Auto Insurance Provider Ratings

In my quest to switch from Farmers Auto Insurance, I found provider ratings from the J.D. Power Consumer Center. The insurance companies are rated from 1-5 based on Overall Experience, Policy Offerings, Pricing, and Contacting Insurer. Based on this data I think we will give Geico a try and bypass seeing an agent for now.

The #1 Award Recipient went to Amica Mutual with a perfect score.

2. AARP with a perfect score
3. Erie 4 out of 5 on all categories
4. State Farm 4 out of 5 on all but 3 out of five for pricing
5. Geico faired very well 4 out of 5 for pricing and policy offerings, but average 3 out of 5 for overall experience and contact insurer

Allstate, American Family, and Hartford all about the average 3 out of 5

How To Find The Right Auto Insurance

My first insurance policy was under my parent’s policy with Safeco, so I couldn’t vouch for any experiences with them. My husband had Progressive, but his rates increased upon renewal. We wanted to save money and merged into Farmers, then the problems ensued.

Our rates were never the same when we received the bill and ranged from paying one month to paying for 3 months. Our auto payment plan did not go through and we had to contact our agent numerous times to resolve all these issues.

Now our contract has expired and we are searching for a better auto company. Edmunds.com has an excellent article that elaborates on choosing that right auto insurance.

1) Visit your state’s department of insurance Web site. Although you may not be familiar with it, your state, and every state, has a department of insurance. Most departments have Web sites, and many publish “consumer complaint ratios” for all of the insurance companies that sell policies in their state. This ratio tells you how many complaints a car insurance company received per 1,000 claims filed. The I-CAN Web site provides links and contact information for every state’s department of insurance.

2) Find out which insurers body shops recommend. One of the best ways to identify reliable insurers, according to Howard, is to contact local body shops that you trust and ask for their recommendations. Body shop managers have a unique perspective to offer, since they regularly interact with insurance adjusters. They know which companies have the smoothest claim processes, which affects how quickly the work can be completed on a damaged vehicle. And they know which companies are pushing aftermarket parts, in lieu of genuine original equipment manufacturer (OEM) parts, to cut costs.

3) Check the J.D. Power Ratings. J.D. Power and Associates collects data from individual policyholders nationwide and rates them according to coverage options, price, claims handling, satisfaction with company representatives and the overall experience.

4) Consider insurers’ financial strength ratings. As a final check, you can take a look at the A.M. Best and Standard & Poor’s ratings. Both companies publish financial strength ratings for all insurance companies — these “measure” an insurance company’s ability to pay out a claim (they have nothing to do with the way a company treats its customers).

5) Still confused? Consider working with an agent. It used to be that everyone purchased auto insurance from an agent, but now, car insurance companies like Amica, Esurance, Geico and others allow you to purchase insurance directly — over the phone from a customer service representative or online. Still, many of the major players have preserved their national networks of local agents — even if you use State Farm’s or Allstate’s Web site, you will still be assigned a local agent.

More tips can be found at Soundmoneytips.com. Which has the goods on how to lower your auto insurance payments. Here is a list of a few that really helped me receive those much needed discounts:

Ask for higher deductibles
Reduce Coverage on Older Cars
Group Insurance
Take Advantage of Low Mileage Discounts