Do you get what you pay for when you buy cheap auto insurance? Can you save $100s on your auto insurance, and regret it when you have a claim? The short answer is, “No.” The price you pay for insurance has nothing to do with how happy you will be with the insurance company’s customer service. So, how do you find auto insurance companies with good customer service? This blog post will give you some tips to finding the best combination of price and service for auto insurance.
Finding Auto Insurance Companies with Good Customer Service
Truth be told, most insurance companies are mediocre in providing customer service. In spite of what a lot of people think, almost all insurance companies pay most claims without a hassle, and many claims are settled to the satisfaction of the customer. But if you search the Internet, even insurance companies with great reputations, like Chubb, USAA, & Amica, have people complaining they are the worst insurance companies on the planet. You can have a problem with any insurance company, which is why I weigh getting the coverage you need at the best price, over promises of great service. You want to avoid insurance companies with worse than average service, but you shouldn’t pay much more, unless you are certain you are getting better service for your money.
I have searched the Web, and it is hard to find objective, unbiased information on the quality of insurance companies. Most reviews, being written by people presenting themselves as insurance experts, don’t provide useful or accurate information. One site will say an insurance company is horrible, and another site will say the same company is great. A lot of insurance web sites talk about the AM Best rating, but the AM Best rating measures how much money an insurance company has to pay a claim. Having money to pay a claim, and actually paying it without a struggle, are two very different things.
I like the JD Power ratings for objectivity, and believe their annual insurance studies to be a good indicator of customer service. However, you have to look at each company’s numerical score, because many of the highly rated companies with four or five power circles, did not perform much above the average, or some lower rated competitors. Consumer Reports is good, objective source of information, too, but you have to pay for access to their information.
When determining the quality of customer service, you want the opinion of a large number of customers. As I said, many claims are settled to the customers satisfaction. You, or a relative, may have had a claim go well with a certain company — but that does not mean your next claim will go as well. I know someone who was happy with a recent claim from an insurance company rated worse than average for customer satisfaction by JD Power. But how will the next claim go? You should weigh the recent experience of thousands of customers, over one positive experience you may have had, to try to make sure your next claim is not a nightmare.
I’ve been blogging about auto & home insurance companies for the last three years, to help people make more informed decisions about their insurance choices. For 2014, I’m revising the auto & home insurance reviews on my website (not my blog, where reviews go into more detail) to make it easier to know if an auto or home insurance company is performing above average, about average, or worse than average, by using a simple rating system, based on data from the JD Power auto & home insurance studies, and customer complaint statistics collected by state agencies.
Use my web site as a one-stop shop to find all the major insurance companies, evaluate their customer service, and get the low rates you deserve, and auto insurance companies with good customer service.
More about the nature of online insurance company reviews & complaints from customers.
Car insurance is expensive, but one customer’s premium is small compared to the large claims of hundreds of thousands of dollars paid by insurance companies, in addition to smaller claims.
Insurance companies need to conduct business so they pay claims fairly, but do not over-pay them. Insurance companies need to make sure they charge the proper premium for the potential risk, and not charge the same rate to a childless couple, as a couple with a licensed teen in the household. Unless you work in the insurance business, it is hard to understand why not following strict policies like these lead to much higher claims costs for insurance companies, and higher premiums for the customers.
With insurance, you pay for something you hope you never need, and may never use, yet the insurance company is always pushing their procedures on you, and asking you questions. So, it’s understandable why many people don’t rave about their insurance company.
Even though insurance is not a beloved product, some insurance companies are better at providing service, and some companies you want to avoid completely due to poor customer service. But you can’t tell the good companies from the bad companies from the price they charge.
The last time I shopped, some of the best prices I received were from some of the top ranked insurance companies for customer service, as rated by JD Power. I also received good prices from a few companies rated as average. Yet many of the average (and below average) companies quoting me had rates a lot more than, and sometimes double, the cost of the best prices I received.
How to find an auto insurance company with good customer service AND a good price.
Shop on price first, to make sure you get a good rate. Get prices from all the leading auto insurance companies.. Some consumers will put up with bad service, if the insurance company has really low rates. But if you shop with enough companies, you may find a low rate and good service. Once you have shopped for price, check the customer service record of the lowest-priced insurance companies. Some of the companies with competitive rates are likely to have a local agent to provide you with personal service. A good agent can really improve your customer experience, so chose one carefully, and consider how paying a little more for a good insurance agent can benefit you.
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