Tag Archives: homeownership

Kemper Preferred Insurance Review: Auto & Home Insurance Customer Complaint Statistics & JD Power, AM Best Ratings

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This Kemper Preferred Insurance review will evaluate, for the most recent six year period where reliable statistics are available (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 & 2014), the auto & home insurance complaint ratings for the subsidiary companies of the Kemper Preferred insurance companies, to determine whether each of their subsidiaries, such as Kemper Independence Insurance Company or Unitrin Auto and Home Insurance Company, has a better-than-average, average, or worse-than-average customer complaint record.

I’ll look at increases & decreases in market share (as measured by annual written premiums) for each of these Kemper Preferred subsidiaries, as a possible indication of high or low insurance rates. Lastly, this review will compare the auto & home insurance complaint records for these Kemper Preferred subsidiary companies, with major competitors, like State Farm, Allstate, Progressive, GEICO, & Farmers. I’ll review the AM Best Financial Strength Rating (FSR) and JD Power ratings for the Kemper Preferred insurance subsidiaries insuring cars & homes, too. Continue reading →

Kemper Direct & Kemper Select (formerly Unitrin & Merastar) Review: Auto & Home Insurance Customer Complaint Statistics & AM Best Ratings

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This review will evaluate, for the most recent six year period where reliable statistics are available (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, & 2014), the auto & home insurance complaint ratings for the subsidiary companies of the Kemper Direct (formerly Unitrin Direct) & Kemper Select (Merastar) insurance companies, to determine whether each of their subsidiaries, such as Unitrin Direct Property & Casualty Company or Merastar Insurance Company, has a better-than-average, average, or worse-than-average customer complaint record.

I’ll look at increases & decreases in market share (as measured by annual written premiums) for each of these Kemper Direct / Select subsidiaries, as a possible indication of high or low insurance rates. Lastly, this review will compare the auto & home insurance complaint records for these Kemper subsidiary companies, with major competitors, like State Farm, Allstate, Progressive, GEICO, & Farmers. Continue reading →

Progressive Home Insurance Review: Multi-Year Customer Complaint Statistics

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People having purchased home insurance from Progressive, are usually insured with another insurance company, such as Homesite Insurance Group, IDS Property Casualty Insurance Company, or another property insurance company, where Progressive serves as an agent, instead of the company insuring the home. But at one time, Progressive sold home insurance through some of its subsidiaries. Although Progressive has an extremely small share of the US home insurance market, there are still homes insured by Progressive now.

This Progressive Home Insurance review will evaluate, for the most recent six year period where reliable statistics are available (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, & 2014), the home insurance complaint ratings for the subsidiary companies of Progressive Insurance still insuring homes, to determine whether each subsidiary, such as Progressive Casualty Insurance Company, has a better-than-average, average, or worse-than-average customer complaint record. I’ll compare the home insurance complaint records for the Progressive subsidiary companies insuring homes, with their major competitors, such as State Farm, Allstate, and Farmers Insurance. Continue reading →

USAA Insurance Review: Auto / Homeowners Insurance Price Competitiveness, AM Best Financial Strength Ratings & Complaints 2009-2014

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This USAA Insurance review will evaluate, for the most recent six year period where reliable statistics are available (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, & 2014), the home & auto insurance complaint record for the subsidiary companies of USAA insurance, to determine whether each subsidiary, such as USAA Casualty Insurance Company or Garrison Property & Casualty Insurance Company, has a better-than-average, average, or worse-than-average customer complaint record.

I’ll also look at the JD Power ratings for USAA auto & homeowner insurance pricing, and increases & decreases in market share (as measured by annual written premiums) for each USAA subsidiary, as a possible indication of high or low insurance rates. In addition, I’ll review the AM Best Financial Strength Ratings for the USAA insurance companies, too. Continue reading →

How to evaluate your Florida homeowners insurance company & the complaint records for major companies in the state

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This review will explain how to evaluate your homeowners insurance company and other homeowners insurance companies insuring homes in Florida, so you don’t regret keeping the company insuring you now when you have a claim, or the company you chose for its lower rate.

If you want to evaluate your current company & coverage compared to other companies, this review will also analyse the largest insurance companies insuring many homes in Florida I have yet to review, including their Florida state complaint record, JD Power claims & customer satisfaction ratings, and AM Best Financial Strength ratings. Some of these companies may not be selling homeowners insurance policies in Florida anymore, so I’ll look at each company’s increase or decrease in their number of homeowners insurance policies in Florida over recent years. Continue reading →

Home Insurance Companies Selling the Most Policies in Florida: Complaint Record Review

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This review analyzes & ranks the home insurance companies selling the most new home insurance policies in Florida by their number of annual complaints each year from 2009 to 2014, based on data last updated by Florida state for the quarter ending 12/31/2014. As any Florida homeowner should know, many of the large national insurance companies no longer sell new home insurance policies in the state.

Knowing which companies are currently selling the most policies, can not only help you find the companies selling Florida home insurance, but might indicate the companies with competitive rates for you. Be sure to read my summary at the end of this review to find out how to get the best home, condo, or mobile home insurance you can & save money! Continue reading →

Fireman’s Fund Insurance Review: Auto & Home Insurance Customer Complaint Statistics & Ratings

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This Fireman’s Fund Insurance review will evaluate, for the most recent six year period where complaint statistics are available (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 & 2014), the home & auto insurance complaint ratings for the subsidiary companies of Fireman’s Fund insurance group, to determine whether each subsidiary, such as American Automobile Insurance Company or American Insurance Company, has a better-than-average, average, or worse-than-average customer complaint record. I’ll also compare the auto & home insurance complaint records for the Fireman’s Fund subsidiary companies, with major competitors, like Allstate, Progressive, GEICO, State Farm, & Farmers. Fireman’s Fund is a major insurer of high value & luxury homes. Continue reading →

Cincinnati Insurance Review: AM Best, JD Power Ratings & Auto & Home Insurance Customer Complaint Record

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This Cincinnati Insurance review will evaluate, for the most recent six year period where reliable statistics are available (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 & 2014), the home & auto insurance complaint ratings for the subsidiary companies of Cincinnati insurance group, to determine whether each subsidiary, such as Cincinnati Insurance Company, has a better-than-average, average, or worse-than-average customer complaint record. I’ll also compare the auto & home insurance complaint records for the Cincinnati subsidiary companies, with major competitors, like Allstate, Progressive, GEICO, State Farm, & Farmers. Continue reading →

Philadelphia Contributionship / Germantown Insurance Company Reviews: Financial Strength Rating & Customer Complaint Statistics

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Philadelphia Contributionship for the Insurance of Houses from Loss by Fire, is one of the oldest insurance companies insuring homes in the USA, founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1752. In spite of the appearance of limiting coverage to house fires in its name, Philadelphia Contributionship offers modern home, condo, dwelling, & renters insurance, similar to coverage provided by more familiar insurance companies like State Farm, through its two subsidiary companies, Philadelphia Contributionship Insurance Company & Germantown Insurance Company, insuring properties in some Eastern states. Philadelphia Contributionship is a small insurance company, without a sizeable national market share like Allstate. But if you really want to save money, & have the right coverage options fitting your needs, you should check with many of the insurance companies available in your state. Philadelphia Contributionship has a hard-to-find product that may be preferable to middle & upper class homeowners, as well as products to insure older or low value homes that other property insurance companies may not insure.

This blog post will tell you how you can get insurance price quotes from Philadelphia Contributionship, the type of insurance it sells, its recent AM Best financial strength rating, and most importantly, its home insurance complaint statistics & ratings of its subsidiary companies for the last three years, so you have some objective measure of their customer service. If you’re a customer, this review can help you decide if you should consider other insurance companies. If you are looking for property insurance, this review can help you decide if Philadelphia Contributionship might be a good choice for you. A wise insurance shopper knows there are big differences in price & coverage among home insurance companies, so it’s smart for you to shop with many companies, to find the best price, coverage, and service for you. Continue reading →

Wawanesa Auto & Home Insurance Review

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Wawanesa Insurance was the award recipient, for scoring the highest for auto insurance customer satisfaction in the state of California, for the 2012, 2013, & 2014 JD Power auto insurance studies, measuring customer satisfaction among the leading auto insurance companies in the state. Wawanesa sells insurance in the states of California & Oregon only, but many auto insurance customers in these two states may be unfamiliar with Wawanesa. This review will analyze the JD Power & AM Best ratings for Wawanesa Insurance, look at its three-year home & auto insurance customer complaint record in comparison with major competitors like Allstate, State Farm, GEICO, & Progressive, show you the best way to get a price quote for the coverage you need, and help you decide if Wawanesa Insurance might be a good choice for you. Continue reading →

American Integrity Insurance Reviews: Financial Stability Ratings & Home Insurance Complaint Record

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This review analyzes the recent home insurance complaint record (2010, 2011, 2012, & 2013) for American Integrity Insurance Company of Florida, the sixth largest seller of new home insurance policies in Florida, and discusses its financial strength & stability ratings. People often make the mistake of not checking the complaint record of their insurance company. For auto & home insurance, people should avoid companies having a higher than average number of complaints filed with a state’s regulatory authority in recent years, if possible. Home insurance complaints are usually about the denial, delay, or insufficient payment of a claim. This review rates the home insurance complaint history of American Integrity Insurance for the last four years (data for 2014 is not available yet), to let you know if American Integrity is performing worse-than-average, average, or better-than-average, for homeowners insurance complaints, compared to the industry average. Another concern for home owners, particularly for owners residing in hurricane or disaster-prone states, is the financial strength of their home insurance companies, to be able to promptly & fully pay the claims of all its customers. This review will explore how American Integrity Insurance Company of Florida is rated for financial strength, stability, and claims-paying ability. Finally, this review will discuss how American Integrity Insurance Company’s complaint record compares to other major Florida home insurance companies. Continue reading →

Universal Property & Casualty Insurance Company Review: Ratings & FL Home Insurance Complaint Record

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How good is Universal Property & Casualty Insurance Company? Who do you contact for a price quote? Today I’ll provide you with information about Universal Property & Casualty Insurance Company to help you decide if they are the best property insurance company for you. Continue reading →

Federated National Insurance Reviews: Financial Stability Ratings & Complaint Record

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This review analyzes the recent home insurance complaint record (2010, 2011, 2012, & 2013) for Federated National Insurance Company, the fifth largest seller of new home insurance policies in Florida, and discusses its financial strength ratings. Many insurance customers make the mistake of failing to check the complaint record of their insurance company. For auto & home insurance, people should avoid companies with a recent histories of higher than average number of complaints filed with a state’s regulatory authority, if possible. Most complaints are often about the denial, delay, or insufficient payment of a claim. This review rates the home insurance complaint history for the last four years (data for 2014 is not available yet) for Federated National Insurance Company, to let you know if Federated National is performing worse-than-average, average, or better-than-average, for homeowners insurance complaints, compared to the industry average. Another concern, particularly for people residing in hurricane or disaster-prone states, is the financial strength of their home insurance companies, to be able to promptly & fully pay the claims of all its customers. This review will explore how Federated National Insurance Company is rated for financial strength, stability, and claims-paying ability. The last part of this review will discuss how Federated National Insurance Company’s complaint record compares to other major Florida home insurance companies. Continue reading →

Response Insurance Review: Auto Insurance Customer Complaint Statistics & AM Best Ratings

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This Response Insurance review will evaluate, for the most recent five year period where reliable statistics are available (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, & 2013), the auto insurance complaint ratings for the subsidiary companies of Response Insurance, to determine whether each subsidiary, such as Response Worldwide Insurance Company or Warner Insurance Company, has a better-than-average, average, or worse-than-average customer complaint record. I’ll look at increases & decreases in market share (as measured by annual written premiums) for each Response operating company, as a possible indication of the competitiveness of their insurance rates. Lastly, this review will compare the auto insurance complaint records for the Response subsidiary companies, with major competitors, like State Farm, Allstate, Progressive, GEICO, & Farmers. You may really like your auto insurance company, or you may have heard from relatives or friends about the insurance companies they think are best, but you never really know how good your insurance company will be, until you have a serious claim. The good news is many insurance companies settle a good portion of their claims in a manner acceptable to the majority of their customers. However, the wise consumer should avoid insurance companies with a worse than average history of auto insurance complaints. This review provides valuable information to help you decide if Response Insurance is best for you. By choosing a company with a better-than-average complaint history, or at least avoiding companies with consistent, worse-than-average complaint records, you reduce the likelihood you will have a negative experience, when you need your auto insurance company. Continue reading →

New York Central Mutual Review: Auto & Home Insurance Customer Complaints, JD Power Customer Satisfaction & AM Best Financial Strength Ratings

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New York Central Mutual Insurance Company, a property & casualty insurance company established in 1899 and still owned by the same family of the company founder, sells auto, home, mobile home, condo, rental property, umbrella liability, & tenants insurance only available in New York. The company is a major insurer of autos & homes in the Empire state. NY Central Mutual is one of the insurance companies recently included in the annual JD Power US Auto Insurance Customer Satisfaction Study, and it has been rated for the last three years. The JD Power study now consists of 11 separate regional studies, and includes more regional auto insurance companies, like New York Central Mutual.

When trying to evaluate an insurance company, you can find customer experiences regarding insurance companies on review & complaint Websites. But as many as 200 positive or negative reviews are not likely to be truly representative of a company with tens of thousands of customers (NY Central Mutual reports 476,000 policies in force on its Website). All insurance companies have unhappy customers writing complaints about them. In my experience, most customers satisfied with their home or auto insurance company are silent about it. Although no positive review can guarantee you will not have a negative experience, trusting negative reviews based on personal experiences will have you thinking all insurance companies are terrible. The truth is, when you look at complaint statistics & customer satisfaction surveys including the opinions of thousands of customers, some companies are definitely better or much worse than others.

I think my review of NY Central Mutual Insurance Company’s JD Power ratings & complaint statistics is more objective than your typical reviews, and more likely to reflect the actual experience of the majority of customers. As regular readers of my insurance company review blog should know, I’m a big fan of using the company scores from the JD Power insurance studies to measure customer satisfaction, but I think the power circle ratings (2-5 power circles) assigned to each company are often misleading, with both highly rated and lowest rated companies sometimes scoring very close to average. This review will analyze the scores behind the JD Power ratings for NY Central Mutual, look at the company’s complaint statistics for the past three years, to let you know if NY Central Mutual has a worse than average, average, or better than average complaint record, and give you other information, to help you decide if New York Central Mutual Insurance Company is a good or bad company to insure you. Continue reading →

Kentucky National Insurance Company Review: Complaints, AM Best, JD Power, & Better Business Bureau (BBB) Ratings

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How good is Kentucky National Insurance Company? Does it have a lot of customer complaints? How does it stack up compared to competing home & auto insurance companies? This blog post will review Kentucky National, including its customer complaint record over the last four years. There can be a big difference in the cost & coverage offered by different insurance companies, and being a well-known company does not mean being the best. The wise consumer shops the market for the right combination of coverage, acceptable claims & customer service, and a good price. This blog post will help you decide if Kentucky National Insurance Company might be a good choice for you. I’ll also show you other leading auto & home insurance companies in Kentucky, so you can comparison shop & find the best company for you. Continue reading →

Reviewing Florida Home Insurance Companies for Financial Strength, Stability, & Solvency

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Florida home insurance companies becoming financially insolvent is not an uncommon problem. Sunshine State Insurance Company, recently one of the 25 leading insurance companies selling new policies insuring homes in Florida, stopped selling new policies, after receiving a consent order from the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (FOIR), to raise its surplus or shed its business. The FOIR consent order issued in March, came after Sunshine State reported it discovered accounting errors relating to reinsurance contracts from 2008 to 2011 that required correction. Sunshine State Insurance Company advised the FOIR that correcting the errors would negatively affect its surplus, as would fourth quarter losses. Customers of Sunshine State Insurance Company need to be concerned about the company being able to pay claims, and choosing another company to insure their home, as reported in this Insurance Journal article.

As any Florida property owner knows, finding companies to insure their homes and choosing the best insurance company, can be a challenge. The homeowners, condo, renters, or mobile home insurance companies available to them are often newer, very small companies not rated by AM Best, the most well-known company rating insurance company financial strength & solvency. If you are concerned about having substantial damage to your home covered by your insurance, particularly from a catastrophe, like a hurricane, where your insurance company may have many claims to pay, you want to do the best you can to avoid companies unable to meet their financial obligations. This blog post will discuss the issues regarding home insurance company solvency for Florida property owners, and show you one rating company that may be of great help with assessing an insurance company’s financial strength. Continue reading →

Best & Worst Home & Renters Insurance Companies for 2013

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JD Power has released its 2013 US Household (Home & Renters) Insurance & Bundling Customer Satisfaction Study. Although I think the annual JD Power customer surveys are great resources for consumers to use, as an objective measure of customer satisfaction, for each of the major residential property insurance companies in the USA, the power circle ratings, used by JD Power to rate each insurance company, can mislead people about the real quality of the companies included in the study. This review & analysis of the numerical scores for the home & tenants insurance companies surveyed in the JD Power 2013 US Household (Home & Renters) Insurance & Bundling Customer Satisfaction Study will let you know the best & worst companies, and which highly rated companies are really performing close to average, and about the same as lower rated companies. Continue reading →

Is Allstate Insurance Expensive?

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Is Allstate Insurance expensive? Does Allstate home & auto insurance cost a lot more than other companies, like State Farm, Progressive, or GEICO? Are insurance companies with lower rates than Allstate selling “cut-rate” insurance, inferior to Allstate? As a former sales person for an Allstate agency, I’ll tell you what you need to know about Allstate’s pricing, and how you really can save a lot of money on your auto or home insurance. Continue reading →

Florida Home Insurance Review: Best & Worst Complaint Records for the Largest Companies in the State.

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This review analyzes & ranks the 25 largest home insurance companies in Florida, from best to worst by their home insurance complaint history, as determined by complaints filed against them by FL home insurance customers & claimants with the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 & 2013.

Common reasons for filing complaints are because of denials, delays, or inadequate payments of claims. Looking at your home insurance company’s complaint record, compared to competitors, over the most recent several years, can help you decide if your homeowners, condominium, or renters insurance company is more likely to provide fair claims handling and customer service when you need it, or if other property insurance companies may be a better choice for you.

This is an old review. so I recommend using my new Florida home insurance reviews for the companies selling the most home insurance policies in Florida here, and the largest insurers of Florida homes here, which include 2014 complaint data.

My website reviews the major auto & home insurance companies in the USA, but many of these large national companies do not sell home insurance in Florida. JD Power & AM Best do not rate many of the largest Florida home insurers, so reviewing a company’s complaint statistics is a major way to determine if an insurance company is likely to provide acceptable or poor service. Read this review, see which companies have the best & worst complaint records in Florida, and shop to find the company with the best choice of coverage, service, & price for you. Continue reading →

Progressive Home Insurance Review 2013: Bundle and Save?

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Did you know, when you buy homeowners, condo, or renters insurance from Progressive Insurance, through their Progressive Home Advantage program, it is not Progressive insuring your home? Progressive primarily insures automobiles & trucks, but acts as an agent, representing other insurance companies, when Progressive sells you property (homeowners, condo, renters) insurance, for you to receive the “bundling” discount you hear about in the Progressive advertisements. How good is the bundling discount? It can vary by state, home insurance company insuring you, and the type of coverage needed. When I called Progressive, the customer service representative told me only the home insurance policy would be discounted. Discounts for insuring your home and auto together are common with many insurance companies these days, and some companies discount both policies by as much as 20%. If you insure your car with Progressive, is bundling your property insurance with Progressive your best and least expensive option? If you bundle with State Farm or Allstate, unlike Progressive, both of those companies will be insuring your home & auto, possibly with much larger bundling discounts. This review will analyze the pros & cons of bundling your auto & property insurance together with Progressive, to help you decide if this is the best option for you. Continue reading →

Progressive, Geico, Esurance Homeowners Insurance: Is it a Good Deal?

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Have you seen Geico, Esurance, or Progressive insurance ads on TV? The ads promote their auto insurance, but the ads often mention they offer homeowners & renters insurance, too. In fact, one of these insurance companies is heavily promoting a discount for “bundling” home & auto insurance together, to get low insurance rates. However, buying property insurance from these companies can be misleading, and you might be insuring your home with an insurance company you have never heard of, with a poor customer complaint record. This review will give you information, to help you decide if buying home insurance from Progressive, GEICO, or Esurance is a wise decision for you. Continue reading →

Tower Group AM Best Financial Strength Ratings Downgrade: How safe are its subsidiaries like Castlepoint, York, MA Homeland, Adirondack, & NJ Skylands Insurance?

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The most well-known insurance company rating agency, A.M. Best, has downgraded the financial strength rating (FSR) of Tower Group International, Ltd., and its subsidiaries to B++ (Good) from A- (Excellent). All subsidiaries are under review with negative implications. Fitch Ratings has also downgraded Tower Group International, Ltd.’s and Tower’s operating subsidiaries’ Insurer Financial Strength (IFS) ratings to ‘BB’ from ‘A-‘. I, like many insurance agents, recommend not insuring your autos or property with any insurance company having less than an A- AM Best financial strength rating, whenever possible. Most of Tower Group’s subsidiary companies insuring homes & personal use autos & trucks in the USA are not easily identifiable as being a part of Tower Group, so this blog post will inform you about the subsidiaries operating under Tower Group, and how this ratings downgrade impacts them. If you are insured with some of these companies associated with Tower Group, you should shop to see what more financially stable insurance companies can offer you. I’ll show you some major competitors that my be a better choice for you. Continue reading →

New York Home Insurance Reviews 2014: 20 Major Companies & Their Three-Year Complaint Ratings

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The home you own is most people’s biggest investment, so you want to make sure you protect it properly, by choosing the right coverage with a good homeowners insurance company, having a reputation for acceptable customer service, and a consistent history of maintaining a better than average complaint record each year. To accomplish this goal, you need to know the major companies offering home insurance in your state and their complaint information. This review will show you twenty major insurance companies insuring residential property in New York, and each company’s complaint ratings, based on home (homeowners/condo/renters/mobile home) insurance complaints filed with the New York insurance department for the last 3 years of 2010, 2011, 2012, & 2013. Continue reading →

Louisiana Home Insurance Reviews 2013: The Major Companies, their Customer Complaint Records, & JD Power Ratings

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If you want choose the best home insurance for you, you need to know the major companies offering coverage in your state. Your home is probably your biggest investment, so you want to make sure you choose a good home insurance company, with a reputation for good customer service, and a better than average complaint record. This review will show you the 20 leading home insurance companies in Louisiana, their complaint ratings based on home (homeowners/condo/renters/mobile home) insurance complaints filed with a state’s department of insurance for the last 3 years (2010, 2011, & 2012), and their claims & customer satisfaction ratings, if surveyed by JD Power. Continue reading →