Finding the best home insurance company is easier when you use objective reviews and ratings to compare companies. That’s why Insurify created the Insurify Quality (IQ) Score.

The IQ Score objectively scores homeowners insurance companies and assigns them a rating based on customer satisfaction, third-party ratings, affordability, customer support, and more.

Here’s what you need to know about the IQ Score and how it can help you compare quotes and shop for coverage.

How Insurify rates home insurance companies

Insurify analyzes more than 15 criteria to calculate each company’s IQ Score. These criteria are grouped into five categories: third-party financial strength ratings, customer satisfaction, cost, customer support and transparency, and availability.

The IQ Score uses a 1-to-5 scale to assign a score to insurance companies for each criterion analyzed. The higher the score, the better.

Once scores are collected, Insurify calculates the average score of each criteria category based on a predetermined weighting and adds the weighted scores to create a unique IQ Score for each insurer.

If an insurer doesn’t have data for a particular criteria, it’s excluded from the IQ Score calculations.

Third-party financial ratings

Insurify relies on third-party rating agencies like AM Best and S&P Global to help create objective IQ Scores. These agencies assign grades to companies primarily based on their financial outlook and credit ratings.

For example: AM Best’s ratings consider insurance companies’ financial strength, operating performance, and business profile. Insurify uses ratings from AM Best, Moody’s, S&P Global, Fitch, and Weiss.

Here’s how Insurify rates and scores third-party ratings for this criteria.

Customer satisfaction

The IQ Score also uses customer satisfaction ratings to help you review and compare home insurance companies. The scoring system includes ratings from trusted industry experts like J.D. Power and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), as well as customer reviews from Trustpilot.

Insurance companies receive a 1-to-5 score as it correlates to the criteria rating below. Then, Insurify takes an average of the scores to calculate the companies’ final customer satisfaction scores. If a company doesn’t have information for a criterion, Insurify excludes it from the score.

Affordability

Home insurance average costs and how much homeowners pay for coverage are crucial parts of the IQ Score. Insurify’s team of data scientists analyzes millions of home insurance quotes to calculate average premiums based on $250,000 and $500,000 dwelling coverage limits.

The scoring methodology also considers advertised discounts in a company’s affordability score. The more discounts a home insurance company advertises, the more homeowners could save on their premiums.

Insurify scores companies in the following three criteria from 1 to 5, then averages the three scores to create a home insurer’s affordability score.

Customization, support, and transparency

Every homeowner has different needs for their home’s coverage. That’s why Insurify compares and rates companies based on the available coverage options. If a company only offers dwelling coverage, for example, it will score lower in that category than a company that has customizable coverage options to meet various needs.

Customer support is crucial, too. It’s important to file a home insurance claim quickly, efficiently, and conveniently. Home insurance companies score higher for this criterion if they have multiple ways for customers to file claims.

Lastly, shopping online for home insurance is easier when companies provide as much information about their products as possible. Insurify scores home insurance companies higher when they provide information about their coverage options, discounts, geographical footprint, and financial ratings on their websites.

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

• Coverage options

• Contact information

• State availability

• Potential discounts

Here’s how Insurify scores home insurance companies based on these criteria to create this portion of their IQ Score.

Availability and reach

Insurify considers how many states an insurance company serves and its market share to create an IQ Score. Companies that serve more states earn higher scores. However, to avoid unfairly downgrading smaller companies specializing in serving regional areas, they don’t receive a score for this category.

Insurify scores national companies from 1 to 5 based on their information for the following criteria.

Why Insurify created the IQ Score

The IQ Score expands Insurify’s analysis of the best home insurance companies so you can objectively compare insurers to find the best coverage for your needs.

As you begin your home insurance search, you can use the IQ Score as a factor in your final decision. Whether you’re buying home insurance for the first time or switching to a new insurer, the IQ Score is here to help you.