Important factors when choosing a car insurance company
When shopping for car insurance, one of the first things people look at is the price. How much is this insurance going to cost?
While price is obviously important there are a few other factors you should be taking into account. Customer service, reliability, and the claims process are all important factors to consider besides price.
How important is an insurance company's claims handling process?
One of the most important factors is how the claims handling process will affect your peace of mind if you have an accident. Having to file a claim on your car insurance is a stressful situation.
It always comes immediately after your car has been damaged. Whether that damage results from an accident or something else, you are now in the position of depending on the insurance company to follow through with the promises you understood when you signed up with them.
Is Nationwide car insurance a good choice?
The company that is now Nationwide began in 1925 as the Farm Bureau Mutual Automobile Insurance company. Nationwide's roots as a company providing affordable car insurance to American farmers are still evident with a dedication to customer service and an equitable claims process.
U.S. News used actual customer input to rank Nationwide second for claims handling and third for customer service among insurance companies. USAA is the top-ranked company in these categories, but its customers must have some degree of U.S. military affiliation.
Some of the most favorable statistics for Nationwide are those from customers that have filed a claim with them. In the U.S. News survey, 75% of responses gave 4 or 5 out of 5 ratings for overall satisfaction with Nationwide before filing a claim. Of those that have already filed a claim, 89% gave 4 or 5 ratings, and only 4% gave a 1 rating.
The trend holds for contacting customer service as well. Seventy percent of non-claim-filers rated contacting customer service with a 4 or 5, while 89% of claim-filers gave similar top-tier ratings.
Of those that filed claims, 60% were fully satisfied with Nationwide's status updates following their claims, and 72% were 5 out of 5 satisfied with how their claim was resolved.