AFC Home Club Review

Company Overview

AFC Home Club is a home warranty company that was established in 2009. Its headquarters is located in Marietta, Georgia. The company operates under several different business names, including America’s First Choice Warranty, AFC Warranty, America's 1st Choice Home Club, Crast Inc., and America’s First Choice Home Club. All names operate under the same umbrella, and it does not appear there are any major differences between plans or service agreements.

States Covered

AFC Home Club covers the entire U.S. except for Hawaii.

Available Plans

AFC Home Club offers four plans for customers to choose from. These include a Platinum Plan, Gold Plan, and Silver Plan, as well as a Systems Plan that only covers major home systems. 

The price you pay depends on the plan that you choose, coverage term, and which trade service fee (TSF) you select: $75, $100, or $125. You can choose a higher service fee in exchange for a lower monthly cost. Each plan also includes benefits as part of club membership.

Here’s what each plan covers:

Real Estate Plans

AFC Home Club also offers plans for home buyers, sellers, and real estate professionals. The company offers the same four levels of plan—silver, gold, platinum, and systems—to real estate professionals, and also provides an online portal through which real estate agents can manage their home warranties.

No pricing data is available on AFC Home Club’s website. Instead, it encourages real estate professionals, home buyers, and home sellers to download a brochure and then contact the company for a quote.

Plan Pricing

AFC Home Club offers four plans—silver, gold, platinum, and systems. However, prices for these plans are not available on the company’s website. Instead, you should call for a quote. It states that the monthly price you pay for a plan depends on the trade service fee (TSF) you select. TSF options are $75, $100, and $125.

During our research, we called AFC Home Club and requested quotes for properties in four states—California, Florida, New York, and Texas. Here are the annual prices we were quoted:

As we can see from this table, there is a significant difference in annual cost between AFC Home Club warranties depending on where you live. This is typical for home warranty companies. 

The cost of AFC Home Club warranties are quite high in comparison to the competition. They are by no means the most expensive home warranties, but they are not cheap either. The average cost of a home warranty, across all providers and plans, was $574 as of February 2022. The average cost of an AFC Home Club warranty is $674—a clear $100 more expensive.

Of course, the amount you actually pay will depend on where you live, and the level of coverage you need. But our research suggests that AFC Home Club doesn’t offer the best value home warranties. 

There are some other costs involved with this type of policy, though. All home warranty providers charge a service fee, and the industry-wide average service fee is about $82. This is due each time you call out a technician to fix an appliance. AFC Home Club is slightly unusual, in that the company allows you to choose your level of service fee, and adjusts your annual premium accordingly.

Optional Add-Ons

AFC Home Club allows you to purchase optional coverage on things like septic systems and double ovens for an additional cost. The company provides these quotes as an annual cost rather than a monthly cost.

AFC Home Club is also a little unusual in offering a range of benefits for home warranty customers. These include:

• Free credit monitoring and identity protection alerts from MoneyTips
• Discounts on maintenance-related parts and supplies (Encompass Simply Parts)
• Discounted rates for ADT-monitored home security and alarm services
• Enrollment in Emergency Alert Network 
• DealCash membership (provides savings on merchandise, food, and more)

Types of Damage Covered

AFC Home Club is pretty standard when it comes to the types of damage covered. You can see a detailed description of this by downloading a sample contract from the company’s website. In general,  AFC Home Club warranties:

• Provide a commitment to repair certain appliances and systems if they malfunction,
• Cover repair and replacement costs on major home systems and appliances in the event of breakdowns associated with normal wear and tear.

However, buyers should be aware that there are some limitations to what a home warranty plan can cover. Home warranties cover breakdowns that occur due to normal wear and tear. For example, if a fan in your AC unit breaks due to natural use, a home warranty would normally cover the replacement. However, if that AC was broken from human misuse or a natural event like a tree branch falling on the outdoor air handler, it would not fall under their coverage.

Plan Exclusions

AFC Home Club covers most breakdowns for appliances and major home systems. They do have a lot of exclusions, but they are about average for the home warranty industry. Although the company goes into full detail about its plan exclusions in the sample contracts, it also lists the exclusions directly on its website. In its favor, this allows you to easily determine what your policy will cover without having to pore over the fine print when making a buying decision.

Payout Caps and Limitations

AFC Home Club has different payout caps for different items. They also have different problems and parts of items that are covered and others that are not covered. Since there are different payout amounts for different items, you should read over your policy carefully to ensure you understand each payout cap individually.

During our research, AFC Home Club told us that their standard payout cap is $2,000 per appliance and $1,000 per system. While this amount is likely to cover the vast majority of repairs, it’s among the lowest of all the home warranty companies we surveyed. This should be a cause for concern for homeowners, and is a mark against AFC Home Club.

Response Time

AFC Home Club states in its service agreement that the company is not an emergency service. During our research, the company stated that it normally responds to claims within 48 hours if they are made during weekdays, but that response times on the weekend or holidays can be up to four days.

This is relatively slow in comparison to other companies in the sector, who often claim response times of 24 hours or less. However, it may be that AFC Home Club is merely being more realistic about its average response time.

The company does allow customers to use their own service technicians, but you must receive authorization after you have made the claim if it is for a non-emergency service. In the event of an emergency, customers do have the ability to hire their own service technician prior to having authorization, but it is still important to file a claim first to ensure coverage even though you initially will not have authorization.

Since the wording in the terms of the agreement is somewhat confusing in regard to this, we suggest reading over your policy carefully and asking questions when you first purchase your plan. This will help to ensure you do not violate the agreement in the event you do need to have an emergency handled by your own service technician.

Customer Service and Claims

AFC Home Club accepts claims 24/7 online or by phone at 855-613-4555. It is important to note that the company clearly states in its service agreement that they are not an emergency service.

AFC Home Club vs. The Competition

For our comparison, we selected Sears Home Warranty because of the similarity of plans, including the extra benefits both companies offer as part of their home warranty packages. Since AFC Home Club has three trade service fees to choose from ($75, $100, $125), we chose the trade service fee of $100 and compared their Platinum Plan with Sears Home Warranty’s Whole Home Plan ($69.99/month).

It initially appeared that the Sears Home Warranty plan provides more item coverage than the AFC Home Club plan, which could explain the higher cost. When we dug a little further, however, we realized the reason it appears they provide more item coverage is the way Sears Home Warranty breaks out some of their plumbing system parts into separate items of coverage.

Although AFC Home Club covers these same items, they bundle them as one unit of coverage under the title of "Plumbing Systems" rather than breaking them out separately. As an example, faucets and toilets are each listed as a single item under the Sears Home Warranty Plan, even though both companies offer the same coverage for this type of plumbing issue.

We next looked at the extra benefits each company offers. We found that Sears Home Warranty offers a free heating and air cooling check once a year and offers its customers discounted oil changes and tire rotations for their cars. AFC Home Club also offers benefits, such as free credit monitoring and identity protection alerts, special discount pricing for parts, discounted rates through ADT for security and alarm systems, partnership with the Emergency Alert Network, and savings through DealCash.

While Sears Home Warranty is the more widely recognized company, when it comes to the additional benefits and lower price that AFC Home Club offers, you may find it makes more sense to go with a lesser-known company, especially when you can further your savings by choosing a higher TSF to get a lower monthly cost.

Priority Home Warranty FAQs

How Much Does a AFC Home Club Warranty Cost?

Our research found the average cost of an AFC Home Club warranty to be $674. Individual plan pricing can depend on your coverage options and where you live. But that’s $100 higher than the average for the market.

What do Priority Home Warranty plans cover?

AFC Home Club plans cover most major appliances, home systems, or a combination of both. You can choose various levels of coverage for your appliances, or a systems package that covers AC and plumbing.

What does Priority Home Warranty not cover?

AFC Home Club policies, like those of other home warranty companies, do not cover damages resulting from misuse or from natural events. Damages caused by natural events may still be covered by your homeowners insurance policy.

How much is Priority Home Warranty's service fee?

It depends. You can choose policies with service fees of $75, $100, or $125, and AFC Home Club will adjust your annual payment accordingly.

Can you cancel a Priority Home Warranty plan for free?

No. AFC Home Club told us that you cannot cancel these policies for free—so make sure this plan is right for you before signing up.

How do you file a claim with Priority Home Warranty?

You can file a claim by logging into your customer portal online or by calling customer service at 770-973-2400.

What is the response time after filing a claim with Priority Home Warranty?

The response time after filing a claim can range from 48 hours to four days, depending on when you file your claim. That’s quite slow in comparison to other home warranty companies.

Methodology

There are several aspects to consider when evaluating a home warranty company and its coverages. To assist in your decision process, our methodology for reviewing home warranties includes a quantified scoring system that evaluates four major categories—total plan cost, coverage and support, customizability and transparency. Within those four major evaluation categories we look at 15 core features that include annual plan fees and service fees, claim response times, payout caps, states available, contract length range, customizable coverages, ability to use own repair person, free cancelation, plan pricing, plan exclusions and other plan provisions available online. We assign fractional score values ranging from 0.00 to 1.00 points for each feature and then weight those feature values according to subject matter, expert advice, and consumer survey importance ranking.  We also compare features for each company to industry average values determined from our data collection for the top 25 home warranty providers. Third-party ratings and customer satisfaction scores are factored in to help assess a home warranty company’s overall quality, suitability, and value.