Dairyland, Viking, and Peak, all owned by Sentry Insurance, are nonstandard auto insurance companies for drivers without insurance, tickets or accidents, license suspensions, recently licensed, and other factors making them ineligible for standard auto insurance with most companies. It’s easy to find a lot of bad reviews for Dairyland, Viking, or Peak insurance on the Internet, like you can find for all insurance companies. Unfortunately, complaints written by customers are hard to tell if the complaints are legitimate. This review has complaint ratings for the Dairyland, Viking, and Peak insurance companies compiled by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, from statistics gathered by each state’s insurance department. I think these statistics are more reliable and relevant for evaluating an insurance company’s customer service than personal accounts. Plus, you can see how these companies’ complaint records compare to the average complaint record for the auto insurance industry.

Because Dairyland, Viking, & Peak insure high risk drivers, their customers are more likely to cause automobile accidents. I also provide in this article contact phone numbers for customer service, claims reporting, & fraud reporting, which can be used by both Dairyland policy holders, and other people involved in accidents with Dairyland customers.

Dairyland, Viking, and Peak insurance companies are owned by a larger insurance company, Sentry Insurance, and are rated A+ (Superior) by the AM Best rating agency, when they were last reviewed on 5/13/2015. You want to choose an insurance company with strong financial ratings, but having a strong balance sheet and substantial cash reserves does not mean you will receive fast and fair claims service.

Most companies settle the majority of their claims without a problem or complaints, but you can have a terrible claims experience with any company. You want to avoid companies having more than their fair share of complaints. Nonstandard auto insurance companies, like Dairyland, Viking or Peak usually have a higher average number of complaints than standard or preferred auto insurance companies.

If an insurance company has a complaint ratio of 1.00, its complaint ratio is the same as the industry average for auto insurance complaints.

So you don’t have to worry about comparing complaint ratio numbers, I devised a rating system to help you identify a good or poor complaint record.

Here’s how I determine my auto insurance complaint ratings:

B = Better than average. Insurance companies with complaint ratios less than 75% of the average insurance company.

C = Average. Insurance companies with complaint ratios from 75% to 125% of the average insurance company. I use a minus sign (-) to indicate home insurance complaint ratios slightly worse than average (1.05 to 1.25) and a plus sign (+) for home insurance complaint ratios slightly better than average (.95 to .75).

W = Worse than average. Insurance companies with complaint ratios more than 125% of the average insurance company.

For drivers with clean driving records, I recommend shopping with all the leading insurance companies, to find the companies with the best rates, then choose an insurance company with the best coverage & customer service for you. A company with good customer service should have a three year history of complaint ratios less than 1.00, which is better than average. If you can qualify for standard auto insurance, don’t bother with nonstandard companies like Dairyland, though it’s parent company, Sentry Insurance, might be a good choice for you.

If you can’t qualify for auto insurance with standard auto insurance companies, you can’t be as picky. Price may be your primary consideration, but you may want to avoid any nonstandard auto insurance company with a complaint ratio of 2.00 or more, which is double the number of complaints than the auto insurance industry average.

One advantage for Dairyland is it has very good rates for some drivers. According to its website, Dairyland can insure drivers with a foreign drivers license, which many companies will not insure. However, regarding claims and customer service, you may have issues.

Here are the complaint data for Peak, Viking, and Dairyland’s two subsidiary auto insurance companies. Subsidiary companies are designed to cater to a certain type of customer, or operate in a particular state. For example, Dairyland County Mutual Insurance Company of Texas operates only in Texas.

The complaint ratios for Dairyland County Mutual subsidiary only are pretty good, making Dairyland a possibly good option for Texas residents needing nonstandard auto insurance. Otherwise, if you need good claims & customer service, you probably can do better than Dairyland/Viking/Peak, based on the consistent worse than average complaint ratio of its subsidiaries. The decreasing market share for all these subsidiaries may be an indication Dairyland/Viking/Peak do not have competitive auto insurance rates.

Dairyland is sold through independent insurance agents, representing many companies, so your local independent agent may be able to find a better company for you. You can use my website to research other insurance companies by clicking here. Don’t let any one agent shop the market for you. Comparison shop among several agents, because no single agent represents all the major companies.

Geico, Progressive, Infinity & Esurance can insure nonstandard drivers, too, so be sure to check out their rates.

Here are phone numbers for Dairyland insurance, if you need to contact them:

Dairyland Customer Service: 1-800-334-0090

Dairyland Claims: 1-800-334-0090

Reporting Fraud: 1-877-736-8798

It can be hard for nonstandard auto insurance customers to find a good company, and frustrating to shop around when some insurance companies won’t insure you. However, it’s worth the frustration & time to check the rates of as many companies as you can, because some companies will charge more than twice the price of other companies for the same coverage. Please see my previous blog post for auto insurance companies willing to insure most drivers.

Have you had any experience with Dairyland, Peak, or Viking Insurance? Comment on my facebook page. Follow me on Twitter for important insurance consumer news and new blog entries at CarInsWatch.