Shopping for car insurance is easier when drivers can compare objective ratings among insurers. To help consumers review the best car insurance companies, Insurify created the Insurify Quality Score (IQ Score). The IQ Score objectively analyzes and calculates a score for insurers based on their customer satisfaction ratings, average monthly premiums, financial strength, and more. Here’s how it works.

How Insurify rates car insurance companies

Insurify analyzes more than 15 criteria to rate and review the best auto insurance companies. The Insurify team groups the criteria into five categories: financial strength ratings, customer satisfaction, cost, customer support and customization, transparency, and availability. The IQ Score uses a 1-to-10 scale to assign a score to insurance companies for the criteria the team analyzed.

Then, Insurify calculates the average score of each criteria category, assigns a weighting, and adds the weighted scores to create an Insurify Quality Score for an insurance company. If an insurer doesn’t have data for a particular criteria, it’s excluded from the IQ Score calculations.

Third-party financial strength ratings 

Insurify uses third-party financial strength rating data to score auto insurers. Third-party rating companies independently analyze an insurance company’s financial strength and assign a letter grade to it, with “A” grades as the best ratings possible.

Insurify uses this data to compare insurance companies’ credit and ability to pay out future claims, which translates to a score of 1 to 5 for that specific criteria. The rating companies Insurify uses for its Insurify Quality Score include AM Best, Moody’s, S&P Global, Fitch, and Weiss.

The table below shows how Insurify breaks down each rating and scores it.

Customer satisfaction

To score auto insurers on customer satisfaction, Insurify uses ratings from trusted industry experts, customer review sites, and insurer mobile apps. Specifically, Insurify compiles and uses customer satisfaction ratings from J.D. Power, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), Trustpilot, Insurify customer reviews, the Google Play Store, and the Apple App Store.

Insurify gathered, authenticated, and analyzed more than 28,000 customer reviews across 155 car insurance companies to help determine satisfaction of verified customers.

In each category, insurers earn a score between 1 and 10 that corresponds to the Insurify scoring system below. If a company doesn’t have a particular rating from one or more of the six customer satisfaction criteria, it will simply be scored and weighted using the remaining criteria.

Affordability

Data scientists at Insurify analyzed more than 40 million real-time auto insurance rates from our partner insurers across the United States to compile the car insurance quotes, statistics, and data visualizations displayed on our pages.

The car insurance data collected includes coverage analysis and details on drivers’ vehicles, driving records, and demographic information. Quotes are estimates based on Quadrant Information Services’ database of auto insurance rates. With this information, Insurify offers drivers insight into how companies price their car insurance premiums. The data included on this page represents averages across all driver ages, gender, credit scores, and driver profiles.

The lower an insurance company’s average premiums for liability-only and full-coverage car insurance, the higher its Insurify Quality Score for this category. Additionally, in calculating the score, Insurify includes the number of discounts insurers advertise. More advertised discounts translate to a higher score, as drivers can find more ways to save on their car insurance.

The table below shows how Insurify uses this information to rate insurers based on affordability.

Customer support and transparency

Insurify believes it’s important for drivers to have as many coverage options as possible when buying car insurance.

The Insurify Quality Score measures how many coverages in addition to liability insurance companies offer to drivers, including windshield coverage, gap coverage, roadside assistance, and more. Transparency is key when shopping for car insurance, which is why Insurify considers what information is available to drivers on insurers’ websites.

Here are four main points Insurify looks for when rating transparency:

• Coverage options = 1 point

• Contact information = 1 point

• State availability = 1 point

• Potential discounts = 1 point

The more information an insurer makes available to consumers, the higher Insurify rates its transparency.

Furthermore, when it’s time to file a claim, Insurify considers how many avenues drivers have to start the process. If an insurer has mobile, desktop, and phone claims filing, it will score a 10 in this criterion because it’s more convenient for drivers to file a claim. 

Here’s how Insurify scores insurers for its criteria.

Availability and reach

Insurify identified the number of states in which insurers offer coverage and company size by market share to score availability and reach. The more states an insurer offers coverage in, the higher it will score in the availability criterion. In some cases, smaller, regional companies that serve a specific geographic area don’t earn a score for availability.

Scoring companies by their market share allows Insurify to account for how much of the auto insurance market each company controls. A higher market share percentage correlates to a higher score for this criterion. For each criterion, companies earn a score between 1 and 10.

Why Insurify created the IQ Score

The Insurify Quality Score provides insurance shoppers with insights from a detailed and quantified methodology for generating insurer ratings. The IQ Score improves Insurify’s car insurance reviews and helps readers choose the best car insurance company for their situation.

As you compare insurance companies, Insurify hopes you use the Insurify Quality Score as a factor in your final decision, whether you’re buying insurance for the first time or switching to a new insurer.