Secured with SHA-256 EncryptionProgressive Car Insurance Review
No Progressive Auto insurance review would be complete without mentioning the company’s innovative nature.
Established in 1937, Progressive has made a habit of setting industry firsts, including:
- First to accept premiums in installments
- First to offer lowered rates for low-risk drivers
- First to present competitor rates alongside their own
Progressive offers many standard auto insurance products for both private and commercial drivers.
Coverage Options
With their proprietary Name Your Price Tool, Progressive lets you choose between options such as:
- Bodily Injury and Property Damage Liability: If you cause damage to someone’s property or injure another person while driving, these options will cover lost wages, medical bills, legal fees, and property damage.
- Collision: This coverage pays for damages to your vehicle, regardless of fault, in the event of a collision with another object.
- Comprehensive: This coverage pays for damages or loss of your vehicle caused by fire, theft, vandalism, and weather-related issues.
- Roadside Assistance: This option provides towing services if your car breaks down. It also offers assistance with lock-outs, when you run out of gas, or get a flat tire.
Claims Satisfaction
In a perfect world, setting up your auto insurance policy ends any significant interaction between you and your insurance provider, other than your payments, of course. However, in the event of an accident, a good measure of an insurance company’s service is how well they handle the claims process.
Organizations like J.D. Power and Consumer Reports have many studies involving insurance companies, and each uses unique methods to evaluate and rank those companies. J.D. Power’s recent claims satisfaction study rates the major insurance providers in seven areas related to the claims process and condenses them into three key performance indicators that focus on communication, ease of service interaction, and timeliness.
Progressive Auto’s insurance reviews received mostly average ratings, although they scored better than most when it comes to rental experience. This survey awards 2 to 5 power circles in each area and Progressive scored a 3, which is considered above average, in six of the seven factors.
Among their competitors, Progressive sits in the middle of the pack, with a few other companies leading the way with either 4 or 5 power circles across all seven ranking factors. Progressive is on par with companies like Allstate and State Farm and fared better than Liberty Mutual which had several 2-circle ratings.
Read more: Progressive vs State Farm: Who has better car insurance?
Overall Customer Satisfaction
With any luck, you won’t personally experience the claims process. Though that process is important to consider, there are also other characteristics to take into account when choosing your next insurance company. For instance, an insurer’s purchasing process and method of delivering documents are also important to the average consumer.
Finally, remember to research the company’s customer service, pricing, and their ability to answer questions in a timely and knowledgeable manner.
In a study addressing the above-mentioned areas, Progressive customers rate the company about average, with 3 out of 5 power circles in five of the six categories. There was also a below-average rating of 2 for the company’s customer service representatives.
Comparatively, Progressive Auto insurance reviews were slightly below average but better than State Farm and Allstate, which, combined, had many 2-circle ratings particularly in the website and pricing categories.
Another quantifiable factor to consider is the number of justifiable complaints reported against an insurance company. In California, the country’s most populous state, Progressive totaled 36 such complaints in 2017, a decent rate of 5.6 per 100,000 policies.
On a national scale, Progressive is a bit below average with about 25 percent more complaints than the average insurance company.
Pricing
When it comes to auto insurance pricing, individual factors can greatly influence policy costs.
Your age, driving history, location, type of vehicle, and credit can all impact your price. Given the same set of criteria, costs can also fluctuate considerably between insurance companies.
It’s important to compare quotes before selecting an insurance provider.
Consider these two examples as they relate to Progressive:
- A single male in San Francisco, CA, licensed for nine years, who has one ticket and one accident, and is driving a Toyota Camry about 12,000 to 15,000 miles per year can expect to pay about $1,800 annually for liability-only coverage through Progressive. Compared to many other California insurers, that’s a below-average rate. USAA and Geico may save this customer a few hundred dollars, but Allstate ($2,948) and Farmers ($2,694) are considerably more expensive.
- A single female in Miami, FL, licensed for 9 years, who also has one ticket and one accident, and is driving a Toyota Camry 12,000 miles per year can expect Progressive to charge about $3,243 annually for the state-minimum coverage. In Florida, this is a costly option; Geico, USAA, and Esurance all offer rates that are less than half that amount.
Financial Strength
Though often overlooked by auto insurance consumers, the financial strength of an insurance provider is a critical metric that should be taken into consideration.
Insurance policies aren’t federally insured like bank accounts, which means that consumers are not guaranteed to receive their qualified payout if their provider becomes insolvent. Fortunately, several organizations (Moody’s Investor Services, A.M. Best, Standard & Poor’s, and Fitch) independently review and rate insurance companies on their financial strength, so that consumers can understand the risks involved with selecting a business.
Progressive Auto Insurance ratings vary by company. Moody’s rates Progressive at an A2 with the “A” being their third highest grade and the “2” signifying that Progressive falls in the mid-range of that grade. Progressive’s financial strength is rated as stable.
Standard & Poor’s gives Progressive an AA rating, which is second only to their AAA rating. S & P rates Progressive as very strong in financial terms.
When it comes to choosing auto insurance, it is important to look at all the variables and conduct thorough research. We hope we’ve provided insightful data that can help you choose the insurance company and coverage options that best fit your situation.
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