Is theft of cash covered by homeowner’s insurance?

Is theft of cash covered by homeowner’s insurance? Homeowners insurance is designed to financially protect you if your home experiences certain covered events, like fire, theft, vandalism, and damage caused by certain natural disasters. When those things occur, you will file a claim to receive money so that you can repair or replace the damaged items and the damage to your home. However, if you have cash in your home, the coverage is slightly different.

Understanding What Happens When Someone Steals cash from Inside Your Home

Let’s say that someone breaks into your home, steal a bunch of electronics and jewelry, and happens to find that cash jar you’ve been using to save for your next vacation. The electronics and jewelry are most likely covered by your homeowners’ insurance policy.

However, cash may or may not be covered. In instances where it is covered, it’s usually only covered up to a couple of hundred dollars. If you happen to have thousands saved in your home, the entire amount probably isn’t covered.

How You Should Store Your Cash

Ideally, you probably shouldn’t keep more than $200 or $300 in your home at any one time. However, if you must store more than that, it’s a good idea to get a fire safe and keep it in a concealed location inside your home, preferably where criminals would not find it. Of course, the safest place to store your cash is in your financial institution, but if you must store your cash at home, we recommend putting it in a place that you will remember, but criminals won’t readily check. This could include an empty paint can in your garage, a fake electrical outlet, or some type of personal hygiene box in the bathroom. It’s also a good idea to store your cash in multiple places in your home, so that if one stash is found, the others may not be found.

Where You Should Never Store Your Cash

Criminals tend to look in certain places for cash. These include your freezer, your kitchen cabinets, and your master bedroom closet. You should also never store cash under your mattress. A few other places to avoid include your toilet tank and extra purse or wallet. The reason these are bad locations is that they’ve been popularized in books, movies, and even in other articles that state they know the best places to store money at home. This means that you must be creative when hiding your cash.

Other Ways Homeowners Insurance Protects Your Belongings

In addition to replacing small amounts of cash, homeowners insurance also protects you against:

  • Your Home – helps pay for repairs and damage to your home that occur as the result of a covered event.
  • External Structures – Some homeowners’ policies pay for external structures like sheds or garages that are damaged during covered events.
  • Your Personal Belongings – Helps pay for the replacement of your belongings if they are damaged or destroyed during a covered event.
  • Bodily Injury Lawsuits – helps protect you against lawsuits from other people who are injured on your property or have their personal items damaged.
  • Medical Coverage for People Injured Inside Your Home – Helps pay for medical assistance for individuals who are injured inside your home.
  • Home Office – If you have a home office, your homeowners’ insurance policy may cover the equipment up to a certain dollar amount. If you have extremely expensive office furniture or equipment, it’s best to ask questions and potentially take out an additional policy to help cover your home office.
  • Jewelry – Basic homeowners policies typically cover stolen jewelry up to a certain amount. However, if you have a large or extremely expensive jewelry collection, it’s best to ask about the coverage amounts in the homeowners’ policy and potentially take out an additional policy just for your jewelry.
  • Collections – if you have collections, like paintings and antiques, your homeowners’ policy may cover them up to a certain amount. However, you may also need an additional policy to cover your collections.

Homeowners Insurance with Fearnow

If you need homeowners insurance, Fearnow can help. Our agents can discuss your insurance needs and recommend the best policies to help keep you protected in the event of a fire, theft, or covered natural disaster. To get a quote and learn more about our policies, give us a call at (813) 689-8878.