American Home Shield

American Home Shield offers several home warranty plans to meet the needs of homeowners, real estate professionals, and people selling their houses.

With American Home Shield, you can choose to pay for your warranty monthly or annually. The cost of your home warranty is affected by a few things, including home type, location, and coverage level. Although it would be nice to have cost estimates easily accessible online, you can request quotes from American Home Shield's website.

Although some key cost information is limited online, you can see maintenance service fees associated with American Home Shield's warranties for homeowners. Pricing information for the company's other plans is much more difficult to find without contacting American Home Shield directly.

Planholders can choose a Trade Service Call Fee when they purchase a warranty. The service fee amount you choose will affect the cost of your warranty. The higher the fee, the lower your warranty cost. The lower the fee, the higher your warranty cost.

We'll cover all of American Home Shield's plans and obtainable cost information below.

• Plans for homeowners
• Plans for real estate professionals
• Seller coverage option

Plans for Homeowners

Homeowners can choose from three plan options: ShieldSilver™, ShieldGold™, and ShieldPlatinum™. These plans do not require maintenance records or a home inspection.

Customers benefit from a 30-day workmanship guarantee that ensures that the repairs made when you make a claim are well-done.

All American Home Shield members also benefit from discounts on appliances and can receive $25 for referring friends.

ShieldSilver™ Plan

The ShieldSilver™ plan covers heating and cooling systems, a home's electrical systems, and plumbing systems.

For additional protection, you can add coverage for pools, inground spas, septic pump, well pump, and a guest unit. You can also include roof leak repair and an electronics protection plan. Roof leak repair coverage may not be available in all states.

American Home Shield's electronics warranty plan offers coverage for your personal electronics including home theater, computers, printers, tablets, and more when this equipment has defects or experiences mechanical or electrical failure from normal wear and tear.

With the electronics warranty, you'll also benefit from power surge protection and technical support. This protection plan does not require registrations or receipts to issue coverage and has an online claim process. Unfortunately, the electronics warranty is not available in California.

ShieldGold™ Plan

The ShieldGold™ plan covers the same systems that the ShieldSilver™ plan does and includes coverage for kitchen appliances and laundry appliances.

With this plan, you'll have the same options for additional coverage as with the ShieldSilver™ plan.

ShieldSiver™ and ShieldGold™ Cost

Maintenance service fees with the ShieldSilver™ and ShieldGold™ plans are as follows:

• Trade Service Call Fee — $75, $100, or $125
• Rekey — $100
• HVAC tune-up — $75
• Air filter delivery — starts at $5.25 per air filter

Planholders also benefit from no cap on system repairs and coverage for refrigerants at $10 per pound.

ShieldGold™ plan members also have a $3,000 per appliance coverage limit.

ShieldPlatinum™ Plan

For even more protection, you can choose the ShieldPlatinum™ plan. This warranty plan builds on the ShieldGold™ plan's coverage by including roof leak repair coverage, an HVAC tune-up, and code violation and permit coverage.

You can also add coverage for pools, inground spas, septic pumps, well pumps, and a guest unit. The electronics protection plan is also available with the ShieldPlatinum™ plan.

ShieldPlatinum™ Cost

Maintenance service fees with the Shield Platinum™ plan are below:

• Trade service call fee — $75, $100, or $125
• Rekey — $100
• HVAC tune-up — one included with plan
• Air filter delivery — starts at $5.25 per air filter

ShieldPlatinum™ members also benefit from unlimited refrigerant coverage, $1,500 for roof leak repairs, unlimited coverage for systems, $6,000 per appliance, and $1,000 per year for code violations, permits, and modifications.

Plans for Real Estate Professionals

Like homeowners, real estate professionals can choose from three warranty plan options: ShieldEssential™, ShieldPlus™, and ShieldComplete™.

ShieldEssential™ Plan

The ShieldEssential™ offers protection for air conditioning, heating, ductwork, plumbing, electrical systems, water heaters, insufficiently maintained equipment, refrigerant (recapture, reclaim, and disposal), removal of defective equipment, and rekeying.

This plan also covers failure related to rust, corrosion, undetectable pre-existing conditions, mismatched systems, and improper installations, repairs, and modifications. You'll also benefit from $250 each contract term in coverage for permit fees and code violations each.

ShieldPlus™ Plan

The ShieldPlus™ plan offers similar coverage and includes laundry appliances and kitchen appliances.

ShieldComplete™

With the ShieldComplete™ plan, you'll have the most coverage. This plan offers the same coverage as the ShieldPlus plan™ and includes ceiling fans, telephone wiring, doorbells, garage door openers, instant hot and cold water dispensers, and built-in fans (exhaust, attic, and whole house fans).

Additional Coverage Options

With any of these warranty plans, real estate professionals can add coverage for well pumps, septic system pumping and septic sewage ejector pumps, swimming pool equipment, spa equipment, salt water equipment, and up to four refrigerators. In Texas, you can add coverage for subterranean termites as a home buyer or seller.

Seller Coverage Option

Seller coverage is available to qualifying homeowners with an American Home Shield warranty already in place. Details regarding eligibility requirements beyond already having an American Home Shield Warranty are limited online.

This seller coverage offers protection for your home while it's on the market for up to six months with the potential to renew. You won't have to pay for the warranty coverage until you close on the sale. While your home is listed, you'll benefit from up to $2,000 on covered repairs and replacements.

If you're considering this additional coverage while selling your home, pay attention to limitations and exclusions with the plan.

A standard home warranty contract with American Home Shield is 12 months. The seller coverage plan option is six months and may be renewed.

Exclusions and Limitations

Home warranties are meant to cover damage from normal wear and tear. American Home Shield warranties cover normal wear and tear, poor maintenance, rust, corrosion, sediment, mismatched systems, and undetectable pre-existing conditions. The warranties also cover damage from mistakes with installations, repairs, and modifications.

Plans do not offer coverage when damage is covered by the manufacturer, distributor, builder, or an extended warranty. American Home Shield's warranties are also only for residential buildings, not commercial buildings or homes used as business locations.

For more information on exclusions and limitations, American Home Shield offers a sample contract online for each type of coverage it offers. This transparency makes it easy to research and understand terms and conditions before purchasing a warranty.

Cancellation Policy

You can cancel your home warranty at any time by calling American Home Shield. However, some fees may apply depending on when you cancel.

If you cancel within the first 30 days of your warranty, you'll receive your contract fees minus the cost of any service and claims received.

If you cancel after the first 30 days, you'll receive prorated contract fees for the remainder of the contract term minus the cost of any service or claims. Depending on where you live, you may also be charged an administration fee (up to one month's payment). This fee will usually be subtracted from your refund of prorated contract fees.

If you're selling your home, you can transfer the warranty to the new buyer. You'll also need to call American Home Shield to complete the transfer.

American Home Shield uses a network of licensed, independent contractors to diagnose problems and make repairs.

You can make service visit requests online at any time. American Home Shield's website does not offer much information about response times, though many reviewers indicate the company generally has quick response times.

American Home Shield is a top-ranked home warranty company on BestCompany.com. This high ranking is due to the high ratings and praise received in thousands of customer reviews.

Roughly 71 percent of American Home Shield reviews on BestCompany.com are 4 or 5 stars. Praise includes quick claims processing, fast repairs, helpful and informative customer service, work completed by qualified contractors, quality replacements, and affordable repairs.

While many of these reviews report an overall positive experience with the company, some note that repairs can occasionally be slow.

Although American Home Shield has primarily positive reviews, about 17 percent of its reviews are 1 star.

Complaints in these reviews include miscommunication and difficulty communicating with customer service, significant delays or unresolved claims, dissatisfaction with coverage, dissatisfaction with the cancellation policy, and problems with contractors. Some of these problems include tickets being resolved when no visit was made, poor workmanship, and additional damage caused by contractors.

Despite these complaints, American Home Shield is competitive for the industry. Its star rating is close to the average star rating for the industry, it has one of the highest review counts in home warranty on BestCompany.com, and it has a higher net promoter score than the industry average.

The net promoter score measures the likelihood a reviewer would recommend a company to friends on a scale of one to ten, with ten being the most likely. Best Company reviewers are 14 percent more likely to recommend American Home Shield compared to the industry average.