Best Cheap Car Insurance for Teens, Students, and New Drivers | U.S. News & World Report - U.S. News & World Report

Best Cheap Car Insurance for Teens, Students, and New Drivers | U.S. News & World Report - U.S. News & World Report
AAA Insurance Review 2019: Home & Car - Bankrate.com
Auto-Owners Insurance Review 2019: Complaints, Ratings and Coverage - NerdWallet

Posted: 26 Aug 2019 11:12 AM PDT

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Best Cheap Car Insurance for Teens, Students, and New Drivers | U.S. News & World Report U.S. News & World Report

If you have ever looked into car insurance for teenagers, you were likely shocked by the price you received on your quote. Teenagers are risky for car insurance ...

AAA Insurance Review 2019: Home & Car - Bankrate.com

Posted: 15 Aug 2019 12:00 AM PDT

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The American Automobile Association formed in 1902, when fewer than 25,000 cars occupied American roads. Throughout its history, AAA has worked tirelessly to improve safety, producing driver textbooks and advocating for pedestrian protection.

In 1915, AAA introduced its first roadside assistance program, which consisted of five St. Louis, Missouri, motorcyclists who changed tires and performed minor engine repairs on Sundays. By the year 2000, the company's Emergency Road Service had expanded to include 100 call centers, which received nearly 29 million requests for assistance.

Today, motorists rely on AAA for much more than tire changes and towing. AAA offers a full line of car and homeowners insurance products, with discount programs for AAA auto club members. If you are in the market for car or home insurance, it is worth a call to get a AAA insurance quote.

AAA car insurance coverage options and discounts

AAA Insurance offers drivers a wide variety of auto coverages, including:

Bodily injury liability insurance to pay for funeral expenses, loss of income and medical expenses of other people if you are at fault in an accident. Bodily injury liability coverage only pays the expenses of other motorists, pedestrians and passengers and does not cover the insured.
Property damage liability coverage to pay for the repair or replacement of another driver's car or other types of property when you are at fault for an accident.
Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage to pay the medical expenses of you and your passengers if you sustain injuries in an accident caused by a driver who has no insurance or insufficient coverage. Many states require drivers to carry uninsured and underinsured motorist insurance.
Medical payment coverage to pay the hospital and medical costs of you and your passengers if you are involved in an accident. Medical payment insurance can cover costs regardless of who is at fault for an accident.
Collision coverage to pay for the repair or replacement of your vehicle, regardless of who is at fault for an accident. If you finance your car, your lender likely will require you to carry collision insurance.
Comprehensive insurance to pay for repairs to or replacement of your vehicle if someone steals it or it sustains damage not caused by a collision. For instance, if hail breaks your windshield, comprehensive insurance can pay to replace it.
Personal injury protection coverage to pay the costs of essential services, funeral expenses, lost income and medical expenses of you and your family following an accident. PIP insurance pays regardless of who causes an accident. AAA does not offer PIP insurance in all states.
Rental reimbursement coverage to pay for a rental car while yours is in the shop following an accident.
New car added coverage to cover the depreciation value when replacing a totaled car following an accident.

Insurance premiums can take a bite out of your wallet. AAA offers several discounts, which vary by state, to help you reduce your rates.

New AAA policyholders can receive an advanced shopping discount if they purchase a policy more than seven days before the coverage begins. AAA offers the advanced shopping discount on vehicles previously covered by another policy for at least six continuous months.
AAA's auto insurance loyalty discount rewards customers for consistently renewing their policies.
When you choose AAA for your homeowners insurance, you could receive a companion home discount on your car insurance.
When kids go away to boarding school or college and leave the car behind, they may qualify for a distant student discount. The discount applies to students ages 15 to 25 and can offer significant savings for the policy owner.
Full-time college and high school students who maintain a 3.0 or higher GPA may qualify for AAA's good student discount.
AAA auto club members may qualify for a membership discount. In some states, AAA membership entitles policyholders to special rates, rather than a discount.
Club members who maintain their memberships for several years may qualify for a membership loyalty discount on their auto insurance.
When you insure more than one vehicle with AAA, you may qualify for a multi-car discount.
Paying your full car insurance premium with one payment could earn you a paid-in-full discount.
Young drivers who complete a qualified driving course before their 19^th birthday may qualify for a Teen Smart discount.
AAA customers who bundle multiple car policies and their homeowners coverage may qualify for reduced rates.

AAA home insurance coverage and discounts

AAA's homeowners insurance policies can cover the costs of repairing or replacing your home if it sustains damage caused by a storm or fire. AAA also offers additional coverages to provide added protection for your home and its contents.

Other structures policies add protection to detached structures on your property, which could include fences, garages, sheds or swimming pools.
With a personal property policy, you can protect your home's contents such as appliances and furniture. You may also choose to increase the liability of a personal protection policy to cover high-value items such as fine art, jewelry or expensive musical instruments, like your grand piano.
A loss-of-use policy can help offset the cost of hotel expenses or a rental home if your house becomes uninhabitable following a covered loss.
Personal liability can help pay the medical or property damage costs of someone else if a calamity occurs on your property. For example, if someone sustains and injury and smashes a cell phone after slipping and falling on your patio, your personal liability policy can pay for medical costs and replacement of the phone.
Adding a medical payments policy to your homeowners insurance can cover the medical costs of other people when you are at fault for their injuries. For instance, if your lawn mower throws a rock that injures your neighbor, your medical payments policy can cover the medical expenses.

As with its auto insurance policies, AAA offers homeowners insurance customers several ways to reduce their premium rates.

AAA auto club members might qualify for a 5% discount on a homeowners policy and customers with multiple policies can save up to 25%.
Homeowners policyholders can earn a discount if they have a companion auto policy and save more money when they consistently renew their home policy.
Senior citizens may qualify for a mature policyholder discount on their homeowners premium.
Homeowners who take out a new loan to buy a house may qualify for a discount on AAA home insurance.
If you pay your entire homeowners premium in one payment, you may earn a discount.
When you replace your roof, you may qualify for a discount on your homeowners insurance, and if you do not file a claim for several years, you may qualify for a further premium reduction.

AAA ratings, reviews, customer satisfaction and complaints

Each year, J.D. Power and Associates conducts a survey of auto insurance companies. Using a 5-star rating system, it ranks insurance providers in six categories, including billing process and policy information, claims handling, customer interaction, overall satisfaction, policy offerings and pricing. In its 2019 U.S. Auto Insurance Study, J.D. Power ranked AAA Insurance the third best car insurance company in the California region, with a 5-star rating for claims handling and 4-star ratings for all other categories.

The Better Business Bureau gives AAA Insurance an A+ rating. The BBB rates companies based on:

The number of BBB complaints customers file against a company.
A company's size.
How a business responds to a complaint.
The length of time a business takes to resolve a complaint.
The effort a company makes to satisfy a customer complaint in good faith.
Whether a business falls into a pattern of complaints.

Complaints filed with the BBB against AAA Insurance by homeowners and auto insurance customers include lower than expected AAA Insurance claims payments, billing problems and administration errors. Most complaints filed with the BBB reflect the types of issues policyholders have with most insurance companies. The amount of BBB complaints filed against AAA Insurance can vary by region.

Reasons why AAA is a great option

Typically, car owners do not choose AAA auto insurance for its rates. Rate comparisons conducted by The Zebra, an independent organization that researches the insurance industry, conclude that AAA charges more for car insurance than many of its competitors do. For instance, in a comparison of AAA Insurance with Geico, AAA policyholders with very poor credit pay an average annual premium of $6,569, while Geico customers pay $2,051. Geico policyholders with a DUI on their driving records pay an average annual premium of around $2,550 and AAA customers pay more than $5,500. Geico also beats AAA's pricing in all age groups. On average, AAA policyholders in their 20s pay more than $4,600 in annual car insurance premiums, while Geico customers pay less than $1,450.

AAA car insurance shines brightest when coupled with a AAA auto club membership. Club membership provides three levels of benefits, all of which include no-cost towing, fuel delivery, locksmith service, battery installation, member-only discounts, identity-theft monitoring and many more perks, depending on the level of membership you choose.

AAA auto club members may also choose AAA to take advantage of loyalty and bundling discounts available for car and home insurance policies.

Additional policies offered by AAA

AAA Insurance offers much more than car and home coverage. Additional types of policies include:

Term life, universal life and whole life insurance
Condo and renters insurance
Earthquake and flood insurance
Motorcycle insurance
Insurance coverage in Mexico for people who travel there in their cars

Frequently asked questions

What do I need to get a quote from AAA?

To provide a AAA insurance quote, an agent will need to know information about your driving record, your age, your location, the type of car you want to insure and the number of miles you drive each year.

How do I file a claim with AAA?

You can file AAA insurance claims by submitting a call-back request on the AAA website or by calling AAA Insurance customer service at the nationwide call center.

Do AAA auto club members receive a discount on AAA auto insurance?

Some AAA club members receive a 5% discount on auto insurance, along with loyalty discounts when they consistently renew their policies.

Does AAA Insurance offer life insurance?

AAA Insurance offers term life, universal life and whole life insurance policies.

Auto-Owners insurance review details

Auto insurance rating

4.5 NerdWallet rating

Auto-Owners ranked No. 2 out of 24 insurers in NerdWallet's ranking of the best car insurance companies, earning 4.5 stars out of 5 for overall performance. NerdWallet's rating is a score based on recent:

J.D. Power ratings for customer service, claims satisfaction and shopping satisfaction.
Consumer Reports customer satisfaction ratings.
Consumer complaints against the insurer, based on data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

Auto-Owners car insurance coverage options

Auto-Owners offers all the usual coverages, including liability, other state-required coverage types, roadside assistance and comprehensive and collision. The company also offers several add-on coverages and options:

Gap coverage can come in handy if you have a loan or lease balance and your car is totaled or stolen. Comprehensive and collision coverages pay out only up to the value of your car, which might be less than you owe on a loan or lease. Gap insurance pays the difference if you buy it.
Diminished value coverage is similar to gap insurance, but for less extreme situations. If your car is damaged (rather than stolen or totaled), this add-on will compensate you for the reduced value of your car.
Additional expenses insurance goes further than traditional rental car coverage. In addition to paying for a rental car if your car is in the shop for a covered claim, this optional coverage also pays for food, lodging and other incidentals if you're stranded.
The Personal Automobile Plus package has more than 10 perks and coverages, including identity theft coverage, cell phone insurance and coverage for replacing lost or stolen keys.

Auto-Owners also includes a few benefits in its auto policies that other major insurers don't.

A common loss deductible can be helpful if you have your home insurance through Auto-Owners in addition to an auto policy with comprehensive coverage. If you need to make a claim to both policies for the same event — such as a bad storm or a tree falling on both your house and car — the company will reduce your auto deductible by the amount of your property deductible. If your homeowners deductible is higher, the company will waive your auto deductible.

The collision coverage advantage from Auto-Owners has two parts. First, if you're in a collision with another customer of the company, your collision deductibles will be waived. Second, if you're in a collision with an animal, Auto-Owners will either pay from your collision or comprehensive coverage — whichever pays you more. With most insurers, animal collisions strictly fall under comprehensive coverage.

Rental car insurance. When you rent a car, your Auto-Owners policy covers as much as it does for your personal car, as well as any fees from the rental company associated with an accident. Many auto policies have lower coverage limits when you rent a car and don't pay those fees.

Auto insurance discounts from Auto-Owners include:

Multipolicy discount.
Life insurance multipolicy premium discount.
Discount for a 36-month history of on-time payments.
Discount for paying your premium in full, upfront.
Paperless and online payments discount.
Multicar discount.
Discount for safety features like anti-lock brakes and air bags.
Discount for having few or favorable (not at-fault) claims.
Student discounts for good grades, leaving the car at home while attending school more than 100 miles away and monitoring a teen driver with GPS.

TrueRide from Auto-Owners is a usage-based discount with an app to match, available to Auto-Owners customers in Ohio. You get a discount for signing up, then the app tracks your driving behavior and provides feedback on behaviors such as hard braking, sharp turns and acceleration. You get a driving score with each trip and, if you drive safely, an additional discount when you renew your policy.

Auto-Owners homeowner insurance coverage options

Auto-Owners offers all the standard homeowners coverages, including protection for your home and other structures like sheds, liability insurance, personal property coverage and additional living expenses coverage. Homeowners policies from Auto-Owners can also be personalized with add-ons:

Guaranteed home replacement cost provides full replacement of your home in the event that your coverage limit is too low to pay for replacing it entirely. This can happen if your home has gone up in value and your policy reflects an earlier, lower value.

Sewer or drain water backup isn't covered by a standard policy, but the damage from such a backup can be tremendous. This coverage pays for repairs to floors, walls, furniture and electrical systems and is available from Auto-Owners in several limits.

Special personal property coverage takes standard homeowners insurance a step further by paying for misplacement, staining or defacing of your property.

Ordinance or law coverage pays out to get you up to code when local laws change and affect the costs of repairs, construction or demolition of your home.

Equipment breakdown, like the failure of your air conditioner, refrigerator or washing machine, can be costly and isn't covered by standard policies. This add-on pays out in those situations.

Identity theft coverage pays up to $15,000 for expenses related to restoring your financial identity if it's stolen.

The Homeowners Plus package bundles several coverages, including those that pay for damage caused by appliance leaks and better coverage for food spoilage due to power failures.

Homeowners insurance discounts from Auto-Owners include:

Multipolicy discount.
Life insurance premium multipolicy discount.
Discount for 36 months of on-time premium payments.
Discount if you pay your annual premium in full, on time.
Paperless and online payments discount.
Discount for new applicants who get a quote before day one of the policy.
Discount for devices such as smoke detectors, deadbolt locks and fire extinguishers.
Discount if you have an approved system that automatically turns off water supply throughout the home when a leak is detected.
Automatic backup generator discount.
Mortgage-free discount.

Life insurance options from Auto-Owners

You can get term, whole and universal life insurance policies from Auto-Owners Insurance. For most families, term life insurance is the best mix of price and protection. From Auto-Owners, term life insurance comes in 10-, 20- or 30-year terms and can be extended to age 95. Consult a financial advisor if you're considering permanent life insurance.

Auto-Owners at a glance

FINANCIAL STRENGTH: A++ ("SUPERIOR")

Auto-Owners' financial strength is "superior," according to ratings agency A.M. Best. An insurer's financial strength indicates how well it can pay claims.

COMPLAINTS

Auto-Owners had far fewer than the median number of complaints to state regulators in 2018 relative to its size for life, home and auto insurance, according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

Auto-Owners has some of the best customer satisfaction ratings in the industry.

More About Auto-Owners insurance

Website: Auto-Owners has a user-friendly website with information on policy options and discounts. Policyowners can log in to view policy information, select paperless billing, make payments and more.

Mobile app: Android or Apple users can download the Auto-Owners app and customers can use it to track claims, pay bills, view documents and summon roadside assistance.

Other insurance types: Auto-Owners can provide other types of insurance than those listed above, sometimes through third parties. While you can still get a discount for bundling, a potential downside is that you have to manage your policies separately, rather than all from one web portal.

You can get the following insurance types from Auto-Owners:

NerdWallet's star ratings are based on the following three factors, each weighted equally to produce a 300-point maximum total score:

2018 consumer complaints data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners for private passenger auto insurance. The median complaint ratio for the industry is 1. Lower ratios are better. Insurers whose median complaint ratios were more than 1 received fewer points; those lower than 1 received more points.
2017 company satisfaction data from Consumer Reports' most recent car insurance survey. Higher satisfaction ratings from Consumer Reports were given higher scores in our calculation.
2018 J.D. Power ratings from three studies encompassing regional customer service satisfaction, auto claims satisfaction and shopping satisfaction. Ratings from each of the separate 2018 studies were averaged to form one overall score from J.D. Power. The higher the average, the more points the insurer scored in our calculation.

Only larger insurers with data available in all three of these categories were included. Smaller insurers not listed here may also be good choices and are worth consideration.

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