Renters insurance recommendations?

Check out USAA. It is an insurance and financial services company that primarily serves the military community. However, it's possible to qualify through a variety of connections without having been in the service yourself. If you're eligible, they have great rates on rental insurance as well as auto if you need it. Plus, they are a very efficient and well run company that focuses on its members. I highly recommend.

the "contents" of 30k also covers interior decorations, appliances (which probably belong to the landlord), etc. so 30k is not much, in fact it's the minimum with most carriers.

$206 a year is not bad at all, if you want lower deductable you'll have to pay more, but my advise is to save the money.

also if you have car insurance from the same company you can ask them to give you add'l 10% discount, many companies also have arrangement with insurance carriers that'll give their employees add'l discount

We use Liberty Mutual (a successor to Prudential for renters ins.), and feel that they are fine.

What do you pay at liberty mutual?

If you are thinking of going with State Farm renters insurance, read this first!

Last September my girlfriend and I moved into an old apartment building in Brooklyn and after making the place look nice and dealing with a near miss from a broken radiator we decided to get renters insurance. We put the word out on Facebook, checked sites like this and asked around. We decided to go with State Farm renters insurance.

The policy we got was $180 per year, which was about average. They specialized in apartment renters insurance so it seemed like the smartest choice.

I am a musician and I have a small music production room on the other end of the apartment from the bedroom. It is where I spend most of my time and do my work.

Early Wednesday morning my girlfriend woke me up, her words were "you are not going to like this".

My little music studio was a disaster. During the night water must have filled up the ceiling and burst through making a hole and blowing the glass light fixture out of the ceiling shattering it on the desk below along with lots of nasty dirty water, debris and plaster. The brown water was all over my computer, it had flowed down the wall from a hole in the ceiling and filled up a tube pre amp an acoustic bass guitar and synthesizer my equipment was all messed up. The only comfort I had was as I went through all my jacked up stuff was that it was covered by my State Farm renters insurance. We took pictures and I got to work cleaning up and trying to dry things out. My girlfriend was amazing, she worked with me all morning cleaning and picking up glass, and getting things so that they were clean enough they could be removed from the room and into the bedroom at the other end of the house.
I could not work so I just cleaned for the next two days. Now the room stinks, and the whole apartment smells like sewage. We bought a dehumidifier which we hope will help.
The only thing that was getting me through all this was the idea that State Farm would help me get back to where I was.

After a long phone call, State Farm said it was not covered, none if it! They said that whoever fixed the roof improperly was liable.
I have this phrase stuck in my head "Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there." and it makes the whole mess so much more painful to deal with.