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If you are thinking of purchasing flood insurance, we have rounded up some of the best flood insurance companies available today. We have chosen each insurance company based on its coverage, discounts available, ratings, price, and customer satisfaction.
Flooding is something that many homeowners are unprepared for. No one expects it to happen to their home, and that’s why many homes across America don’t purchase flood insurance. In fact, just 15% of American homeowners had a flood insurance policy in 2018, according to the Insurance Information Institute.
The 8 Best Flood Insurance Companies
- Liberty Mutual: Best for Policy Discounts
- State Farm: Best for Online Quotes
- Allstate: Best for Policy Customization
- Metlife: Best for Guaranteed Replacements
- GEICO: Best for Customer Satisfaction
- Assurant: Best for Excess Coverage
- USAA: Best for Military Members
- Amica: Best for Money-back Dividends
| Policy Discounts Available | Customer satisfaction | BBB Rating | |
| Liberty Mutual | Multi-policy, automatic payments and paperless policy discount | Low | A+ |
| State Farm | Multi-policy, home alert, roofing discounts | High | N/A |
| Allstate | Up to 25% with multi-policy, 5% with Easy Pay Plan, or 20% with claim-free discounts | Low | A+ |
| Metlife | Alarm protection discounts and multi-policy discounts | N/A | A- |
| GEICO | Bundle home and auto insurance discount, home security and alarm discounts | High | A+ |
| Assurant | N/A | High | A+ |
| USAA | Multi-policy discounts, family discounts, and military installation discounts | High | B+ |
| Amica | Alarm system, automatic detection discounts | High | A+ |
* Data as of 08/23/2020
Liberty Mutual
Liberty Mutual is a long-standing, trusted name in the insurance world and offers several different types of insurance. While its home insurance policy doesn’t cover flooding as standard, flood insurance can be added onto your policy. In fact, Liberty Mutual offers discounts if you bundle multiple policies with them. However, Liberty Mutual ranks slightly low on customer satisfaction with the JD Power Property Claims Satisfaction Study.
To learn more, read our review of Liberty Mutual.
| ✓ Best For: | ✗ Not For: |
| Home insurance policy discounts | Customer satisfaction |
- AM Best: A
- J.D. Power: 2/5
- Standard & Poor: BBB
- Moody’s: A2
- BBB Rating: A+
State Farm
State Farm covers almost one-fifth of homeowners in the U.S. and overall has a good track record for customer happiness. One thing that stands out about State Farm’s insurance policies is the online quote tool, which provides a thorough analysis and fairly accurate estimates for new customers. For those with more specialist insurance needs, State Farm doesn’t offer much in the way of policy customization, so that may put some people off.
For more details, read our full review of State Farm.
| ✓ Best For: | ✗ Not For: |
| Online quote tool | Lack of customization |
- AM Best: A
- J.D. Power: 4/5
- Standard & Poor: AA
- Moody’s: N/A
- BBB Rating: N/A
Allstate
Allstate is another popular insurer that provides homeowners insurance across the nation. With Allstate, you can customize your policy to suit your needs by adding on non-standard types of coverage such as flood insurance or identity theft coverage. Allstate has an intuitive website that’s user-friendly and makes it easier to customize your policy. However, overall customer complaints are quite high compared to other insurers, so that’s worth bearing in mind.
Read our full review of Allstate for more info.
| ✓ Best For: | ✗ Not For: |
| Customizing your own policy | Customer satisfaction |
Metlife
Metlife stands out as one of the few home insurance providers which offer guaranteed replacements on your personal property or your home itself in the case of flooding. This is a great relief for anyone worried about replacing personal possessions. However, one way Metlife falls short of the competition is the lack of an online quote tool. You will have to contact them directly for prices, which might put some people off.
| ✓ Best For: | ✗ Not For: |
| Guaranteed replacements | Those wanting an online quote |
GEICO
While mostly known for its auto insurance, GEICO also provides homeowner’s insurance. With home insurance generally costing a lot, GEICO offers customers ways to reduce their costs by installing things like security systems or fire alarms. GEICO offers a range of additional policies including flood insurance — and if you bundle a few policies, you can get better rates.
Read our full review of GEICO to learn more.
| ✓ Best For: | ✗ Not For: |
| Customer satisfaction | Those looking for direct underwritten policies |
- AM Best: A++
- J.D. Power: N/A
- Standard & Poor: AA+
- Moody’s: Aa3
- BBB Rating: A+
Assurant
Assurant is a modern insurance company offering plenty of products to fully protect your home, including flood insurance. If you have damage from flooding, Assurant makes it easy to make claims online for damages. You can also purchase excess flood insurance over the NFIP coverage limits if you need extra protection.
| ✓ Best For: | ✗ Not For: |
| Excess coverage | No transparent pricing/policy details on the website |
USAA
USAA provides various insurance products for military members and is highly rated by AM Best, Standard & Poor and Moody’s. The great thing about USAA is that the products are usually low-cost. Unfortunately, flood insurance is set by NFIP, so you won’t get a direct discount by going through USAA. However, if you have other insurance with USAA, it makes them a convenient choice to have all policies under one roof.
Read the full review of USAA to get all the details.
| ✓ Best For: | ✗ Not For: |
| Military members | General customers |
- AM Best: A++
- J.D. Power: 5/5
- Standard & Poor: AA+
- Moody’s: Aa1
- BBB Rating: A-
Amica
Amica is a small-but-popular insurance provider with great customer service. It features comprehensive offerings and even a money-back dividend policy, which awards you up to 20% of your annual premium. Amica will also help you customize your policy to cover your property in the event of floods or earthquakes to ensure you’re fully protected.
If you’d like to read more about this unique provider, read our full review of Amica.
| ✓ Best For: | ✗ Not For: |
| Money-back dividend policy | Expensive without discounts |
- AM Best: A+
- J.D. Power: 5/5
- Standard & Poor: N/A
- Moody’s: N/A
- BBB Rating: A+
How We Chose the Best Flood Insurance Companies
Factors evaluated include the providers’ financial strength as indicated by organizations such as AM Best and Standard & Poors, customer service ratings and support, as well as average premiums.
How Flood Insurance works
What is flood insurance, and how does it work? Most homeowners’ insurance doesn’t cover damage due to flooding. Flood insurance is a separate policy which covers any flood-related losses.
Most insurance policies are underwritten by the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), which was established in 1968 to reduce the need for federal disaster assistance for flood losses.
What does flood insurance cover? Flood insurance will typically cover up to $250,000 of the building structure itself, up to $100,000 of personal property and up to $2,500 of valuables or business property. That means if your home was damaged in a flood, you could claim up to $250,000 to repair your home’s structure, $100,000 to repair or replace personal possessions and $2,500 to replace valuables such as jewelry. However, like any insurance policy, the coverage can vary.
What it doesn’t cover is loss of the use of your home. For example, if you have to stay elsewhere due to home damage. If you use your home for your business, you won’t be able to claim for lost business with flood insurance.
Do You Need Flood Insurance?
No one ever thinks it will happen to them, but floods are one of the biggest risks to homes in the U.S. According to research from First Street, 14.6 million properties are at immediate risk of flooding. This is expected to rise to 16 million by 2050.
Depending on where you live, flood insurance could be essential. However, even if you live outside of flood-prone areas, that doesn’t mean you won’t need insurance. You can’t predict when a flood will occur — and if it does, the damage can be catastrophic. On average, flooding costs Americans $8.2 billion in damages each year.
Who Should Get Flood Insurance?
- You live in a flood-prone area. If you live in such an area, you should ensure you have proper flood protection in place. In some cases, when you take out your mortgage, you may be required to purchase flood insurance.
- If your home is worth more than the NFIP limit. If your home value is greater than the NFIP limit of $250,000, you should consider adding excess flood insurance.
- Those who would struggle to pay for damages. If you know a flood would cause too much damage for you to cover, it’s definitely worth considering some insurance for peace of mind.
- Those whose homeowners insurance doesn’t cover floods. Most basic homeowners insurance won’t cover flooding so it’s worth checking what your policy does cover and purchasing additional coverage.
Shopping For Flood Insurance
When shopping for flood insurance, these are some of the things you should consider with your flood insurance policy:
- Building coverage limit: How much flood insurance do I need? The NFIP limit is $250,000. However, if your home is worth more, you will need to find a policy that can cover the excess.
- Contents coverage: The NFIP limit for this is up to $100,000, but you may want to look at what other private insurance companies can offer.
- Loss of use coverage: If you want additional coverage for loss of use of your home, this is another thing to look for with private insurance companies.
- Replacement costs: Most policies won’t cover true replacement costs of possessions and will have a cap on what the policy pays out. You may want to look for coverage that does cover a “guaranteed replacement cost.”
FAQs
About the Authors
Kara is a freelance writer for Reviews.com. For the past few years, she has covered a wide range of personal finance topics such as home insurance, mortgages and personal loans for a variety of websites. She has been featured in The Simple Dollar, Bankrate.com and Interest.com among others. She holds a bachelor's degree in Creative Writing from LJMU in the UK. Kara's favorite review on Reviews.com is The Best International Travel Insurance Companies.
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