The folks at Allstate Insurance like to call themselves the “good hands” people, as in “You’re in good hands with Allstate.” But are you really? After all, car insurance is a necessary expense and you want to make sure you’re getting the best product you can for your money – not only in terms of price, but in terms of service as well.

You can check on Allstate’s financial statements to tell you whether or not the company is stable. But finding out about consumers’ experiences with the company isn’t quite as simple. People who have had negative experiences with the company are more likely to tell others about it than people who have had positive experiences. In addition, people who had an average experience – one that met their expectations and was completely satisfactory – usually aren’t represented on the review sites at all. So when you’re looking at consumer reviews, be sure to keep these facts in mind.

As you may have heard, Allstate is offering some pretty cool new incentives to entice people to buy auto insurance from them. These include “Accident Forgiveness” – designed to keep rates from increasing when you have an accident – and a “Safe Driving Bonus,” which is designed to give you a rebate on your premium if you don’t have an accident over a period of six months. They also offer a program that allows you to completely replace a new car that’s totaled within its first three model years. For specifics on these and other programs, including their “Deductible Rewards” program, contact an Allstate agent in your area.

In addition, the personal finance website FiLife has 13 reviews for automobile insurance from Allstate. Allstate’s rating on the site is 3 ½ out of a possible 5 stars. Several reviewers say that they found insurance from Allstate to be inexpensive and have been with the company for a number of years. Overall, there are only two predominantly negative reviews. One had to do with closing of an Allstate office – a review that should really be ignored as it doesn’t directly relate to the experiencing of being insured by or making a claim with Allstate. The other negative review speaks to a problem with the claims process, though it’s hard to understand exactly what the issue is and whether it is with Allstate or the insured’s own insurance company. Overall, the comments are good. In addition, all of the comments are recent and made within the past 10 months.

However, reviews at CarReview.com haven’t been as positive. After more than 70 reviews, the overall score for Allstate is 2.18 out of a possible 5 stars. When you look at the distribution of reviews, the polarized nature of reviews discussed before is quite evident – the reviews are either 1 star or 5 star, with nothing in between. Out of the 10 most recent reviews, the chief complaints are either premium increases or difficulties during the claims process. It’s worth noting that these types of problems are inevitable in any customer service situation – Allstate’s record of positive comments makes it worth a look in your car insurance search process.