American Family auto insurance review and ratings 2023

American Family is the No. 8 company in the 2023 Insure.com Best Insurance Companies survey, with a score of 2.7 stars out of 5. More than 90% of American Family customers surveyed say they’re satisfied with the company’s customer service.

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

American Family consistently ranked toward the top of Insure.com’s survey of insurance consumers in a variety of categories, including customer satisfaction and auto and home bundling.

Overall, American Family came in No. 8 in Insure.com’s Best Car Insurance Companies ranking for 2023 with 2.7 (or, more precisely, 2.72) stars out of 5.

However, the company scored behind competitors for car insurance discounts. 

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.

American Family
American Family Ratings
Overall Rating: 2.7
Average Premium: 4.4
NAIC: 0.57
Customer Satisfaction: 4.6
AM Best Rating: A

Pros and Cons

Pros:
  • High ranking for customer satisfaction
  • Very affordable rates
Cons:
  • Didn’t ranks as well as some other insurers for ease of service
  • Not available in all 50 states

How much American Family costs

American Family has competitive prices compared to other companies in our survey with a national average annual car insurance rate of $1,362, which comes out to around $114 a month.

Insurance company Monthly rate/premium
American Family $114
Farmers $165
Allstate $174

How American Family scores for customer satisfaction

American Family has high rankings for customer satisfaction, according to our survey. More than 90% of customers gave the company a strong grade in this category. Another customer satisfaction metric to consider is J.D. Power. American Family received a J.D. Power score of 838 (out of 1,000) for customer service, which was the second-highest score among the companies we ranked. J.D. Power grades auto insurance companies on state/regional levels – it doesn’t offer national scores. We averaged the state/regional results to get a sense of how the companies did as a whole.

Insurance company Percent of customers satisfied with the company overall
American Family 92%
Travelers 96%
State Farm 91%

How American Family scores on ease of service

American Family didn’t rank as well in terms of ease of service, which includes access to policy documents and services. Even though 86% of customers were pleased, other companies had higher scores in this category in our survey.

Insurance company Percent of customers satisfied with the company’s ease of service
American Family 86%
Liberty Mutual 92%
Nationwide 87%

How American Family scores on policy offerings

The company, like most insurers, had a percentage in the eighties for this category. At 83%, American Family came in below several competitors.

Insurance company Percent of customers satisfied with the company’s policy offerings
American Family 83%
Farmers 85%
Travelers 85%

Would current customers recommend American Family to others?

Customers would overwhelmingly recommend American Family to their friends and relatives – it had one of the higher scores in our survey at 94%.

Insurance company Percent of customers who would recommend their auto insurance company to others
American Family 94%
Erie 96%
Nationwide 94%

How trustworthy is American Family?

Most insurers had scores in the 70-to-upper-80 percentile range. Three-quarters of American Family’s customers said they trust it. State Farm had the highest score in this category, with 84% of its customers saying they trust it.

Insurance company Percent of customers who say they trust their auto insurance company
American Family 75%
State Farm 84%
Nationwide 65%

Do American Family customers plan to renew?

Yes, with 86% of American Family customers indicating they’ll renew their auto policy. However, several other companies performed much better here.

Insurance company Percent of customers who plan to renew with their auto insurance company
American Family 86%
Erie 100%
Auto-Owners 95%

How American Family scores on claims handling

American Family is in the middle of the pack when it comes to handling claims, with 69% of its customers saying the company did a satisfactory job in this area. Looking at another third-party metric: Its J.D. Power claims satisfaction rating was 874 out of 1,000, which is above the industry average of 873.

Insurance company Survey score for claims handling
American Family 69%
Allstate 87%
State Farm 66%

How American Family scores for bundling home and auto policies

Bundling is one of the company’s strengths. American Family and Travelers had the highest scores at 81%. It also has a great discount of 18% for bundling home with auto, making it a good company if you want an insurance package.

Insurance company Discount for bundling home and auto Survey score for bundling home and auto
American Family 18% 81%
Travelers 10% 81%
Allstate 16% 63%

American Family car insurance coverages

  • Car insurance, personal and commercial
  • Classic car
  • Motorcycle
  • RV and camper
  • Boat
  • ATV snowmobile

American Family additional policies

  • Business
  • Farm and ranch
  • Home
  • Renters
  • Condo
  • Manufactured home
  • Personal property
  • Pet
  • Life
  • Health
  • Umbrella
  • Travel

American Family car insurance coverage options

  • Comprehensive
  • Collision
  • Gap/lease and loan
  • Underinsured/uninsured motorist
  • Bodily injury
  • Medical payments
  • 24/7 emergency roadside assistance
  • Accident forgiveness
  • Rideshare
  • Auto rental reimbursement coverage
  • OEM coverage
  • Travel coverage
  • ForeverCar (vehicle service plan)

American Family car insurance discounts

  • Auto safety equipment
  • Away at school
  • Loyalty
  • Defensive driver
  • Early-bird
  • Generational
  • Good driving
  • Good student
  • Safe driving program
  • Low mileage
  • Multi-product
  • Multi-vehicle
  • Steer into savings
  • Teen safe driver
  • Young volunteer

States where American Family offers coverage

Graph
Table
States where American Family offers coverage
Arizona
Colorado
Georgia
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Minnesota
Missouri
Nebraska
Nevada
North Dakota
Ohio
Oregon
South Dakota
Utah
Washington
Wisconsin
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

American Family

American Family was founded in 1927 in Madison, Wisconsin. Today it is a Fortune 500 company with more than $9 billion in revenue and over 13,000 employees. Also known as AmFam, the company offers a wide range of insurance products but doesn’t operate in every state.

Resources & Methodology

Sources:

American Family. “American Family Insurance discounts.” Accessed December 2022.

American Family. “Control what you pay for car insurance.” Accessed December 2022.

J.D. Power. “Insurers Struggle to Manage Expectations in Auto Claims Process as Repair Times Increase, J.D. Power Finds.” Accessed December 2022.

J.D. Power. “Usage-Based Auto Insurance Takes Center Stage as Satisfaction Flatlines, J.D. Power Finds.” Accessed December 2022.

Methodology

Insure.com in the fall of 2022 surveyed more than 1,500 people with auto, home, life and health insurance (1,080 people with auto insurance). The survey was conducted by online market research company Slice MR. Respondents were asked to name their insurer and the editors then selected – based on the number of responses – the top companies for this year’s Best auto insurance companies ranking. Insure.com needed 20 or more of a company’s customers to respond to the survey for that insurer to be included in the ranking, although in some categories the editors did consider companies with 18 or 19 responses.

Respondents were first asked to grade their insurer in the following categories – customer satisfaction, claims satisfaction and policy offerings. The percentage of respondents who said they were satisfied or very satisfied with their insurer is presented in the results.

Survey score calculation: Respondents were then asked to rank their insurer’s top three attributes out of more than a dozen presented – including customer satisfaction and policy offerings. For a number one choice, five points were given; for a second choice, three points; and for a third choice, a single point. The total points for each choice – first, second and third – were then divided by the number of each company’s customers who responded to that survey question to create a percentage. Those percentages are presented in the results as scores. 

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

They also 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 collected National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ complaint data, which ranks a company by the number of customer complaints it receives, and AM Best data, which measures financial strength. 

They also collected insurance rate data from Quadrant Information Services (for auto and home insurance), Compulife (for life insurance) and the public health marketplace (for health insurance).

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 and home insurers, we used the following weights to calculate the overall score for each company: 

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

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