Does your home insurance company have lots of customer complaints? Will you have difficulty placing a claim, or have a valid claim delayed or denied? How do you know if your company is any good? Will you find out it’s bad when you need it? Most consumers fail to check the complaint records of their insurance companies. This blog post provides North Carolina home insurance complaint information for 28 of the biggest (by market share in North Carolina, based on each company’s home insurance premium collected in the state) insurance companies and ranks them, from best to worst, based on their 2010 home insurance complaint records (Accurate 2011 data not available yet). I also list 8 more companies with a high number of home insurance complaints in North Carolina. Read these lists & don’t get stuck with poor service when you need it the most!
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The North Carolina Department of Insurance website is the source of my information about homeowners insurance market share & complaint information. The North Carolina home insurance complaint ratio is determined by the number of complaints per one million dollars of direct written home insurance premium. The ratio is used so you can compare the complaint records among homeowners insurance companies fairly.
For example, Peerless Insurance Company had .30 complaints per one million dollars of home insurance premium it collected in 2010. Nationwide Mutual Fire Insurance Company had .61 complaints per one million dollars of home insurance premium it collected in North Carolina for 2010, which is slightly more than two times the number of complaints per one million dollars of premium than Peerless Insurance Company. But both of these companies have a better 2010 North Carolina home insurance complaint ratio than NC Grange Mutual Insurance Company, which at .95, is 50% more than the number of home insurance complaints for Nationwide Mutual Fire Insurance Company, and more than three times the number of complaints for Peerless Insurance Company.
The complaint ratio is important, because a homeowners insurance company with many more customers is likely to have a larger number of complaints than a smaller insurance company, because it handles more customer transactions.
For example, a large home insurance company may handle 5,000 wind damage claims, and have five valid complaints in regards to how these claims were handled. A smaller home insurance company may have 750 total wind damage claims, but only one valid complaint.
Even though the larger insurance company has five times the number of complaints than the smaller home insurance company, the larger insurance company has 1 complaint per 1,000 claims, and the smaller company has 1 complaint per 750 claims. The larger insurance company really has the better complaint record.
The North Carolina complaint ratio uses the number of NC homeowners insurance complaints against the company per one million dollars of home insurance premium earned by the company, so you can compare an home insurance company’s complaint records with other home insurance companies fairly, regardless of the size of the companies.
Unlike the national complaint ratios on my website, each insurance company’s NC homeowners insurance complaint ratio is not compared to an average number of complaints for the NC home insurance market. The North Carolina home insurance complaint ratio is useful only when comparing insurance companies.
Using the example from above, Nationwide Mutual Fire Insurance Company has a little more than double the number of complaints than Peerless Insurance Company, but they may both be good complaint records, compared with other home insurance companies in North Carolina, and we don’t know how they relate to the average number of complaints for the North Carolina home insurance market.
You want to consider other factors, beyond one year’s complaint ratio, when deciding on an homeowners insurance company.
For additional information to help you choose an insurance company, go to my website to see national home insurance complaint ratios, AM Best ratings, & JD Power customer satisfaction ratings on home insurance companies, or to find information regarding automobile insurance.
Insurance companies frequently have several subsidiary property insurance companies, and the name of the subsidiary may be different than the parent insurance group. For example, Travelers Insurance Group has three companies on the list: Standard Fire Insurance Company, Phoenix Insurance Company, and Automobile Insurance Company of Hartford. You would think the third company is a part of The Hartford, but it is a Travelers company. I try to point out the parent company when I think it is important, and to clear up misleading names, but you need to make sure you know the proper name of the insurance subsidiary company quoting or insuring you, to check the correct complaint ratio.
Here’s my list. Remember to shop with all the leading home insurance companies, to find the best combination of price, coverage, & service.
If your insurance company is not on this list, be sure to check out the second list below it, to see if you are insured or getting quotes from one of the companies on my list of insurance companies with a high number of home insurance complaints.
28 Top North Carolina Homeowners Insurance Companies Ranked from Best to Worst by their 2010 NC Homeowners Insurance Complaint Ratios
1. Pennsylvania National Mutual Casualty Insurance Company = 0 (No home insurance complaints in 2010)
2. American Automobile Insurance Company (Fireman’s Fund / Allianz) = .06
3. American Reliable Insurance Company (Assurant) = .07
4. United Services Automobile Association (USAA) = .17
5. Foremost Signature Insurance Company = .17
6. USAA Casualty Insurance Company = .20
7. Central Mutual Insurance Company = .22
8. American Family Home Insurance Company (American Modern Insurance Group — NOT American Family Insurance) = .28
9. Peerless Insurance Company= .30
10. Unitrin Home & Auto Insurance Company = .32
11. Amica Mutual Insurance Company = .33
12. Automobile Insurance Company of Hartford (A Travelers company — NOT The Hartford) = .35
13. Owners Insurance Company (Auto-Owners) = .38
14. State Farm Fire & Casualty Company = .41
15. Allstate Indemnity Company = .41
16. Liberty Mutual Fire Insurance Company = .44
17. North Carolina Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Company = .47
18. Phoenix Insurance Company (Travelers) = .48
19. Standard Fire Insurance Company (Travelers) = .48
20. Erie Insurance Exchange = .55
21. Auto-Owners Insurance Company = .55
22. Metropolitan Property & Casualty Insurance Company (Metlife) = .60
23. Nationwide Mutual Fire Insurance Company = .61
24. Allstate Insurance Company = .67
25. Foremost Insurance Company Grand Rapids, Michigan = .67
26. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company = .87
27. North Carolina Grange Mutual Insurance Company = .95
28. Hartford Underwriters Insurance Company (The Hartford) = 1.07
This second list is for insurance companies, smaller than the top 28 listed above, with a large number of home insurance complaints, considering their market share. The largest insurance company in most states (including North Carolina), State Farm, usually has less than 25% of the home & auto insurance market. There are over 100 insurance companies selling home insurance in North Carolina, and many of them have no more than 2% or less of the market — including better-known companies, like Safeco & Ameriprise/IDS insurance. So, since the top 28 companies does not come close to covering the entire market, I want to mention a few companies seeming to me to have a lot of home insurance complaints in 2010.
These aren’t the companies with the worst complaint ratios. Some very small companies can have only 1 complaint, and go from no complaints to a 78.03 complaint ratio.
This is the case with Chartis Property Casualty Company (AIG), which in spite of the bad press received by AIG, is financially stable, and has a good complaint record nationally and in other states. But this Chartis company has very few customers in North Carolina, and insures a small market of very high value homes. Chartis Property & Casualty company had one complaint and earned $12,815 in home insurance premium in 2010. I think it would be wrong to assume Chartis will have one complaint for every $13,000 or so of premium in the future.
So with this second list, I consider the number of complaints relative to companies of similar size, to determine companies where I think you are more likely to experience a complaint or poor service. If you are insured with any of the companies on the list below, I would recommend shopping for a company with a better price, coverage, and service. If you decide to stay insured with any of these companies, you should find out more about the complaints, and the complaint record for previous years. You can email me and I can help you with the research.
Here is the second list. The companies are listed alphabetically, with their complaint ratios. But remember, ALL of these companies have a poor complaint record, in my opinion, and you can most likely do better insuring with another company.
8 North Carolina Homeowners Insurance Companies with a Large Number of 2010 NC Homeowners Insurance Complaints
Alliance Mutual Insurance Company = 2.37
American Bankers Insurance Company of Florida = 1.11
Balboa Insurance Company = 3.34
Fidelity National Property & Casualty Insurance Company = 1.86
Geo Vera Specialty Insurance Company = 3.45
Hartford Casualty Insurance Company = 2.12
Lincoln Mutual Insurance Company = 5.62
Piedmont Mutual Insurance Company = 3.32
Now you know how North Carolina homeowners insurance companies are rated for complaints, go and shop your home & car insurance. You can get better rates AND better service!
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