Best and Worst Auto Insurance Companies This Year

Looking for the best auto insurance companies? A huge percentage of people never shop their car insurance needs — and that’s a bad idea.

The reality is that modern American business punishes you when you stay loyal to a company, rather than rewarding you.

Best Car Insurance Companies: Which to Shop and Which to Skip!

You’ve seen the car insurance ads on TV promising accident forgiveness, vanishing deductibles and other selling points.

But those features are just a side-show to the main act, which is a company’s reputation with both customer complaints and customer satisfaction after a claim is made.

If you’re looking for the best auto insurance coverage, here’s who to check out and who to avoid:

Best and Worst Auto Insurers: Table of Contents

Clark’s Top 3 Picks for Car Insurance

Money expert Clark Howard has long sung the praises of two auto insurance companies in particular — USAA and Amica Mutual — for customers across the country.

However, if you live in Pennsylvania or New Jersey, he also likes NJM Insurance Company (NJM) because of its proven track record.

“Historically, these companies offer the best claims experience,” Clark says. “The whole thing about insurance is not necessarily to have the lowest premiums, but to have the coverage you need if something goes wrong — and these companies all excel in that respect.”

1. USAA

Technically, USAA had the highest score in every single region of the country, according to J.D. Power’s latest study on auto insurance. But USAA didn’t make it into the official rankings because it didn’t meet the study’s criteria.

And that goes to the very heart of the downside with USAA. You have to be a veteran, currently serving in the U.S. military or affiliated with the military through direct family ties to be eligible for services USAA offers.Advertisement

So that may eliminate USAA from consideration for a lot of people.

2. Amica Mutual

Unlike USAA, Amica Mutual has no artificial barriers to entry. But because Amica Mutual is a mutual company, it tends to be very expensive during your first year as a customer.

When you join a mutual company like Amica, there are no shareholders as there are with other public companies. You become a part owner of the company when you sign up for insurance.

So that first year, with the higher upfront costs, you’re basically buying into the company. After that, customers typically get an annual premium rebate equal to about 20% of what they paid that year, subject to how the company is doing financially.

3. NJM Insurance

Also a mutual company, New Jersey Manufacturers Insurance Company (NJM) became the first company to earn the J.D. Power Personal Auto Claims Certification, a feat it has repeated for two years running.

The certification “recognize[s] brands that provide exceptional claims experience in the automobile, property and small commercial segments.”Advertisement

NJM expanded its service to Pennsylvania in 2018. That opened up the company to a bigger potential auto insurance customer market in the Mid-Atlantic.

Because NJM is a mutual company, policyholders get an annual dividend each year. For example, auto insurance customers received a regular dividend of 5%, applied as a credit upon renewal, and a special dividend of 5% sent as a check during a recent year.

Consumer Reports: 10 Top-Rated Auto Insurers

One of the annual studies that Clark watches closely to get a read on the best auto insurance companies is the Consumer Reports rating of auto insurers.

The most recent survey, conducted between 2014 and 2018, asked more than 90,000 readers about their satisfaction with the claims process, the cost of premiums and the overall customer experience with a number of insurers.

Here are the magazine’s rankings:

(#1 is best)

USAA Group
NJM Insurance Group
Amica Mutual Group
PEMCO Mutual Insurance Company
Automobile Club of Southern California
Erie Insurance Group
California Casualty Group
Chubb INA Group
West Bend Mutual Insurance Company
Electric Insurance Company

Consumer Reports: 10 Lowest-Rated Auto Insurers

(#1 is worst)

Esurance Property and Casualty Insurance Company
Nationwide Group
Liberty Mutual Insurance Companies
Allstate Insurance Group
Kemper PC Companies
MetLife Auto & Home Group
Farmers Insurance Group
Horace Mann Insurance Group
Hanover Insurance Group Property & Casualty Companies
National General Companies

J.D. Power: Best Auto Insurers by Region

Like Consumer Reports, J.D. Power publishes another respected tally of customer satisfaction in an effort to determine which company offers the best car insurance.

J.D. Power’s 2020 U.S. Auto Insurance Study surveyed more than 40,000 customers across the country — less than half as many as the Consumer Reports survey — from February-March 2020.

This annual study examines customer satisfaction in five factors (in alphabetical order):Advertisement

Billing process and policy information
Claims
Interaction
Policy offerings
Price

The reality is while you have national players advertising on TV — we’re talking about GEICO, Progressive, Allstate, State Farm and others — so much of the auto insurance industry is local.

In fact, many of those smaller regional insurers are among the best auto insurers in the business, according to J.D. Power.

Here are its top insurers by region. We’ve listed only those that scored higher than the average in their respective regions. So you’ll see a different number of entries depending on which part of the country the companies operate.

Region	Top Insurers
California	Wawanesa, Auto Club of Southern California Insurance Group, State Farm, Ameriprise, GEICO, Esurance, Progressive
Central	Auto-Owners Insurance, GEICO, Shelter, Progressive, State Farm
Florida	Allstate, GEICO, Automobile Club Group, Liberty Mutual
Mid-Atlantic	State Farm, Erie Insurance, NJM Insurance Co., GEICO
New England	Amica Mutual, State Farm, GEICO
New York	State Farm, GEICO, New York Central Mutual
North Central	GEICO, Indiana Farm Bureau, Erie Insurance, Auto-Owners Insurance, COUNTRY Financial, Westfield, Grange Insurance, Farmers, Allstate
Northwest	GEICO, PEMCO Insurance
Southeast	Farm Bureau Insurance – Tennessee, Erie Insurance, Alfa Insurance, GEICO, Auto-Owners Insurance, NC Farm Bureau, Kentucky Farm Bureau
Southwest	American Family, GEICO, Allstate, The Hartford
Texas	Texas Farm Bureau, Progressive, GEICO, State Farm

J.D. Power: Best and Worst Auto Insurers on the National Level

In addition to its regional rankings, J.D. Power also publishes an annual shopping satisfaction study. It looks at the national picture when it comes to the most satisfying purchase experience.

The organization surveyed more than 14,300 auto insurance customers who requested a quote between April 2019 and January 2020. Here are the rankings:

J.D. Power: 10 Top-Rated Large and Mid-Size Auto Insurers

(#1 is best)

The Hartford
Erie Insurance
American Family
Automobile Club Group
Auto-Owners Insurance
CSAA Insurance Group
GEICO
Esurance
Nationwide
Amica Mutual

J.D. Power: 10 Lowest-Rated Large and Mid-Size Auto Insurers

(#1 is worst)

Safeco
Mercury
Travelers
Progressive
Farmers
Auto Club of Southern California Insurance Group
Liberty Mutual
Allstate
State Farm
MetLife

Clark’s Advice When Shopping for a New Auto Insurance Policy

Clark says that shopping your insurance every three years is a great way to save money. Here’s how to start the process:

Get Your Quotes

Once you have a list of candidates culled from the ratings above, you’ll want to start getting quotes.

This typically takes around 15 minutes on the phone or online for each insurer. Have your most recent policy in front of you in case any questions come up about the make and model of your vehicle(s) and your current coverage.Advertisement

Working with an insurance broker is another option. You can get multiple quotes, and you’ll have access to all the insurers the broker does business with. It’s an easy one-stop-shop that still gives you the flexibility of comparison pricing.

Compare Quotes

Once you get the quotes, it’s time to compare them. Each quote should be based on the same amount of coverage so you can do an apples-to-apples comparison.

One word of advice: If you own a home, have money in savings, etc., you definitely want more than the state minimums for liability. Why? Because that one time you hit a car in your blind spot (or whatever the case may be), you can have serious exposure for liability.

If you have no substantial assets and you rent a home rather than owning, then the state minimum level of coverage is acceptable.

If you’re really price-sensitive and find that all the top-tier insurers are too expensive for your budget, you still have a couple of options:

Raise your deductible.
Consider dropping comprehensive and collision coverage on older vehicles

It’s often good to take as high a deductible as you’re allowed (usually $1,000) if you have a loan on your car.

Having a higher deductible will usually stop you from making small claims. That’s good because those claims can drive your rate up!

Meanwhile, when the cost of comp and collision exceeds 10% of your vehicle’s value, that’s the time to dump it and carry only liability coverage. You can determine your vehicle’s value at Edmunds.com, KBB.com or NADA.com.

Don’t Forget to Ask About Discounts!

There are discounts available for a lot of different things. Here are some you can ask about:Advertisement

Anti-theft devices
Multiple policies with the same company
College students living away from home
Defensive driving courses
Drivers ed courses
Low annual mileage
Long-time customer
More than one car
No accidents in three years
No moving violations in three years
Student drivers with good grades

Final Thought

The decision on buying auto insurance comes down to more than just price. You’ve also got to consider customer satisfaction and complaints and a company’s reputation for making its customers whole — which is the point of insurance in the first place.

“Sometimes you’re better off paying a little more to be with a quality insurer who will be there when the chips are down,” Clark says.