Jetty Renters Insurance Review

Jetty | Renters Ratings at a Glance

Are you looking for a renters insurance company? Personal property coverage provided by renters insurance companies can ensure that your belongings will be replaced if they are lost, damaged, or stolen. But finding the right renters insurance policies can be difficult because there are so many. Benzinga looked at Jetty Renters Insurance and provides a review below that will help you decide if it's the right renters' insurance coverage for you.

Jetty offers basic coverage, which includes:

• Personal possessions: This coverage helps you repair or replace your belongings if they’re damaged by a peril (negative event) that’s listed in your policy. Damage from fire, smoke, storms and loss of items due to theft are usually covered, but it’s important to check your policy to confirm what’s covered. 
• Liability: This coverage offers protection if you’re sued due to someone being injured on your property. It also helps to cover you if you or a member of your household injures someone or damages their property. Say you visit your neighbor and accidentally spill red wine on their expensive rug, liability coverage could help cover the damages. It only applies to damage to other people’s property, though. If you spill red wine on your rug, you’re responsible for the costs. 
• Medical costs: This coverage works with your liability insurance. If someone is injured on your property, you can submit their medical bills directly to your insurance company, which will pay their bills subject to the terms of your policy. 
• Additional living expenses: If you have to leave your rental home while it’s being repaired for a covered peril, this helps to pay for your living expenses. This courage typically helps with hotel bills, meals and other unexpected expenses associated with relocating. 

Power-Ups

Jetty refers to its endorsements (add-ons) as Power-Ups. You can add these to your basic policy for an additional cost. They include:

• Valuables protection: If you have specific items worth more than $1,000, you can add protections for those items. You can add valuables protection for jewelry, music, audio, photography and video equipment, fashion items, bikes, art, sports equipment, special collections (like stamps or coins), wine collections and firearms. 
• Personal electronic protection: Personal electronics like smartphones and tablets have limited coverage under Jetty’s basic plan. This provides more coverage for those and includes coverage for if you drop or shatter your device. 
• Bedbug protection: Jetty includes this Power-Up with its basic renters' insurance plans. If a licensed pest control professional certifies that you have bed bugs, Jetty will send you $3,000 to help you deal with it. 
• Airbnb host theft protection: Although Airbnb’s insurance protects you in many circumstances, it doesn’t cover you if there’s theft related to guest negligence. For example, if your guest leaves your back door unlocked and your TV is stolen, Airbnb’s coverage wouldn’t reimburse you. Jetty’s host theft protection would. You do have to request this coverage by emailing Jetty at help@jetty.com; it’s not included in the standard application.  

What Isn’t Covered

Jetty doesn’t cover some risks, which is true for all renters insurance companies. Jetty doesn’t cover:

• Floods: While water damage from broken appliances or pipes is typically covered, damage from floods usually isn’t. If this is a concern, consider buying a flood insurance policy. 
• Earthquakes: Like floods, earthquakes aren’t typically covered. You may want to purchase a separate earthquake insurance policy. 
• Certain dog breeds: Liability may provide some protection if your dog bites someone, but some breeds are excluded from this coverage, including German shepherds, pit bulls, chow chows and huskies. 
• Intentional acts: If you deliberately damage your rental property, it won’t be covered by your renters insurance.  

How Coverage Works

Jetty’s rental insurance has deductibles and policy limits. A deductible is the amount you pay for a loss before your insurance policy starts coverage. If your plan has a $500 deductible, you pay $500 toward replacing or repairing your belongings, and then your coverage will start. Your limit is the most your policy will pay in benefits in 1 year. 

Jetty reimburses you based on the replacement cost of the items. That means that Jetty will pay you what it costs to replace an item — not its current value. For example, if you purchased a TV 3 years ago for $1,500, it’s probably only worth $1,000 now. Jetty will pay you what it costs to buy a new, comparable TV now. Given that electronics tend to get cheaper over time, the TV now costs $1,300, so that’s what Jetty would reimburse you for, rather than paying the $1,000 it’s probably worth. 

Jetty has limited customer service options on its website. You can email Jetty at help@jetty.com or complete a form on its website to get in touch. It doesn’t list specific customer service hours or days or a phone number, and it doesn’t have chat capabilities on its website. 

You can file a Jetty claim using your online account. Jetty doesn’t list a Claims phone number on its website and it states that a team will reach out to you in 5-7 business days. That’s a long time to wait to get the claims process started, and it’s especially long if there’s an emergency. They don’t list a phone number for urgent claims. 

To file a claim, Jetty suggests you have receipts for lost, damaged or stolen items, pictures or video documenting the issue and police report numbers (if applicable). 

Jetty does not offer information about pricing or renters insurance discounts on its website, so there’s no way to assess the value. If you do move to a Jetty property, consider getting a quote from Jetty and at least 1 or 2 other renters insurance companies. Review the quotes and compare the types of coverage, policy limits and deductibles as well as the premiums to determine which plan offers the most value. 

Jetty does offer a Jetty membership. This membership is open to anyone, even if you don’t purchase a policy from Jetty. This membership entitles you to discounts from companies like Casper, Blue Apron, Winc and Thrive Market. It can save you money in general, but it doesn’t save you money on your insurance plan. 

Jetty doesn’t offer a mobile app at this time. Its website is optimized for mobile, though, so you can access it on your phone using your mobile browser. 

Jetty makes buying renters insurance easy, and it has options to enhance your coverage. The downsides to Jetty are its lengthy claims process and its lack of portability. Portability is the ability to take your insurance from place to place. 

While you always need to buy a new renters insurance policy when you move, you can usually stay with the same insurance provider, which simplifies buying a new policy. You can only stay with Jetty if you move from 1 Jetty property to another. If you don’t move to a Jetty property, you’ll need to buy a new renters insurance policy from a different company. 

Before you purchase a Jetty policy (or any policy), take the time to compare your quote with at least 1 or 2 insurance companies. Choose a policy that offers the coverage that’s important to you at an affordable price.