Does your auto insurance company have a lot of complaints? Will you have difficulty placing a claim, or have a valid claim delayed or denied? Do you know if your company is very good or very bad? Most consumers fail to check the complaint records of their insurance companies. This blog post is a companion piece to my previous blog post listing the complaint ratings for the 25 largest auto insurance companies in California.

Here I provide the complaint ratings for 15 major auto insurance companies with higher than average complaints, not on my first list. If you are not insured with one of the 25 largest auto insurance companies in California, you can see if your auto insurance company makes this list (Hopefully not!). It pays to shop your auto insurance, but you want to make sure your auto insurance company provides good service, too.

The California Department of Insurance website is the source of my information about complaint records. I provide the California complaint index for each car insurance company, but I devised a letter grade system to make it easy to tell the quality of an insurance company’s complaint record. Since this list shows auto insurance companies with higher than average complaint records, you may choose to avoid all these insurance companies. Some of these auto insurance companies have four times more the average number of complaints!

Here is my grading system. I also list the California complaint index number. The lower the number, the better the complaint record. For example, a complaint index of 1.00 is average. 2.00 is twice as much as average, 3 is three times as much as average, etc.

A+ = Insurance companies with complaints 25% or less than the average insurance company.

A = Insurance companies with complaints 50% or less than the average insurance company.

B = Insurance companies with complaints 90% or less than the average insurance company.

C = Insurance companies with complaints from 90% to 110% of the average insurance company.

D = Insurance companies with complaints from 110% to 200% of the average insurance company.

F = Insurance companies with complaints over 200% of the average insurance company. More than twice as much as average!

Consider these grades, along with price and other factors (as listed on my website), when choosing an auto insurance company.

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15 California Auto Insurance Companies with Higher than Average 2010 Complaint Ratings (in alphabetical order)

Alliance United Insurance Company = F (2.05)

Commerce West Insurance Company = F (2.45)

Esurance Property & Casualty Insurance Company = C (.99) for 2010, but 2009 =D, & 2008 = D

Explorer Insurance Company = F (2.06)

Financial Indemnity Company = F (3.04)

Hartford Casualty Insurance Company = D (1.23)

Hartford Underwriters Insurance Company = F (2.58)

IDS Property Casualty Insurance Company = D (1.51)

Loya Casualty Insurance Company = F (2.35)

Metropolitan Direct Property & Casualty Insurance Company (Metlife) = D (1.65)

Nationwide Insurance Company of America = F (2.73)

Permanent General Insurance Corporation (The General) = F (3.64)

QBE Insurance Corporation = F (4.58)

21st Century Premier Insurance Company = F (2.40)

Victoria Fire & Casualty Company = F (4.02)

Now you know the auto insurance companies with poor complaint records, go and shop your car insurance. You can get better rates AND better service!

Many people pay too much for their insurance because they never shop for better rates, or if they do shop, they don’t check the rates of enough companies. For a lot of people, the best auto & home insurance companies are the ones with the coverage they need at a lower price. With auto & home insurance, you don’t get better service or coverage because you pay more. Some of the best companies have competitive rates. Some companies charge twice as much as others for the same coverage. But no single company has low rates for everyone. You have to shop with all the leading companies, to find the company with the best coverage and best price for you.

Do you have any questions about these auto insurance companies with poor complaint records? Tell me about it. Please leave a comment on my facebook page. Follow me on Twitter for important insurance consumer news and new blog entries at CarInsWatch.