners bill.
• Roof rating: Many home insurance providers reward homeowners with sturdier roofs, and Nationwide is no exception. Keep in mind that you can’t rate your roof online; you’ll need to hash out the particulars with your agent.

Overall Value

Nationwide’s monthly premiums of $88 to $173 give you a fair idea of how difficult it is to pin down a universal homeowners rate. Even the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ official U.S. average rate ($104 per month) doesn’t really mean anything if you live in Omaha, where the risk of extreme weather means unusually high monthly insurance bills.

Nationwide takes some of the uncertainty out of the process by giving you a bare-bones plan you can build from the ground up. That way you can see just how much your choices influence your bottom line, coverage by coverage.

But Nationwide isn’t all bare bones. Its policies offer a few very nice perks, such as credit card protection, incentives to go smart, and some assistance when it’s time for a new roof. If no weather coverage is a sticking point, remember that à la carte weather coverage means you have more control over your deductible.

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