Mercury auto insurance review and ratings

Mercury Insurance ranked among Insure.com’s Best Car Insurance Companies for 2024 with 3.6 stars out of 5.

Updated on

Our take

Mercury Insurance is among the top 15 auto insurance companies. Customers noted its high renewal rate and said they’d recommend the company to family members and friends. Mercury Insurance also received an A credit rating for financial stability from AM Best. 

Below is Insure.com’s review of the company. It’s based on third-party metrics and an in-depth survey of insurance customers. Find the full methodology here, including an explanation of our survey scores.

Mercury
Mercury Ratings
Overall Rating: 3.6
Average Premium: 2.0
NAIC: 0.84
Customer Satisfaction: 4.0
AM Best Rating: A

Pros and Cons

Pros:
  • High recommendation rate
  • Most customers plan to renew their services
Cons:
  • Higher than average premiums
  • Lower than average score for digital experience

How much Mercury Insurance costs

Mercury Insurance has some of the higher premiums of the companies we ranked at a monthly rate of $193. This is $70 more expensive than the most affordable insurer on the list, Erie. The most expensive insurer in our ranking is CSAA Insurance Group, with an average monthly premium of $217.

CompanyMonthly Premium
Erie$123
Auto-Owners$129
Nationwide$129
Travelers$132
Auto Club Group (ACG) – AAA$135
American Family$142
Geico$147
State Farm$165
Progressive$166
Amica$185
Auto Club of Southern California (Auto Club Enterprise Insurance Group)$192
Mercury$193
Farmers$199
Allstate$209
CSAA Insurance Group$217

How Mercury Insurance scores on customer satisfaction

When asked to rate it for customer satisfaction, 68% of Mercury Insurance customers said they were satisfied with the company’s service overall. Erie has the highest-ranked insurer with a 90% satisfaction rate.

Company Customer satisfaction
Mercury 68%
Erie 90%
American Family 89%

How Mercury Insurance scores on ease of service

Seventy-four percent of Mercury Insurance and Nationwide customers said they were satisfied with how easy it is to access policy documents and services. Erie and State Farm had the most satisfied customers at 90% and 86%, respectively.

Company Customers satisfied with ease of service
Mercury 74%
Erie 90%
Auto-Owners 79%

How Mercury Insurance scores on policy offerings

When it comes to policy offerings, 74% of Mercury Insurance and Auto-Owners respondents said they were satisfied with the companies’ policy offerings. Erie led this category, with 88% of its customers giving it high marks.

Company Customers satisfied with policy offerings
Mercury 74%
Erie 88%
Travelers 67%

Would current customers recommend Mercury Insurance to others?

Eighty-four percent of Mercury’s customers said they would recommend its services. The highest-ranked company is Erie, with 100% of its customers stating they would recommend it to others.

Company Customers who would recommend the company
Mercury 84%
Erie 100%
Farmers 90%

How trustworthy is Mercury Insurance?

Three-quarters of Mercury’s customers said they trust the company. The top-ranking insurers in the survey include Erie and State Farm.

Company Trustworthiness
Mercury 74%
Erie 86%
The Auto Club Group 69%

Do Mercury Insurance customers plan to renew?

Mercury Insurance is one of the top-ranking insurers in this category, coming in second place with 95% of its customers saying they would re-sign with the company. It tied for second with Auto Club of Southern California. They both fall slightly behind Erie’s 100% rating.

Company Customers who plan to renew
Mercury 95%
Erie 100%
Auto Club of Southern California 95%

How Mercury handles claims

Seventy-percent of customers were satisfied with how Mercury Insurance handled claims after an accident or vehicle incident. Allstate ranked first.

Company Claims handling
Mercury 70%
Allstate 86%
Auto Club of Southern California 67%

How Mercury scores on digital experience

Mercury Insurance didn’t rank highly for digital/online experience, but no insurers did particularly well in this category. Customers rated insurers based on the ease and convenience of locating necessary information, phone numbers and policy details online. Geico topped the category, with 64% of its customers giving it a good grade.

Company Digital/online experience
Mercury 42%
Geico 64%
American Family 40%

How Mercury scores on discounts

Mercury fell in the middle here. Sixty-three percent of its customers gave the company a high score for its discounts. The Auto Club of Southern California was the top company for discounts.

Company Discount
Mercury 63%
Auto Club of Southern California 70%
Allstate 61%

How Mercury scores on bundling

When customers bundle their auto, home and life policies, they often save on their overall premium. Forty-seven percent of customers gave the company good marks or its bundling discount. Erie led the category.

Company Bundling
Mercury 47%
Erie 69%
Nationwide 44%

Mercury insurance car insurance coverages

  • Commercial auto
  • Motorcycle

Other policies offered by Mercury Insurance

  • Business owners 
  • Condo
  • Homeowners
  • Renters
  • Landlord 
  • Mechanical protection
  • Umbrella

Mercury car insurance coverage options

  • Liability
  • Collision
  • Comprehensive
  • Medical payments
  • Personal injury protection (PIP)
  • Uninsured/underinsured motorists
  • Rental car
  • Roadside assistance
  • Ride-hailing insurance

Mercury insurance car insurance discounts

  • Anti-theft 
  • Autopay
  • E-signature
  • Good driver
  • Good student
  • Multi-policy
  • Multi-vehicle
  • Pay in full 
  • Usage-based/RealDrive®

States where Mercury offers coverage

Graph
Table
States where Mercury offers coverage
Arizona
California
Florida
Georgia
Illinois
Nevada
New Jersey
New York
Oklahoma
Texas
Virginia
AL AK AZ AR CA CO CT DC DE FL GA HI ID IL IN IA KS KY LA ME MD MA MI MN MS MO MT NE NV NH NJ NM NY NC ND OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TN TX UT VT VA WA WV WI WY
Available
Not available

Company background

Mercury

George Joseph founded Mercury Insurance in 1962 to offer quality insurance products at affordable rates. The company began with six team members and 90 agents. In 1972, Mercury Insurance began selling homeowners insurance. It began to grow its services and now offers products in 11 states.

Resources & Methodology

Sources:

Mercury Insurance. “Auto insurance.” Accessed February 2024.

Mercury Insurance. “Discounts.” Accessed February 2024.

Methodology

Insure.com in the fall of 2023 surveyed more than 1,750 insurance consumers (1,459 people with auto insurance). Online market research company Slice MR conducted the survey. Respondents were asked to name their auto insurer and then grade it in the following categories – customer satisfaction, ease of service and policy offerings. The percentage of respondents who said they were satisfied or very satisfied with their insurer is presented in the results.

Respondents were then asked to pick their insurer’s top three attributes out of more than a dozen presented – trustworthiness, claims satisfaction, digital experience, discounts and best for auto/home bundling. The responses for each attribute were totaled and then divided by the number of each company’s customers who responded to that survey question to create a percentage. 

Respondents were then asked if they would recommend their auto insurer to someone else and whether they would renew with their company. The percentage who said yes is presented in the results.

Finally, respondents were given the statement “I trust my insurance company” and asked if they strongly agreed, agreed, disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement. The percentage of those who said they agreed or strongly agreed is presented in the results.

The editors compiled the survey results and then selected – based on the number of survey responses – the top companies for further evaluation. 

They then collected AM Best data, which measures financial strength, and National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ complaint data, which ranks a company by the number of customer complaints it receives. The Insure.com team identified the NAIC company code or codes that were the primary underwriting companies for each carrier and line of business using total annual premiums. The associated NAIC complaint index score was used in the calculations. If more than one underwriting company was identified for a line, the editors used a weighted average of the NAIC complaint index scores.

In addition, we also created star rankings for each company. Respondents were asked to pick their insurer’s top three attributes out of the more than the dozen presented, again including customer satisfaction and policy offerings. The number of responses for each attribute was totaled and then divided by the number of each company’s customers who responded to that survey question to create the star ranking. 

The editors also collected insurance rate data from Quadrant Information Services.

With the help of Prof. David Marlett, Ph.D., Managing Director of the Brantley Risk and Insurance Center at Appalachian State University, the editors created a rating system to determine which insurance companies were best in each sector. For auto insurers, we took the following and gave each a weight.

  • Survey: 40% of the total score (10% customer satisfaction, 10% recommended, 10% renewal rate and 10% claims handling)
  • Annual premium: 20% of the total score
  • AM Best: 25% of the total score
  • NAIC: 15% of the total score

Each insurer was awarded from half a star to 5 stars. No insurer in our star ranking received less than half a star and 5 stars was the most any insurer could receive.

author image
Katrina Raenell
Contributing Researcher

 
  

Katrina Raenell is a writer, editor and educator with 20 years of experience in content and communications for international organizations, nonprofits and start-ups. In her previous roles, she was a communications manager for study abroad, content project manager for higher education and finance websites, reported on arts and culture, and was a managing editor for an online health and wellness publication.

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