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
Tag Archives: renters insurance
Best & Worst Home & Renters Insurance Companies for 2013
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?
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
Progressive Home Insurance Review 2013: Bundle and Save?
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
Do you need an insurance agent?
Yesterday, I posted about finding auto & home insurance companies with good customer service. Something that can help you get better insurance company customer service, is having a great agent working for you. However, it’s almost 2014, and it’s easier than ever to buy auto & home insurance online, direct from the company. Do you need an insurance agent these days? Buying direct does not always save you money. You should shop with all the major insurance companies in your state, regardless if they have agents or not, to find the companies with the best rates for you. With some insurance companies, you pay the same, whether you buy direct, or from an agent responsible to serve you. This blog post will explain what value insurance agents provide their customers, and how it can cost you money, and be more than just a hassle, if you don’t have one. Continue reading
Progressive, Geico, Esurance Homeowners Insurance: Is it a Good Deal?
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?
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
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
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
New Jersey Home Insurance Reviews 2013: Complaint Ratings for all the Leading Companies
This NJ Home insurance company review gives you the 2012, 2011 & 2010 complaint ratings for the major companies insuring homes in the Garden State. It’s tough to find reliable insurance company reviews on the Web. Reading reviews of several people’s experience, or even two hundred people’s experience, are not enough to evaluate an insurance company with hundreds of thousands of customers, and tell you what your experience is likely to be with the company, if you insure with them. One person will love a company. Another person will hate the same company the other person loves. Unfortunately, no amount of research about a company’s customer service can guarantee you won’t have a problem. Even the most highly rated companies for customer satisfaction will have customers thinking they were treated unfairly, or the company did not properly settle a claim for them.
However, a smart insurance buyer reduces the chances of having a bad experience, by checking an insurance company’s JD Power ratings and complaint statistics for the company, before insuring with them. Although some states publish insurance company complaint statistics on their websites, few consumers check for their availability. New Jersey does not publish their home insurance complaint statistics, but national complaint data about the insurance companies insuring homes in NJ is available. This review will tell you if these NJ home insurance companies have an above-average, average, or below-average customer complaint record over the last three years, and their JD Power ratings, if they were included in a JD Power home insurance claims or customer satisfaction survey in the last three years (2013, 2012, & 2011).
Reading this review, and using it to select an home insurance company, can’t guarantee you will get great service or be happy with how your next claim is settled, but it gives you the information you need in one place, to help you make a smarter decision when choosing an home insurance company. How is your home insurance company performing? Check your company’s ratings in this review below. Continue reading
Are Insurance Companies Owned by their Policyholders Better or Less Expensive than Companies Owned by Stockholders?
I’ve noticed some insurance companies, like Nationwide Insurance, have been emphasizing their ownership by their policyholders, not investors, as a selling point in their TV ads. One of the more popular ways to organize an insurance company is as a mutual company, like Nationwide, where the policyholders are the owners of the company, instead of the typical ownership of companies in other industries, where the companies are owned privately, or by stockholders. But some insurance companies are organized as stock companies, owned by stockholders. Some examples of major mutual companies are State Farm, Amica, American Family, Northwestern Mutual Life, Mass Mutual, Guardian Life, & Nationwide. Some examples of major stock companies are Geico, Progressive, Allstate, Prudential, Travelers, & Metlife. Are mutual companies better for the customer than stock companies? Do mutual insurance companies have lower rates, since they don’t need to provide a profit to investors? Do mutual companies provide better service, because the companies operate for the benefit of their policyholders? I’ll answer these & other questions in this blog post, and explain why I think, whether an insurance company is a mutual company or a stock company, its type of ownership should not sway your opinion when buying auto, property, or life insurance, except in certain situations. In fact, in spite of the appeal of policyholder ownership, where an insurance company works for its customers, instead of investors, I’ll tell you how some mutual insurance companies can cost you money. Continue reading
Are Big Auto, Home, & Life Insurance Companies Better than Small Companies?
When insurance companies want to convince people they should insure with them, they often cite their long history and size, usually expressed by the dollar amount of their assets. For example, Prudential Financial, Inc., a major life insurance & financial services company, states on their website they have been in business for 137 years and have $1.061 trillion of assets under management. Does this make Prudential better than a competing company like TIAA-CREF Life Insurance Company, which has been in business 95 years, and has only $520 billion assets under management? Is Prudential financially stronger than TIAA-CREF? Not according to the rating agency AM Best, which rates Prudential at “A+” for financial strength, but gives the higher grade of “A++” to TIAA-CREF. State Farm states on its website it has 81 million policies & accounts in the USA & Canada. State Farm is the largest insurer of cars in the US, and its subsidiary, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, has close to 115 billion dollars in assets for 2012 (according to the financial statement from its website). In comparison, Auto Owners Insurance has less than 6 billion dollars in written premium. But Auto Owners Insurance scored higher than State Farm in both the 2013 JD Power US Property Claims Satisfaction Study and the 2012 JD Power 2012 US Auto Claims Satisfaction Study. It’s good to see any potential insurance company has a long history, and a significant asset base, but bigger does not mean better for the customer, beyond a certain point. When it comes to getting a competitive price for insurance, size does not matter at all. However, there are pros & cons for both small & large companies. This blog post will give you tips about how to consider a company’s size, when buying auto, home, or life insurance. Continue reading
Auto, Home, & Life Insurance Companies: Stick with the Big Brand Names?
State Farm. Prudential. Allstate. AFLAC. GEICO. Metlife. Progressive. These insurance companies are household names. No one likes paying for insurance, much less paying more for insurance, but if you are in a major car accident, your house burns down, or you get a life threatening disease or develop a health condition, you want to be sure your auto, home, or life insurance company will be there to take care of your claim. Because of this concern, many people prefer familiar brand names when buying insurance. What if an insurance agent quotes you an insurance company with the coverage you need at a great price, but you have never heard of the company? Can you trust this unknown company to pay your claim? You know the big brand name companies are legitimate companies, even if you have heard stories about some of them having bad customer service. Is some insurance company unknown to you a fly-by-night company? Do they lure you in with low rates, but can’t be reached when you have a claim? It’s human nature to be inclined to buy a product from a company with a familiar name, but are you familiar with the company name because their customers rave about it being a great company, or is it because you are constantly exposed to the company’s advertising? An insurance company is not a better company because it spends a lot of money on advertising, or because it has a lot of customers and many agencies in your area. The wise insurance buyer does not limit their shopping to a few companies with brand name recognition. However, whether you know them or not, all insurance companies are not equally good. This blog post will tell you how to shop for your insurance without being misled by insurance company hype, and what you need to consider, when evaluating an insurance company, to see if it’s the right choice for you. Continue reading
Nationwide Insurance Reviews: Complaint Ratings for Auto & Homeowners Insurance
How is the customer service and claims handling at Nationwide Insurance Group? How good is Nationwide‘s auto insurance & homeowners insurance? This blog entry helps you answer these important questions and decide if Nationwide Insurance Company is best for you! Continue reading
Kemper Unitrin Insurance Reviews: Complaint Ratings for Auto & Homeowners Insurance
How is the customer service and claims handling at Kemper Insurance Company (Unitrin Property & Casualty Insurance Group)? How good is Kemper / Unitrin‘s auto insurance & homeowners insurance? This blog entry helps you answer these important questions and decide if Kemper / Unitrin Insurance Company is best for you! Continue reading
Liberty Mutual Insurance Reviews: Complaint Ratings for Auto & Homeowners Insurance
How is the customer service and claims handling at Liberty Mutual Insurance Group? How good is Liberty Mutual‘s auto insurance & homeowners insurance? This blog entry helps you answer these important questions and decide if Liberty Mutual Insurance Company is best for you! Continue reading
Homesite Insurance Reviews & Homeowners Insurance Complaint Ratings
Major auto insurance companies like Progressive, Geico, GMAC, 21st Century, & Esurance do not sell their own homeowners insurance, and partner with other insurance companies to sell property insurance, like renters insurance, condo insurance, & home insurance. Continue reading
2013 JD Power US Property Claims Satisfaction Study Numerical Scores for Home Insurance Customers
The annual JD Power auto & home insurance customer satisfaction & claims satisfaction studies are great tools for insurance shoppers to measure an insurance company’s claims & customer service, but people make the mistake of weighing its power circle ratings too much. You may think a 4 power circle rated company (better than most) is a much better company, and companies with the lowest power circle rating of 2 power circles (the rest), provide poor service, but when you look at the numerical score many of these companies received, they are actually not much better or worse than average. However, some companies do outperform others, while some low scoring companies are far below average. Today’s blog post reviews the raw scores and ratings for the 19 major insurance companies included in the recent JD Power 2013 Property Claims Satisfaction Study for homeowners insurance, released earlier this month. I’ll compare this year’s scores with last years scores, and point out the companies really earning their high or low ratings. Continue reading
USAA Insurance Reviews: Complaint Ratings for Auto & Homeowners Insurance
How is the customer service and claims handling at USAA (United Services Automobile Association) Insurance Company? How good is USAA‘s auto insurance & homeowners insurance? This blog entry helps you answer these important questions and decide if USAA Insurance Company is best for you! Continue reading
Auto & Home Insurance Companies: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly?
Everyone wants a good price on auto & home insurance. But people also want to avoid the bad insurance companies that deny claims all the time. An affordable price for your car insurance and homeowners insurance is important, but you also want to choose a company that pays claims and does not hassle you.
Some people believe all insurance companies want to sell insurance, but none want to pay claims. Other people think some insurance companies are honest and pay claims, and other companies are dishonest and weasel out of paying legitimate claims. Some people think bad insurance companies automatically deny any claims over a certain dollar amount.
Many car & home insurance buyers have misconceptions about insurance companies, leading them to make mistakes they regret when they have a claim. This blog post will tell you about these misconceptions and mistakes, how to avoid them, and how to make better decisions when choosing your insurance company and coverage. Continue reading
Why Do Some Insurance Companies Ask So Many Questions?
If you have received an auto insurance quote online, or you have called an insurance company or agency for a home or car insurance quote, you know insurance companies ask a lot of questions before they give you a price. Why do insurance companies ask you for so much information, instead of just giving you the price quote you asked for? What do they do with your information? Do they sell it? Why do some companies ask for more information than others? In this blog post, I will answer these questions, and tell you how to get the insurance agent or company representative quoting you to do their best to give you the lowest insurance rates for the coverage you need, and all the discounts you deserve. It’s worth it to you to read this entire blog post, so you know what’s going on when an agent quotes your auto or home insurance, and how you can use it to your advantage. Continue reading
Choosing an insurance agent: Questions to ask before you buy
Most people do not know the important questions to ask, or what to look for in the replies of an insurance agent, to know if an agent is deserving of your business. This blog post will give you tips on what questions to ask, and how to ask them. so you are able to see through empty claims of great customer service & expertise.
If you have visited the “about us” section of almost any insurance agency web site, you read the same things: Our customers are the focus of our business. We are committed to personal service. We work hard to get you the coverage you need at a low price, etc. The truth is anybody can claim to provide a high level or personal customer service, and just about everyone claims to provide it. Continue reading
Choosing an insurance agent: What to expect from a good agent
I started this blog series about how to choose an agent, telling you about the hype you hear from every agent, usually in a confident, friendly manner: “I have many years experience. I represent a large, old, financially stable company with 24 hour claims service. I’m an independent agent, and I can shop the home & auto insurance market for you (except I don’t tell you I don’t represent some of the biggest & best companies). I put my customers first. Yadda, yadda, yadda.”
There are lots of well-established, financially strong insurance companies. Most companies have 24 hour claims reporting. Almost all of the reasons agents tell you why you should insure with them are not unique, and they are common among all insurance companies. If other companies offer the same benefits, why shouldn’t you choose the company with the lowest price?
Some agents do add value with the service they provide, and this blog post will show you how to recognize this value, and allow you to tell the agents really putting their customers first, from the majority of agents merely claiming to put their customers first. Continue reading
Choosing an insurance agent: Your agent’s office location
How important is it for your agent’s office to be close to your home or work? For a lot of people, this is an important factor for choosing an agent. But for most people, choosing an agent based on the agent’s office location can be a mistake. Depending on your needs, the location of your agent’s office may not be important at all. This blog post will tell you when having an agent close to you is important, and when choosing the agent closest to you is a mistake. Continue reading