Car insurance – like death and taxes – is one of those unavoidable certainties of modern life, at least for those of us who own automobiles. Most states mandate minimum coverage that you’re required by law to keep in force. If your car is financed, your lender will likely require you to maintain certain coverage as well.
Since you have to have car insurance, you might as well choose the best company and policy you can for your money. This means comparing prices and policy offerings, as well as getting a sense of what kind of customer service you can expect if you need to make a claim with each company you review.
Finding information on prices and policy offerings is pretty easy. Any insurance agent will be happy to quote a price for you or you can get a quote online in most cases. But when it comes to estimating what kind of customer service you’ll receive, your quest becomes a bit more difficult.
Fortunately, there are organizations like J. D. Power that survey consumers to find out what their experiences with particular companies have been. These organizations are our best source of objective information on potential car insurers.
When it comes to American Family car insurance, the experiences of new buyers received pretty good rankings. And when it came to policy offerings, American Family received one of those rare perfect 5 out of 5 star ratings. Local agents, prices and the overall purchase experience received 4 out of 5 possible stars, a rating that says people feel the company is “better than most.”
On claims, American Family’s ratings were average – three out of five possible stars in all categories except “repair process.” On overall experience, American Family again received an average rating of three out of five possible stars.
When you check the company’s scores at other review sites, the ratings are fairly consistent, all falling in the average range. With 31 reviews to draw from, Epinions.com gives the company a rating of 2 ½ out of five stars. In addition, sixty-one people have offered their comments at CarReview.com and have given American Family a rating of 2.48 stars out of a possible 5. FiLife – a personal finance website – has the fewest reviews (only 5 total) but their reviewers are all consistent, giving the company three out of five stars.
Most of the complaints regarding this company are fairly typical. One thing that seems to have upset a number of consumers is that the company has begun basing premium calculations on the policy holder’s credit score, something other companies are doing as well. Of course, one has to question the wisdom of doing this at a time when so many people are already struggling to make ends meet. And while the insurance company certainly wants to minimize its risk, it’s disheartening to hear that even long-time consumers with a history of regular payments and no claims are finding their rates increasing because of financial difficulties.
So does American Family deserve a place on your potential car insurers list? You could certainly do worse, but don’t expect anything above and beyond the call of duty from this company.
