Shopping for auto insurance? Looking for the best auto insurance companies with the best rates? Here's how to find them.
Finding the Best Auto Insurance Companies
Finding an auto insurance company that will be there when you need them and will pay your claims on time is an important consideration when it comes to buying auto insurance.
A company's financial strength is a good indicator of their ability to pay claims, and there are two websites where you can go to check out their financial status:
Standard and Poors (standardandpoors.com) - This website provides profiles and financial strength ratings of more than 4,000 companies.
A. M. Best (ambest.com/ratings) - This website provides financial ratings and reports on the overall condition of insurance companies.
These websites are great if you want to know how solvent a company is and how credit worthy they are, but if you want the inside scoop on how well they pay their claims and how good their customer service is, I recommend going to the following websites:
Epinions (epinions.com)- This website provides ratings and reviews of various companies by their customers. Reviews range from, "Great agents all over the country." to "Buyer beware! Company is a fraud candidate for misrepresentation of their clients." If you want to find out how customers have been treated and what their claims experience has been, this is the place to go.
Your state's department of insurance website - Most state insurance departments maintain websites that have a consumer complaint department where you can find out how many claims have been filed against a particular company. If your state doesn't provide this information, you can go to California's website - www.insurance.ca.gov - to get it. Just click on "Consumers," then "Studies and Reports," then "Consumer Complaint Study" to see the complaints filed against a particular company.
Best Auto Insurance Rates
Comparing quotes from different companies is the only way to know if you're getting the best auto insurance rate.
By: Brian Stevens