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

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

Alfa Insurance Review: JD Power Ratings, AM Best Financial Strength Ratings, & Customer Complaints

This review will analyze the change in the JD Power home & auto insurance scores & ratings for Alfa Insurance over the last few years. The annual JD Power insurance company studies are, in my opinion, the most objective & relevant indicators of customer & claims satisfaction, by surveying the opinions of thousands of consumers about their auto & home insurance. However, the power circle ratings used by JD Power can be deceptive, with some companies receiving the top rated four and five power circle ratings, not scoring much above the score of the average company. This review will look at the JD Power ratings & numerical scores for Alfa, in all the JD Power insurance studies where it was included in the last three years, to see if its JD Power ratings truly reflect the quality of the claims & customer service for the company.

This review will also show you if Alfa has a better than average, average, or below average complaint record for 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 & 2014. Additionally, I’ll review the AM Best Financial Strength Rating (FSR) for the Alfa insurance companies. Continue reading

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

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

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

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

Titan / Victoria Insurance Review: Auto Insurance Customer Complaint Record & AM Best Ratings

This Titan / Victoria Insurance review will evaluate, for the most recent three year period where reliable statistics are available (2010, 2011, 2012, & 2013), the auto insurance complaint ratings for the subsidiary companies of Titan Insurance, to determine whether each subsidiary, such as Titan Indemnity Company or Victoria Fire & Casualty 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 Titan subsidiary, as a possible indication of the competitiveness of their auto insurance rates. Lastly, this review will compare the auto insurance complaint records for the Titan / Victoria companies, with major competitors, like Allstate, Progressive, GEICO, The General, Infinity, National General (Formerly GMAC) & Farmers. Continue reading

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

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

Piedmont Mutual Insurance Review: Homeowners Insurance Complaints, AM Best, BBB, & JD Power Ratings

How good is Piedmont Mutual Insurance? Does it have a lot of customer complaints? How does it stack up compared to competing home insurance companies? This blog post will review Piedmont Mutual, its AM Best or Demotech financial strength ratings, JD Power customer satisfaction ratings, Better Business Bureau ratings, and its home insurance complaint record over the last 5 years. Unfortunately, the news is not good for Piedmont Mutual customers, but I’ll show you some other company options, which may be a better choice for you, and increase the odds you’ll be happy if you have a claim. You may also be able to save a lot of money, too. Continue reading

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

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

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

IFA Insurance Review: Auto Insurance Customer Complaint Statistics & Downgraded AM Best Financial Strength Rating

IFA Insurance Company, an auto insurance company insuring cars in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, & Maryland, has had its AM Best Financial Strength Rating(FSR) downgraded again in 2014. If you have IFA auto insurance, you should consider shopping for a more financially stable company with a better complaint record. This blog post will review the latest financial strength ratings & future ratings outlook for IFA, and show you some of the top auto insurance companies in NJ, PA,& MD, to help you shop for a more financially secure insurer. Car insurance rates vary a lot among companies, with some companies charging twice as much as others. Contrary to what you might expect, some of the companies with the best ratings & complaint records may have competitive rates for you. You don’t have to pay more for better service. You can likely find a better auto insurance company and save a lot of money, compared to what you pay now with IFA for the same coverage. Read this IFA auto insurance review and use the ad below this paragraph to get car insurance quotes from some of the top insurance companies in New Jersey. Continue reading

Safety Insurance Review: Auto & Home, Condo, Renters Coverage

Safety Insurance is the third largest insurer of private passenger vehicles and the fourth largest insurer of homes in Massachusetts, but also sells auto & home insurance in New Hampshire. This review will discuss the important facts about Safety Insurance, and how it sells its insurance. This review also analyzes the JD Power customer service ratings, AM Best financial strength ratings, as well as the most recent three-year home & auto insurance customer complaint record for Safety Insurance, in comparison with major competitors like Allstate, State Farm, GEICO, & Progressive. My review will give you information to help you decide if Safety Insurance is a good choice to insure your car or home. Continue reading

Better Business Bureau (BBB) Ratings for the Ten Largest Auto & Home Insurance Companies.

When deciding whether or not to buy a product or service from a business, cautious consumers check the Better Business Bureau rating for the business. Although I think there are other sources, such as the annual JD Power insurance studies, proving more useful rating information to the auto or home insurance customer, the complaint data provided by the Better Business Bureau (BBB) about major auto & home insurance companies can be another source of information to help people avoid insurance companies with too many complaints. This review will analyze the complaint data gathered by the Better Business Bureau for the last three years against the ten biggest auto & home insurance companies in the USA, and use it to show you which companies have a good, average, or bad complaint record. I’ll explain why people should not consider the BBB rating for an insurance company, and how I’ll use the number of complaints against each of the top ten companies, Allstate, State Farm, Liberty Mutual, Travelers, Nationwide, USAA, Farmers, American Family, Progressive & GEICO, to compare them and determine the companies with the best & worst complaint records. Continue reading

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

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

Answer Financial (answerfinancial.com) online auto insurance quotes review

Auto insurance buyers may be aware Allstate purchased an online auto insurance company called Esurance a few years ago. What people may not know, is the previous parent company for Esurance, White Mountains Insurance Group, also owned an online insurance agency, Answer Financial, authorized to represent multiple insurance companies as an agent or broker, which was also included in the sale of Esurance to Allstate insurance. Answerfinancial.com is one of the few places on the Web showing you the prices for different auto insurance companies online on their site, once you complete submitting your information for the quote, instead of selling your personal information to insurance companies and agents, to e-mail or call you with auto insurance quotes. How accurate are the auto insurance rates quoted by Answer Financial? Can you rely on Answer Financial to compare the best auto insurance companies for you? Should you buy auto insurance from Answer Financial? This review will tell you about how Answer Financial quotes auto insurance, and assesses the usefulness of Answerfinancial.com to the online auto insurance shopper. Continue reading

Overstock.com is now selling insurance: auto, home, & business policies

Overstock.com, the online retailer, has established its own insurance agency, and now you can request auto, home, & small business insurance quotes through its website, and purchase policies through the same shopping cart customers use to make other Overstock.com purchases. Can you really get online insurance quotes from multiple companies from Overstock.com, and buy a policy from the Overstock.com website? Is it a good way for people to purchase insurance, or does Overstock.com offer better prices than other insurance companies or insurance agencies? I tested the “insurance” tab at the Overstock.com website to get insurance quotes, as well as researched how Overstock.com is providing insurance, and I’ll tell you the advantages, and significant disadvantages, of using Overstock.com to insure your cars and/or home. Continue reading

Walmart is selling auto insurance online?

There have been many articles this week reporting about Walmart selling auto insurance online. The article headlines about this story have often been misleading. Walmart, known for its ultra low prices, is not forming its own auto insurance company to sell car insurance at low, market-beating prices. Walmart is teaming with an online insurance agency, autoinsurance.com, to promote an auto insurance price comparison tool to compare the rates of several companies. Is this auto insurance price comparison service useful? Will it really save people money as advertised? I’ll tell you about how this new service works, and as a former auto insurance industry insider, I’ll tell you why I think you shouldn’t rely on it to find the best rates or auto insurance company for you. Continue reading

Gun Friendly Insurance Companies?

Is it true some insurance companies decline, cancel, or non-renew home insurance policies based on an applicant’s ownership or use of guns? One major home insurance company in Florida currently does use gun ownership to determine eligibility for its property insurance policies. Which home insurance companies are better for firearm owners? This blog post will explain what gun owners need to know about how insurance companies use information about you and your guns, to determine your eligibility for their home insurance policies. Continue reading

State Farm Life Insurance & Term Rates Review 2014

State Farm is the largest insurer of autos & homes in the USA by far, with lots of local State Farm agent offices in almost every community across the nation. In fact, there are TWO State Farm agent offices within a mile of my home, and over a dozen State Farm offices within 10 miles of me. State Farm is a well-known household name when it comes to insurance. But is State Farm a good choice for life insurance? State Farm may be a good choice for auto & home insurance, but as this review will show you, State Farm’s rates for life insurance are expensive, compared to other highly rated major life insurance companies. There are other drawbacks to using a State Farm agent for your life insurance. An independent insurance agent or agency, representing many life insurance companies, specializing in life insurance, is usually a better choice to find the best life insurance for your needs. The review below will explain why I think this is the case. Continue reading

Does your job or education increase your auto insurance rates?

A consumer advocacy group, New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG), announced its recent analysis shows some of New York State’s largest auto insurers are charging higher premiums to motorists who have less education and non-professional, non-managerial jobs. Four major auto insurance companies were examined: GEICO, State Farm, Liberty Mutual, and Progressive. Although the analysis is of auto insurance rates in the state of New York, many states allow a customer’s education and occupation as rating factors. This blog post will discuss the results of the NYPIRG analysis for each company, and tell you what you need to know to find the best auto insurance rates for you, no matter your occupation or level of education. Continue reading

US Home Insurance Companies Rated & Ranked for 2014 Property Claims Satisfaction

JD Power home insurance customer satisfaction & property claims satisfaction studies are great tools for insurance shoppers to measure an insurance company’s claims & customer service, but people make the mistake of trusting the power circle ratings in these studies too much. You may think all four of five power circle rated companies are much better than average-scoring companies with lower power circle ratings. However, when you look at the numerical scores these companies received, many are actually not much better, or much worse than average. Some companies do outperform others, while some companies rated as average, scored far below average. Today’s blog post reviews the raw scores and ratings for the eighteen insurance companies included in the 2014 JD Power Property Claims Satisfaction Study for homeowners insurance, released earlier this year. I’ll show you the companies really performing much better or worse than average, so you can avoid the worst companies, and not pay more for a company, with the false expectation of proper service, based only on its power circle rating or brand name. Continue reading

Best & Worst Companies for Auto Insurance Claims Satisfaction in 2013

JD Power has released its 2013 US Auto Claims Satisfaction Study. Although these annual JD Power customer surveys are great resources for consumers to use, as an objective measure of customer satisfaction, for each of the major auto insurance companies in the USA, the power circle ratings, used by JD Power to rate each insurance company, can mislead people about how well or how poorly each company performed in the survey. This review & analysis of the numerical scores for the auto insurance companies surveyed in the JD Power 2013 US Auto Claims 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?

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.

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

Changing auto insurance companies? Here’s how to avoid mistakes.

Suppose you’ve taken my advice, shopped your auto insurance with all the major insurance companies in your state, and you found a much lower rate. What is the best way to start your new auto insurance and cancel your old policy? This blog post will give you advice on how to avoid mistakes when changing auto insurance companies, like an accidental lapse in coverage, by canceling your old policy, before your new policy has started. Continue reading