Choice Home Warranty (CHW) and American Home Shield (AHS) are two equally recognized and renowned home warranty companies in the country. They both offer extensive coverage to your home appliances and systems through their home warranty plans. But which one of them is a better option for you? In this article, let’s compare these two companies for their services, fees, offers, coverage, cost and reviews to help us understand who leads the market better.

 

 

Comparison	CHW	AHS
Avg monthly cost	$36 to $44	$50 to $60
Service Call Fee	$60 – $85	$75 – $125
Technician Visit Fee	You pay only once	You pay for every visit
Availability	Covers all except Washington	All states except Alaska
Waiting Period	30 days	30 days
BBB Rating	B	B
Service Recall period	·30 Days on labor ·90 days on parts	30 days on both (labor and parts)
Customer support	24X7 online support for filing claims	24X7 online support for filing claims

 

CHW and AHS – Company Overview

Choice Home Warranty and American Home Shield have both been in the home warranty market for a long time. American Home Shield is one of the oldest home warranty companies and has been offering their services since its pioneering year in 1971. With over 50 years of experience, they have a huge list of customers across the country. On the other hand, Choice Home warranty was established back in 2008 and in just 13 years, the company has grown out to be one of the most successful companies in the market. Undoubtedly, they have one of the largest numbers of customers across the country.

The differences between Choice Home Warranty and American Home Shield is very negligible as they both offer almost 90% similar coverage to their customers. The companies have their own share of pros and cons, offers and plans that help them provide the best services to their customers. Although, Choice Home Warranty offers its services to their customers at a comparatively lower cost.

Choice Home Warranty Vs American Home Shield

Who offers the best coverage to their customers? Who is more reasonable? Are they both BBB certified? Let’s find answers to all these questions and compare the two companies while doing so.

Coverage

When we compare the options offered by Choice Home Warranty and American Home Shield, it appears that both the companies offer their customers with comprehensive coverage plans that can cover repair and replacement needs of almost all of their home appliances and systems.

CHW

Choice Home Warranty offers their customers with 2 coverage plans to accommodate their appliance/ system repair and replacement needs. The 2 plans are:

• Basic Plan – This plan covers almost everything that is necessary in your house. It includes, a heating system, electrical system and the plumbing system. It also includes a water heater, plumbing stoppage, whirlpool bathtub, dishwasher, cooktop, oven/stove, built-in-microwave, garbage disposal, garage door opener, ceiling/ exhaust fans and ductwork.

• Total Plan – As the name suggests, the total plan covers everything that the basic plan covers, plus the other systems and appliances such as clothes dryer, washing machine, air conditioning unit and the refrigerator.

• Add-ons – Apart from these basic coverage options, CHW further offers you additional coverage for well pump, pool/spa, septic tank pumping, septic system, sump-pump, stand-alone freezer and a second fridge in the form of add-ons that are very reasonably priced.

AHS

Being one of the largest home warranty companies, American Home Shield offers equally interesting coverage plans that are designed to cater to the individual needs of their customers. These plans are:

• Systems Plan – It includes all the main systems in your home such as the heating system, air conditioning system, electrical system, water heaters, plumbing system, garbage disposal system, hot and cold water dispensers, central vacuums, doorbells, ceiling fans and smoke detectors.

• Appliances Plan – This plan covers almost all your home appliances including your washing machine, clothes dryers, built-in-microwave, cooktop/range/oven, free-standing ice maker, refrigerator, built-in food processor, garage door opener and trash compactor.

• Combo Plan – Allows you to combine the different aspects of the above mentioned plans based on the customer’s needs.

• Make Your Own Plan – This plan allows the customers to decide which systems and appliances they wish to include in their home warranty contract. Compared to all its previous plans, this plan is most flexible, not just with the coverage but also the cost. However, in order to choose this plan, you must add at least 10 appliances to the contract.

Cost

One of the most primary factors that affects the success rate of a home warranty company is the cost at which they offer their plans to their customers. Let’s see who offers the best plans at the best rates between CHW and AHS.

Choice Home Warranty: As mentioned above, CHW offers you just 2 well-designed plans that cover all your necessary appliances and systems. The Basic Plan costs you around $37 per month, while the Total plan costs you $44 a month.

Apart from the monthly premium cost, a customer also has to pay a service fee ranging between $60 and $75 for the repairing done.

American Home Shield: The company offers you 3 plans, the appliances plan, the systems plan and the combo plan. Each of these plans costs $49.99. On the other hand, the combo plan costs you $59.99.
Apart from these premium charges, the customer also has to pay a service fee ranging from $75 to $125 which is much higher than CHW.

Offers

Pleasing customers with the best home warranty offers is the primary target of all companies. This is one of the main reasons why all home warranty companies provide a number of additional benefits to their customers. Let’s take a look at the offers provided by both CHW and AMS.

CHW	AHS
$50 off	$50 off
1 month free	–
Free cancellation for 30 days	–
No transfer cost	No transfer cost
90 days workmanship guarantee	–
–	30 days free re-service

Availabilities

CHW and American Home Shield, both have been in the business for a long time now and provide their services all across the country except a single state in each.

CHW extends their services to a total of 49 states out of 50 American states. It does not provide its services in Washington.

AHS extends their services to a total of 49 states out of the 50 states. They do not provide their services to the state of Alaska.

Claims Processing

Filing a claim is an easy procedure in both CHW and AHS. They both promise to offer the best claim filing and quick processing services for the claims.

CHW – Customers simply have to log-in into their CHW online portal to file a claim. You can also call their customer service number for any assistance needed or file a claim 24 X 7. Once the claim has been filed, a technician is sent to the registered address as soon as possible. For CHW, customers have a 90 day long guarantee on parts and a 30 day guarantee on labor. As a result, customers do not have to pay for service fees for repeated follow-ups on an item, if they fall into the give timeframe.

AHS – Same as CHW, a customer can file a claim online 24 X 7. Depending on the claim, a technician is soon assigned the task of diagnosing the problem and finding a solution for it. The technician visits the customer’s residence within 24 hours of the complaint. Based on the problem, the technician may have to make multiple visits to repair the claim. Make note that your service call fee doesn’t cover the repairs. It is a fee you pay the contractors for visiting your home.

Policies

Every company has its own list of limitations and exclusions. It is the complete responsibility of the customers to read their terms and conditions and policies before purchasing their services and plans.

Coverage limit

Choice Home Warranty has a coverage limit ranging between $250 and $3000 for every covered item (repair and replacement included). American Home Shield, on the other hand has a coverage limit ranging between $1000 and $3000.

Replacement Policy

The replacement policy of both the companies is almost similar to each other. If an item cannot be repaired, your home warranty company will replace it with comparable features, efficiency and capacity. However, they may not be of the same dimensions, colour or brand. Also, the companies offer their customers a cash payout in place of a replacement of a system or an appliance in certain situations.

Conclusion

With their years of experience and well-designed home warranty plans, both Choice Home Warranty and American Home Shield offer their customers comprehensive plans that provide good coverage to all the major appliances and systems. But, which one of these companies is better?

Choice Home Warranty

• Best for people who want 24 X 7 customer services
• Best for people who want to choose a trustworthy company
• Best for people who want a transparent file processing procedure for repair/replacement
• Best for people who want to choose a company with the widest network of contractors and technicians
• Best for people who want complete home warranty services at an affordable cost.

American Home Shield

• Best for people who like to customise their coverage
• Best for people in Washington