Nationwide auto insurance review and ratings 2024

Nationwide, which ranks highly for cheap rates, came in at No. 4 in Insure.com’s ranking of the Best Car Insurance Companies for 2024 with 4.33 stars out of 5.

Reviewed by: Laura Longeroquality verified
Laura Longero
Laura Longero

Laura Longero is a content strategist and communications leader with more than 15 years of experience in content development in journalism, marketing and communications for start-ups to global companies. She started her career as a reporter and editor and honed her journalistic skills at the USA Today Network, working in several roles, as well as managing content and writing at MoneyGeek and XYZ Media.

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Our take

Nationwide ranks well for its low premiums and high recommendation rate. Overall, Nationwide auto insurance is No. 4 in Insure.com’s ranking of the Best car insurance companies for 2024 with 4.33 stars out of 5.

Nationwide’s rates are consistently lower than most of the companies in our ranking – although it isn’t among the best for discounts. But it’s a big company offering many policy options, making it a good choice for one-stop insurance shopping.

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.

Nationwide
Nationwide Ratings
Overall Rating: 4.3
Average Premium: 4.8
NAIC: 0.64
Customer Satisfaction: 4.1
AM Best Rating: A

Pros and Cons

Pros:
  • Low premiums
  • Nationwide comes highly recommended by customers
  • Rated highly for digital experience
Cons:
  • Other insurers rated better for renewals
  • Competitors had higher scores for claims handling

How much Nationwide costs

Nationwide has low rates compared to other companies in our survey with a national average of $129 a month. Its premiums are some of the lowest among the companies Insure ranked.

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 Nationwide scores for customer satisfaction

Nationwide wasn’t among the top companies for customer satisfaction. Still, 77% of Nationwide customers in our survey said they were satisfied or highly satisfied with the company. Erie and American Family topped this category. 

CompanyPercent of customers who are who are satisfied 
Nationwide77%
Erie90%
American Family89%

How Nationwide scores on ease of service

Seventy-four percent of customers said they were satisfied or highly satisfied with the ease of getting service from Nationwide. Erie and State Farm were leaders in this category, which measures how easy it is for customers to access policy documents and services.

CompanyPercent of customers satisfied with the company’s ease of service
Nationwide74%
Erie90%
State Farm86%

How Nationwide scores on policy offerings

Seventy-six percent of Nationwide customers surveyed said they were satisfied with the company’s policy offerings. However,  Erie, American Family and others received scores in the 80s.

CompanyPercent of customers satisfied with the company’s policy offerings
Nationwide76%
Erie88%
American Family87%

Would current customers recommend Nationwide to others?

Customers would overwhelmingly recommend Nationwide to their friends and relatives. In the survey, 87% of current customers said they’d recommend the company to others. Nationwide’s score was fairly average among the insurers we surveyed. Erie led this category.

CompanyPercent of customers who would recommend the company to others
Nationwide87%
Erie100%
Travelers86%

How trustworthy is Nationwide?

Sixty-six percent of Nationwide customers gave the company high marks in this category. But no company had more than 86% of its customers giving it good marks here. Erie led this category.  

CompanyPercent of customers who say they trust the company
Nationwide66%
Erie86%
Geico74%

Do Nationwide customers plan to renew?

Most Nationwide customers plan to renew with the company. Of the current customers in the survey, 84% said they would re-up with Nationwide. Erie led this category.

CompanyPercent of customers who plan to renew with the company
Nationwide84%
Erie100%
Auto-Owners89%

How Nationwide scores on claims handling

Almost seven in 10 customers gave Nationwide a high score for claims handling, However, many of the other companies we ranked performed better in this category. Allstate was the leader here.

Company Percent of customers who are satisfied with the company’s claims handling
Nationwide 69%
Allstate 86%
Travelers 75%

How Nationwide scores on digital experience

Nationwide ranked highly for digital experience, which includes the company website and mobile app. But it should be noted that none of the insurance companies we ranked did particularly well here. Industry heavyweights Geico and Progressive ranked the highest in our survey.

Company Percent of customers satisfied with the company’s digital/online experience
Nationwide 52%
Geico 64%
Travelers 48%

How Nationwide scores for discounts

Nationwide’s customers didn’t often say it was best for discounts. However, thanks to low base rates, Nationwide may still be a very affordable pick, even without many discounts. Auto Club of Southern California with the leader in this category.

Company Percent of customers satisfied with the company’s discounts
Nationwide 47%
Auto Club of Southern California 70%
Travelers 60%

How Nationwide scores for bundling home and auto policies

Nationwide scored lower than competitors for bundling policies at 44%, tied with Progressive. However, this was another category where insurers didn’t do particularly well. Most companies had scores in the 40th to 60th percentile. Top scorer in this category was Erie (69%), followed by American Family (66%).

Company Percent of customers satisfied with the company’s home and auto bundling
Nationwide 44%
Erie 69%
Travelers 62%

Nationwide car insurance coverage

  • Car
  • Motorcycle
  • Classic car
  • Snowmobile
  • ATV
  • RV
  • Scooter
  • Golf cart

Nationwide additional insurance policies

  • Homeowners
  • Renters
  • Condo
  • Boat/personal watercraft
  • Life
  • Long-term care
  • Pet
  • Dental
  • Umbrella
  • Identity theft
  • Specialty health
  • Travel
  • Special event
  • Flood
  • Business

Nationwide car insurance coverage options

  • Bodily injury liability
  • Property damage liability
  • Personal injury protection
  • Uninsured/underinsured motorist
  • Medical payments
  • Collision
  • Comprehensive
  • Rental car
  • Towing and labor
  • Gap coverage

Discounts

  • Multi-policy
  • SmartRide: Discount for joining the UBI program
  • Defensive driving
  • Anti-theft
  • SmartMiles: Drive less and pay less
  • Safe driver
  • Accident-free
  • Good student
  • Electronic payments
  • Paid in full

States where Nationwide offers coverage

Graph
Table
States where Nationwide offers coverage
Alabama
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
Washington D.C.
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming
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

Nationwide

Nationwide was founded in 1926 and is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. The company has more than 26,000 employees and is in the top hundred of the Fortune 500 list. Nationwide owns many subsidiary companies across the insurance market and offers just about every type of insurance. Nationwide products are sold directly or through independent insurance agents.

Resources & Methodology

Sources:

Nationwide. “Car insurance quotes by state.” Accessed February 2024.

Nationwide “Full coverage insurance.” Accessed February 2024.

Nationwide. “Auto 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.

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