02/24/2024
Top Auto Carriers Get Low Grades from Repair Shops
Allstate, Liberty Mutual and USAA are among the worst auto insurers, while Chubb and Erie ranked near the top.
By Chris Larson|February 23, 2024
Some of the biggest auto insurers rank among the worst when it comes to customer service and funding high-quality repairs, according to a survey of collision repair shops.
Carriers that scored high marks were primarily small regional companies, according to Crash Network, which releases an annual report called the Insurer Report Card, on a survey of collision repair shops.
The latest edition, released this month, shows particularly poor results for the 10 biggest auto carriers, with Allstate placing 80th out of 88 carriers ranked. Liberty Mutual, USAA, Geico and State Farm didn’t fare much better. (Scroll down to see the ranking of the top 10 auto carriers.)
The survey got responses from more than 1,100 repair shop owners, managers or employees from across the country. They were asked to give a letter grade to the carriers they work with when repairing customers’ vehicles. The average respondent gave their feedback on 20 insurers.
Grades were translated into both a points ranking and an overall average letter grade.
The top scorer was North Carolina Farm Bureau, which received the only A+. Next was Alfa Mutual, with the only A, followed by Chubb and Erie Insurance, which each got an A-.
Ranked by grades, Allstate, LiMu and USAA each received the barely-passing mark of D+. Geico, State Farm and Farmers Insurance got C-minuses, while Progressive, Travelers and Nationwide all scored middling Cs.
Of the top 10 biggest carriers, American Family did the “best,” with a solid C+. It ranked 52nd overall.
Behind the scores
What leads to lower scores and lower grades? According to repair shop workers, the poorly graded carriers tend to have less experienced claims personnel; are slow to respond to repair shop requests for reviews, which means the entire repair process takes longer; and they may urge the repair shops to use lower-quality, or even used, parts when making repairs.
Conversely, high-scoring carriers don’t pressure repair shops to cut corners use lower-quality parts simply to save money; they also don’t have a lot of red tape and administrative steps that slow down the process.
This year’s grades are generally similar to those that the Insurer Report Card handed out last year. Among the few differences, USAA fell from a C-minute last year to a D+ while Farmers fell from a C to a C-minus.
Top 10 Auto Insurers as Ranked by Repair Shops
Carrier
Rank
Grade
Score
American Family
52
C+
630
Nationwide
60
C
580
Travelers
63
C
548
Progressive
68
C
505
Farmers
70
C-
481
State Farm
73
C-
469
Geico
74
C-
424
USAA
77
D+
363
Liberty Mutual/Safeco
78
D+
351
Allstate
80
D+
315
