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Methodology for rating car insurance providers

How we rank every car insurance company

The car insurance industry doesn’t always put customer needs first. You pay for coverage and expect to get claims paid, yet every customer claim paid out means less profit for the insurer.

Our editors objectively analyze the top car insurance providers in the US, from big brands to local insurers and online apps. We create an overall rank for each insurer to give you an idea of which insurer could be right for you.

Some of the top providers we rank

  • Esurance
  • Progressive
  • Allstate
  • Geico
  • Amica
  • The Hartford
  • State Farm
  • Liberty Mutual
  • Farmers
  • Travelers
  • Nationwide
  • USAA
  • Erie
  • American Family
  • Safeco
  • 21st Century
  • Connect (formerly Ameriprise)
  • Auto Owners
  • Country
  • CSAA
  • Hanover
  • Infinity
  • MAPFRE
  • Mercury
  • MetLife
  • Arbella
  • Kemper
  • NJM
  • Plymouth Rock
  • Grange
  • Pemco
  • Alfa

View all ratings & reviews

Our ratings

We rate these providers using a system of one to five stars.

★★★★★ — Excellent

★★★★★ — Good

★★★★★ — Average

★★★★★ — Subpar

★★★★★ — Poor

How we rank insurers

Our finder rating for each insurer is based on comparing regional scores that include the most important factors when shopping for car insurance.

Customer satisfaction

We started with the most recent JD Power ratings across 11 states and regions. These scores rank companies based on customer satisfaction, policy options, price, billing, claims and support.

These regions include:

  • California
  • Central
  • Florida
  • Mid-Atlantic
  • New England
  • New York
  • North Central
  • Northwest
  • Southeast
  • Southwest
  • Texas

For national insurers, we averaged ratings across states and regions to get a national score. Local insurers only available in one region used only their relevant local scores.

Coverage and benefits

We compared the most common coverage types that you should be able to get from a car insurance policy, plus a few extra benefits many customers look for.

We ranked companies higher the more coverage they offer:

  • Liability
  • Underinsured
  • Comprehensive
  • Collision
  • Personal injury protection
  • Rental car coverage
  • Roadside assistance
  • New car coverage
  • Accident forgiveness
  • Rideshare coverage

Pricing and discounts

We compared average rates for each provider, and we also looked at which common discounts each company offers. Companies ranked higher for having each of these discounts:

  • Anti-theft device discount
  • Bundling discount
  • Defensive driving discount
  • Good student discount
  • Loyalty discount
  • Homeowner discount
  • Military discount
  • Safety device discount
  • Special employment discount
  • Usage-based discount

Financial strength

We pulled AM Best financial strength ratings to decide how strong a company is and how likely it will be to be around to pay out claims in the future. We weighted companies with scores lower than an A- more negatively compared to scores with A- or above.

Putting it all together

Finally, we averaged all the factors together, and then rounded the numbers to the nearest 0.5 for even comparison.

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