Which Auto Insurance Companies Offer the Best Claims Service?
Last updated November 2023
Although price should be your primary consideration when shopping for auto insurance, you’ll want to consider it in relation to the quality of service companies provide, especially their claims-handling service. Our auto insurance comparisons show you how area insurance companies in the seven metro areas served by Checkbook stack up on price and quality.
Ratings from Policyholders
We asked consumers who had recently made auto insurance claims to rate their companies “inferior,” “adequate,” or “superior” on several elements of service. Our ratings tables show what percentage of policyholders rated each company “superior” on each survey question.
As you can see, our ratings tables reveal big differences in how customers rated companies.
For our survey question “overall claims-handling quality,” for example, scores range from 85 percent or higher for Acuity, Amica, West Bend Mutual, Westfield, and USAA to 50 percent or less for Hanover, Kemper, Mercury, Metromile, and Vermont Mutual.
Feedback from Auto Body Shops
We also asked auto body shops to rate the insurers “poor,” “fair,” “good,” “very good,” or “excellent” on “treating their customers (car owners) fairly.” Our ratings tables show the percent of surveyed shops that rated each company “good,” “very good,” or “excellent,” and the number of ratings each company received.
Surveyed shops gave high marks to Arbella, Erie, Mutual of Enumclaw, Pekin, Quincy Mutual, and Safety. Shops rated Allstate, Encompass, Esurance, Lemonade, Liberty, Metromile, and Western National lowest.
Non-renewals and Terminations
You don’t want to sign on with an insurer that will terminate your coverage or jack up your rates if you get a speeding ticket or file a claim. Getting dropped by an insurer is at best inconvenient—most insurance companies charge very high rates to customers who had coverage terminated by other companies. At worst you’ll have to enroll in a special plan for high-risk drivers, which is the most costly option of all.
There are certain legal restraints on termination in most states. Typically it is relatively easy to cancel a policy during the policy’s first 60 days while a company checks the accuracy of its policyholders’ applications. After that, termination is much more difficult. Even at the time of renewal, there are restraints and certain procedures that must be followed.
Our survey of policyholders asked them to rate their companies on “not unreasonably cutting coverage.” The results appear on our ratings tables. But because cancellations are fairly uncommon, we don’t recommend spending a lot more money to sign on with a company with a great cancellation record.
Of course, even if a company doesn’t drop you it can still dramatically increase your premium in response to an accident or violation, forcing you to terminate on your own to find a lower-priced company. Our survey results for “not unreasonably raising premium” reveal big company-to-company variation.
