I actually don't know what you mean by that, but, the "insurance industry comes out ahead on average" is true both of individual policies and on average, which

I actually don't know what you mean by that, but, the "insurance industry comes out ahead on average" is true both of individual policies and on average, which is why his response is kinda irrelevant. If you're a high-claim buyer that will get passed along to you in your premiums (which is what I specifically said in the first paragraph). They don't just write "here's the average policy, we'll do this for all situations" because then they would be hit by adverse selection. All homeowners/etc are underwritten against a specific property and person. Of course any particular policy may end up being a win or a loss for the insurer - but - the policy is written so the insurer wins on average, and that's also true of any particular rider or supplemental coverage. The expected value of all particular policies and all particular supplementals/riders is, from the insurer's data, negative for the buyer, otherwise they won't write it. I did not address it in that comment in particular, but in the specific case of when you already have an accidental damage rider or it's generally included in your policy, whether you should take it... the answer is probably yes, but, you should also expect it to impact your rates down the road, especially if you do it more than once. You'll have to weigh that, and sometimes it's not worth it unless it's part of a larger claim. Yeah, sometimes you do win on a particular insurance policy but... the insurer can still win on the backside too, with higher premiums in the long term. And even if you pick up and move insurers, the next insurer will see that claim too and it will affect the quotes you get. Again, not a money fountain, it's just risk smoothing. What I was more going for was, in general the net expected value is negative so you shouldn't take the rider, because it will come back in your rates if you actually need to use it. The rider premium isn't the total cost here, there's additional long-term costs if you end up being a claims pest. Homeowners is not designed for every time you drop your laptop, and if you use it in that way you'll end up with substantially higher premiums in the long term to account for it.