Home Warranty of America Review

Home Warranty of America Ratings at a Glance

As the name implies, Home Warranty of America (HWA) specializes in providing home warranty policies. A home warranty helps repair and replace your home’s major components if something breaks down because of normal wear and tear. Home warranties fill the gaps in your homeowners insurance by helping you fix your home’s systems and appliances without hundreds of dollars in repair bills. These policies can be especially helpful for homeowners who don’t have an emergency fund or who would have problems covering a regular breakdown.

Take a look at how a home warranty policy works. Imagine that your air conditioning system suddenly breaks down. Unless this breakdown was caused by a covered peril under your homeowners insurance policy (like a fire or electrical storm), you’d be solely responsible for covering this bill.

However, if you have a home warranty policy that covers your home systems, you can call the warranty company for a repair. The home warranty company will then send a technician to your property or authorize you to call a technician and send the bill to the home warranty provider after the repair. In exchange, you’ll pay the technician a small service fee, which is usually less than $150. This service fee is laid out in your contract and is due each time you use your coverage. The fee is the same regardless of the actual value of the services you receive.

Home Warranty of America offers two home warranty plan options in most parts of the country. Both plans include coverage for a mix of systems and appliances instead of offering a systems warranty and appliance warranty as separate policies. Take a look at what’s covered under each of Home Warranty of America’s plan options.

Select Plan

The Select Plan is HWA’s basic plan option and includes coverage for the following home components:

• Built-in microwave
• Dishwasher
• Range, oven, cooktop
• Trash compactor
• Ductwork
• Electrical system
• Heating system and furnace
• Plumbing system
• Water heater
• Burglary prevention system and alarm
• Ceiling fan
• Exhaust fan
• Central vacuum
• Doorbells
• Garage door opener

Select Plus Plan

The Select Plus Plan is Home Warranty of America’s more comprehensive option for homeowners looking for expanded protection. This plan covers every component included on the Select Plan plus the following extra protections:

• Kitchen refrigerator with attached ice maker
• Clothing washing and dryer units
• Air conditioning system

Though the Select Plus Plan includes a few more home components, the company’s sample contract does not indicate that this plan comes with a higher overall coverage limitation. This may reduce the usefulness of this policy.

Add-on Coverages

In addition to the standard inclusions found on each policy, you can also enhance your home warranty with optional coverages. Home Warranty of America allows its customers to add the following optional protections onto either home warranty plan.

• Pool and spa combo
• Specialty pool and spa combo protection for saltwater pools
• Well pump
• Septic tank pumping
• SEER/R-410A modifications
• Septic system

Every optional coverage you add to your policy will increase the premium price you pay each month to maintain your home warranty policy. To add optional coverages, select the items you want to protect when you purchase your home warranty policy online.

Additional plan options are also available for real estate professionals. Home Warranty of America offers specialized discounted home warranty coverages to both sellers and buyers, which can help solidify a buyer’s confidence in choosing a property. Home Warranty of America requests that real estate professionals with specialized home warranty needs call to learn more about pricing and begin creating their customized plan offerings.

Coverage Limits

One of the most important things you should consider is your policy’s coverage limits. Like most types of insurance, Home Warranty of America places strict upper limits on the total value of repairs and replacements you can claim over the course of your contract period. The company also institutes lower coverage limits on most systems in the home.

Home Warranty of America offers a sample contract on its website that details individual coverage limits by home component. Let’s take a look at a few examples of limitations that come with your home warranty policy when you buy from Home Warranty of America. Benzinga also compared HWA’s coverage limits with the company’s estimates of the average repair or replacement cost of each component when available. 

As you can see, some of the limitations on HWA’s policies are lower than the company’s own estimates on what it will cost to repair or replace your home’s systems. Additional lower limitations apply to excess add-on optional coverage items. These limitations reduce the usefulness of yoru policy.

These limitations cover the diagnosis, access and repair or replacement of the corresponding item. The overall limit on your HWA policy is $15,000 per contract term. This means that HWA will not provide you with more than $15,000 worth of repairs or replacements under any circumstances — even if the repair you need is covered under the terms of your policy. These overall limitations work in conjunction with the limitations listed in the table above.

What about coverage limits for other appliances included with policies but not listed? Home Warranty of America does not assign an individual coverage limit on each covered appliance. So long as your covered repair or replacement is covered under the terms of your contract and you still haven’t hit your upper policy coverage limit, HWA will cover the cost of your service minus the service fee.  

Like most home warranty companies, HWA provides 24/7 customer claims reporting via phone. This allows you to file a claim at any hour of the day or night, which can be a crucial consideration when it comes to emergency services. For general customer support contact, you can use the following methods to get in contact with HWA.

• Via phone: To connect with HWA via phone, call 888-492-7359. Customer service is available by phone between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. EST on weekdays and from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on the weekends.
• Via social media: Home Warranty of America also maintains a presence on social media websites like Facebook and Twitter. Social media accounts are actively monitored to provide customer assistance between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. EST during the business week. You’ll need to already have an account on the social media website you want to use for contact in order to message HWA. 

To get pricing for coverage from Home Warranty of America, you must request a quote online or over the phone. To help you get an idea of what you might expect to pay for your home warranty, Benzinga requested a few sample estimates on policies for homes less than 5,000 square feet. See the chart below for the estimates, minus any promotions and discounts offered at the point of checkout.

As you can see, pricing from HWA doesn’t seem to vary by location. So long as your home is less than 5,000 square feet and you don’t add any extra components to your plan, you’ll pay around $46 monthly for the Select Plan and about $58 per month for the Select Plus Plan. Because pricing doesn’t vary by location, HWA can easily improve its transparency by making pricing visible online without consenting to calls from a customer service representative.

Like other home warranty companies, Home Warranty of America charges a service fee every time you use your plan. Home Warranty of America’s standard service fee is $100, which means you’ll pay your technician $100 every time you receive service in addition to your monthly premium. This is more expensive than many other home warranty companies, which offer $75 service fees. While not the most expensive trade fee in the home warranty industry, it does reduce the usefulness of your policy. 

HWA’s policies provide a few benefits over other home warranty providers, including:

• No limitations on the age of your systems: If you live in an older property, you might have more concerns about the condition and health of your home’s systems and appliances. HWA doesn’t require your home components to be under a certain age to be approved for coverage so long as they are in good, working condition when you sign onto your home warranty policy.
• Unique coverages: HWA’s policies include a number of protections not often seen under competitors’ policies. For example, the Select Plan includes coverage for your home’s burglar alarm system, and you can add coverage for a saltwater pool. You can even add coverage that compensates you if you must update your home’s structure to fit with local ordinances.
• No individual limits on many appliances: While most of the home systems covered under HWA’s policies include upper limits that are lower than your plan’s overall maximum, this does not apply to appliances. Items like your clothing dryer, refrigerator and dishwasher come without individual limits, allowing you to claim more valuable repairs and replacements. 

HWA offers an easy and straightforward experience when it comes to both signing up for a policy and filing a claim. Claims reporting is available over the phone 24/7, and you can also file a claim through your online customer portal. HWA’s online portal also makes it easy to manage your account and track your payments and benefits on-the-go. Signing up for a policy takes only a few minutes, and phone customer service is responsive and well-informed. In the future, HWA can improve its user experience by being more transparent with its pricing. 

Home Warranty of America Versus Competitors

Home Warranty of America is not the only home warranty policy provider in the country. Competitors like Choice Home Warranty, 2-10 Home Buyers Warranty and First American Home Warranty provide similar policies across the country. Benzinga offers insights and reviews on the following home warranty providers. Consider continuing your search for the right home warranty policy using the links below. 

Overall, HWA’s policies and inclusions are similar to those you’ll find with competitors. Though the company’s policies include some additional coverages not found with other home warranty companies (like coverage for a saltwater pool or home security system) they are comparable in price to competitors. However, the company’s $100 trade call fee is more expensive than most other home warranty companies, and some coverage limits are lower than the company’s own estimates on what it would cost to replace one of your home’s systems.

Getting started with an HWA policy is a simple, straightforward process. Enter some information on your home, choose your coverage and you’ll have home warranty protection in less than five minutes. Be sure to consider individual coverage limits when determining how much value an HWA home warranty will provide your family, and don’t forget that you’ll need to pay $100 each time you call for service.   

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