PEMCO Earthquake Insurance (2023)

Founded in 1949, PEMCO Insurance sells a variety of insurance products to residents of Washington and Oregon. From auto insurance to home coverage, PEMCO can meet most of your insurance needs.

Every homeowner needs home insurance, but what about specialty home insurance? Flood, earthquake, and water lines usually require additional coverage since they aren’t covered under a standard policy.

If you want this type of insurance, you can easily add it to your home insurance with PEMCO. Many homeowners think that Washington and Oregon aren’t earthquake hotspots, but the coverage can potentially save you thousands.

If you want to buy PEMCO earthquake insurance, your first step should be to compare prices with other companies to find the best price. Enter your ZIP code into our free tool if you want to see what quotes might look like for you.

What is PEMCO earthquake insurance?

Owning a home is the traditional American dream, but it comes with a lot of responsibility. There are many costs involved, some of which homeowners don’t fully understand.

One of the biggest expenses of homeownership is repairs. From water damage to vandalism to fire, insurance can help mitigate the high cost of repair costs.

Traditional homeowner insurance, such as the coverage PEMCO sells, protects you from the following damage:

• Liability. If a visitor is injured on your property and you’re declared responsible, liability will help pay your legal fees if they sue you.
• Guest medical protection. Liability covers your legal needs, but what about the medical bills of a person injured on your property? This portion of your insurance covers medical expenses, including ambulance rides, diagnostic tests, dental work, and hospital stays.
• Dwelling protection. This part of your coverage protects the physical structure of your home, from floor to roof. It also covers detached structures, such as fences, pools, and garages. You can make a claim for damage from fire, theft, lightning, hail, wind, and vandalism.
• Personal belongings protection. Your home is more than just the structure. The final part of your home insurance will replace or repair your personal belongings, such as furniture, electronics, appliances, and clothing. If you have high-value items in your home, you might want to consider more coverage.

You might notice that coverage for damage from earthquakes is missing from this list. That’s because you’ll need additional coverage if your home is ever damaged in an earthquake.

You can find affordable PEMCO earthquake insurance options that will help repair your home after a ground-shaking event. Repair services you can get with PEMCO’s earthquake insurance include:

• Rebuilding your home
• Debris removal
• Replace personal belongings
• Land stabilization
• Help pay for temporary shelter if your home is unlivable

If you live near the coast or in an area with extreme weather patterns, you should also consider flood insurance. Like earthquake damage, repairs needed after a flood won’t be covered unless you have the right insurance.

Do you need earthquake insurance?

Only about 11 percent of Washington homeowners have earthquake insurance, while 20 percent of Oregonians are covered. That means that the vast majority of homeowners in these states will be entirely responsible for damages if their home is damaged.

However, it’s important to ask if residents of Washington and Oregon need earthquake insurance. Some areas in the U.S. are famous for their earthquake potential – especially California and the San Andreas Fault.

First, you should understand that not all earthquakes will damage your home. In fact, you can’t even feel most tremors. While many factors affect it, your house probably won’t be damaged by anything less than a 4.0 magnitude quake.

You might be surprised to learn that Washington has the second-highest risk for major earthquakes in the country. There are dozens of active faults running under the state, some running directly through Seattle and other major residential areas. In Washington, it’s not a matter of if but of when.

Oregon also faces a high earthquake risk because of the Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ). The CSZ runs from northern California into Canada (and is responsible for some of the quakes in Washington), and can churn out earthquakes at a 9.0 or higher.

There’s no telling when the fault will rupture next, but geologists give it a 37 percent chance of causing a magnitude 7.1 plus quake within the next 50 years.

How much does PEMCO earthquake insurance cost?

For starts, the average price of earthquake insurance in America is about $800 a year. Considering quakes can leave tens of thousands of dollars of damage in their wake, that’s quite a deal.

However, the price you pay for earthquake coverage will depend on several items unique to you, including:

• Your location (if you are east of the Cascades, the price will be lower)
• The distance to the nearest fault line from your house
• How earthquake-safe your home is
• The material your house is made of
• How sloped the land your home is on, or how close it is to a bluff
• The age of your home (houses built after 1980 have a higher chance of being bolted to the foundation)
• How much it would cost to rebuild your house

As you can see, there are a lot of factors that go into the price of your insurance. However, a PEMCO agent can help you figure out exactly how much a policy will cost you.

PEMCO Insurance Reviews

If you’re interested in the PEMCO earthquake insurance company, you’ll be happy to know it has excellent reviews.

PEMCO stands for Public Employees Mutual Insurance Company and was founded by a public school teacher who wanted to support education. Today, PEMCO still works towards that goal. If you’re wondering who owns PEMCO insurance, this company sets itself apart by having majority ownership in the hands of employees.

PEMCO consistently scores high with professional rating companies. J.D. Power ranks PEMCO a 4.1 out of 5, while A.M. Best gives its financial strength a B++ (Good). The Better Business Bureau gives PEMCO an A+.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) keeps track of the customer experience for insurance companies, then gives each company a rating based on their size versus the number of complaints they receive. A 1.0 is the national average, and PEMCO scores a .88. Clearly, customers are happy.

So what do those happy customers say? The majority of online reviews are positive, with customers stating the PEMCO insurance claims process was quick and easy, customer service agents were friendly and helpful, and they would recommend PEMCO to friends and family.

The few negative reviews are directed more at the insurance industry itself than PEMCO. Dissatisfied customers typically state they’re unhappy about their PEMCO earthquake insurance rates rising for seemingly no reason or going up after a claim is made.

What other types of insurance can you buy from PEMCO?

With PEMCO, you can get most of your insurance needs met. The company sells:

• Auto
• Home
• Boat
• Condo
• Renters
• Flood
• Umbrella
• Scooter
• Watercraft
• Motorcycle
• Classic car
• Rideshare
• Trailer

If you decide to get multiple policies through PEMCO, you’ll be eligible for its bundling discount. PEMCO offers a long list of discounts for every type of insurance it sells. If you decide to buy from PEMCO, your agent will make sure you get every discount possible.

Find the Best Earthquake Insurance Today

While residents of Washington and Oregon might not think they need earthquake insurance, you’ll be happy to have it if a quake ever strikes your home. With affordable prices, lots of other insurance options, and great online reviews, PEMCO might be the best option for you.

Of course, you should still compare rates from other companies to get the best, even if you’re pretty sure you want to see PEMCO earthquake insurance quotes. Enter your ZIP code into our free tool today when you’re ready.