Compare Top Home Warranty Plans 2020

With a huge variety of home warranty plans on the market, finding the one which is most suitable for your needs could be rather tricky. In order to help you make your choice, we have analyzed more than 100 different home warranty plans by more than two dozen home warranty companies, and are proud to present our readers with a selection of the best home warranty plans for 2020.  We stick comparing the home warranty plans which are well-balanced in terms of price and coverage, so in that in our expert opinion, they give you the best protection for your buck.

We have analyzed and compared multiple factors related to home warranty plans to help you choose the right one for your home. Please use our charts below to compare both basic and more advanced home warranty programs. Make sure you read home warranty reviews to get a complete understanding of the offering.  Each of these comparison tables will change based on your location in the U.S, so it doesn’t matter if you are from California, Texas, Arizona, Maryland, Utah or anywhere else in the USA!

How to Choose the Right Home Warranty Plan for Your Needs

Our unique 2000-word long guide. Click here if you want to read about the most recommended home warranty plans.

As soon as they buy a house, every homeowner has to face the question: which home warranty to choose? Should I simply go with the cheapest home warranty plan? How do I compare the various home warranty plans? In some cases, real estate agents make this decision for the homeowners, by offering a one-year contract with the home warranty supplier of their choice as a housewarming gift. In other cases, a home warranty contract is transferred from the previous homeowner to the new one. However, these contracts may not be the optimal solution for the new owner of the house.

What are the most common problems that may arise when the homeowner does not select their home warranty plan carefully? First of all, you may not realize what is covered by your home warranty plan, and what is not covered. This may lead to very unpleasant surprises when a home system or appliance malfunctions, and the home warranty company denies the claim.

In other cases, you may not know to what extent the company will cover the repair or replacement of the broken item. Some of the providers are more generous and offer thousands of dollars in coverage, while other companies limit their coverage at a thousand dollars or even a few hundred for such expensive items as an air conditioner or a heater. It is also good to know what service fee your company charges per claim, and whether it is related to the premium price that you pay for your home warranty plan.

We have analyzed information and created an easy comparison for 43 home warranty issuers including customer feedback. We found that about 7% of the customers complained about tricky terms and conditions, and more than 33% experienced problems with coverage of their home systems or appliances. In the figure below you can see how often the customers mentioned various problems with the plan they have opted to use.

Another big problem may arise when a crucial home system, like air conditioning in summer or a heating system in winter, breaks. You call the home warranty supplier of the plan you have selected, but they don’t have emergency services. You have to wait several days until the company sends you a contractor, and then even more time until the contractor fixes the problem. According to our data, emergency services were available in 87% of the companies we have tested. Only 13% of the companies in this space will make you wait for service.

Another unpleasant surprise that may occur—if you have not done your homework before signing a home warranty contract—is the unexpected expenses on top of the home warranty premium and deductible that you have already paid. Almost 8% of customers complain about unexpected costs. Did you know that most providers have coverage limits for each covered item, and if repair expenses go beyond this limit, they are your responsibility?

 These are the main reasons why homeowners like you need to compare home warranty plans carefully, learn as much information about them as possible, and make an educated decision that will help avoid the pitfalls mentioned above.

Selecting a Plan: Step-By-Step

So, you have bought a new house and are now looking to compare home warranty plans and select the best one for you, correct? First of all, congratulations on your purchase! Now let us lead you through the process of selecting the best home warranty plan for your new house.

Let’s assume your house is in Texas, and you want to purchase a home warranty for all major home systems and appliances. The most common home systems covered by home warranties are air conditioning, heating, electric, and plumbing. For the home appliances, the majority of the home warranty plans cover refrigerator, oven, dishwasher, built-in microwave, washer, and dryer.

Additionally, it must be included in that comparison that many plans cover ceiling fans, garage door, disposal, trash compactor, doorbell, water softener, and other home appliances insurance either as a part of the main plan or as an optional add-on item. In the figure below, you can see how often home warranty clients mentioned claims for various home systems and appliances in their feedback of different home warranties. This is the best home warranty plan comparison we can make because it is based on clients’ feedback. Air conditioning and heating systems were mentioned the most often—fifteen and ten percent—respectively.

The first step will be to choose a company that works in Texas, but don’t rush to the plan selection yet. First, look at the company’s accreditation with the Better Business Bureau. As of April 2018, sixty-three percent of all home warranty services were accredited with BBB.

Another question that may be of interest to you is: How long has the company been on the market? The older the company, the more reputable it may be. Below you can see the statistics on the corporations’ age. Almost 30% of the 40+ home warranty providers we covered on ReviewHomeWarranties have been in business between 5 and 10 years.

It would be helpful to make a shortlist of the most reputable contenders in this area that satisfy your requirements including the following:

• The company accepts claims 24/7 (90% of our sample size)
• Emergency service available (87% of sample size)
• The company offers reservice if repairs fail (100% of sample size)
• Free second opinion (18% of sample size)
• Automatic policy renewal (95% of sample size)
• Free reservice for parts and labor (during 30-365 days)
• High coverage limits
• Other requirements that are important to you

The next step on our comparison is to decide how much money you are ready to spend on your home warranty plan. There is a wide variety of plans offered by Texas home warranty companies, so it is possible to find one that fits your budget. Please keep in mind that the price for the home warranty, like for any insurance, consists of premium and deductible costs. Some companies, like American Home Shield and Landmark Home Warranty, offer a range of premiums and deductibles. The higher the deductible, the lower the premium. Overall, home warranty deductibles range from $50 to $125 with a median of $75.

In the figure below you can see how the average annual premium cost varies by state, and the percentage of the home warranty providers working in each. According to our data, Texas has the largest variety of home warranties, while Florida and California can enjoy the best home warranty quotes.

Once you have a shortlist of the home warranty businesses you like and have made a decision on your budget, it is time to select a plan. For this purpose, look around your house and make a list of the items that you want to be covered under a home warranty. There are companies, such as Select Home Warranty, that cover home systems and home appliances in two separate plans. Alternatively, you can select one of the comprehensive plans that cover both home systems and appliances from companies such as Choice Home Warranty.

While comparing home warranty plans, you need to pay attention not only to the list of items that are covered under each plan but also to the coverage limit for the items that you want to be covered in the first place. In some companies, the list of items may be shorter compared to others, but the coverage limits are higher.   

In the figure below you can see which home systems and appliances may be covered by a regular plan or optional coverage, and percent of the home warranty service providers that offer any type of coverage.

Compare Home Warranty Plans

In case the plan you selected does not cover all of the items on your list, check the optional coverage section. In many cases, optional coverage items can be added to the plan for an additional fee. These include swimming pool and spa, central vacuum, stand-alone freezer, second refrigerator, and more.

Final Remarks About Comparing Home Warranty Plans

Choosing the best home warranty plan is not an easy task. There are more than 60 companies on the home warranty market, and each company offers multiple coverage plans. There are plans for home systems, home appliances, and various combinations of both.

What you need to know before you even start comparing a home warranty plan is what home systems and appliances you want to cover, and what your budget is. With these two things in mind, you may now start selecting the home warranty company. On average, it takes a potential customer up to four hours to find information about a home warranty company on their own. On our website, this process will take only 41 minutes on average.

To make the process of comparing home warranty plans selecting the right one even easier for you, we have organized the companies by state. We have collected information on the most prominent companies operating in Texas, Florida, California, Virginia, Ohio, and other states, and we hope this will help you find the right home warranty plan for your house.

Best Home Warranty Plans by Plan Type

Now that you need what to search for in a home warranty plan, as well as what to look out for, we hope you make great use of our list of the best home warranty plans in the USA for 2020. We have invested many man-hours into creating an accurate home warranty plan comparison and do all the technological adaptations so they would be are tailored for your location and are all offered by the reputable and honest providers.