Auto-Owners auto insurance review and ratings 2024

Auto-Owners is the No. 2 company in Insure.com’s Best Car Insurance Companies ranking for 2024 with 4.65 stars out of 5. The company is considered highly trustworthy and offers affordable monthly premiums.

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Our take

Auto-Owners is one of the top companies in Insure.com’s 2024 Best Insurance Companies auto survey. Protecting about 3 million households, Auto-Owners ranked highly for affordable monthly premiums and for trustworthiness

Overall, Auto-Owners ranked No. 2 in Insure.com’s Best auto insurance companies ranking for 2024 with 4.65 stars out of 5. 

The Fortune 500 company has received many accolades and is ranked A++ (superior) by ratings agency AM Best. It has a low complaint index from NAIC and one of the cheapest premiums in the survey.

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.

Auto-Owners
Auto-Owners Ratings
Overall Rating: 4.7
Average Premium: 4.7
NAIC: 0.50
Customer Satisfaction: 4.0
AM Best Rating: A++

Pros and Cons

Pros:
  • Well below average premiums
  • A++ rating from AM Best
  • Very low complaint score from NAIC
Cons:
  • Didn’t score well for discounts
  • Customer satisfaction rate not as high as competitors
  • Not available in every state

How much Auto-Owners costs

Auto-Owners’ monthly premiums, $129, are one of the lowest of the companies we ranked. Auto-Owners low rates are one of the key reasons the company placed so highly on this year’s list of Best auto insurance companies.

The table below shows how much auto insurance from Auto-Owners compares with the monthly rates from its competitors.

Company Monthly 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 Auto-Owners rates for customer satisfaction

Regarding customer satisfaction, 71% of Auto-Owners’ customers say they are satisfied with the company’s customer service. Erie topped this category with 90%. 

Auto-Owners ranked above Mercury (68%) and the Auto Club Group (59%), but many competitors scored higher for customer satisfaction.

CompanyPercent of customers who are satisfied 
Auto-Owners71%
Erie90%
Nationwide77%

How Auto-Owners scores on ease of service

Auto-Owners was in the middle of the pack regarding ease of service, a metric for how easy it is to access policy documents and services, at 79%. Erie and State Farm led this category.

CompanyPercent of customers satisfied with the company’s  ease of service
Auto-Owners79%
Erie90%
State Farm86%

How Auto-Owners scores on policy offerings

Almost three-quarters of Auto-Owners respondents reported satisfaction with the companies’ policy offerings. Auto-Owners offers home, condo, umbrella and flood insurance policies. Erie led this category followed by American Family.

CompanyPercent of customers satisfied with the company’s policy offerings
Auto-Owners74%
Erie88%
American Family87%

Would current customers recommend Auto-Owners?

Nine in 10 Auto-Owners customers said they would recommend the company to others. That’s a strong number, but the strongest in the category was Erie, with 100% of its customers saying they would tell friends and family about the company. 

CompanyPercent of customers who would recommend the company to others 
Auto-Owners89%
Erie100%
Nationwide 87%

How trustworthy is Auto-Owners?

Auto-Owners scored in the upper half of companies for trustworthiness among all the companies in the survey with 79% of its customers saying they trusted it. Farmers also came in at 79%. Auto-Owners outperformed other companies such as Progressive (75%), Mercury and Travelers (74%) and Nationwide (66%). Erie led this category.

CompanyPercent of customers who say they trust the company
Auto-Owners79%
Erie86%
Nationwide66%

Do Auto-Owners customers plan to renew?

Nine of 10  customers plan to renew. However, several companies did better in this category. Erie (100%), Auto Club of Southern California and Mercury (both with 95%) topped this category. 

CompanyPercent of customers who plan to renew with the company
Auto-Owners89%
Erie100%
Travelers90%

How Auto-Owners scores on claims handling

Three out of four Auto-Owners customers gave it high marks for claims handling. Most companies had scores in the 70th percentile for claims handling. Allstate led this category with 86% of its readers giving it good grades.

Company Percent of customers who are satisfied with the company’s claims handling
Auto-Owners 75%
Allstate 86%
Erie 78%

How Auto-Owners scores on digital experience

Auto-Owners had a lower survey score for digital experience, with fewer customers saying it’s the best in this particular category, with a score of 47%. But few companies did well in this category. The top scorer was Geico followed by CSAA and Progressive.

Company Percent of customers satisfied with the company’s digital experience
Auto-Owners 47%
Geico 64%
CSAA, Progressive 60%

How Auto-Owners scores on discounts

Auto-Owners had a low survey score for discounts at 50%. Auto Club of Southern California won the discounts category with a score of 70%.

Company Percent of customers satisfied with the company’s discounts
Auto-Owners 50%
Auto Club of Southern California 70%
Auto Club Group 69%

How Auto-Owners scores on bundling

Auto-Owners didn’t do particularly well in this category. Only 45% of the customers we surveyed gave it high marks. Erie led the bundling category, a metric that takes into account discounts for bundling auto with other insurance products like home, renters, condo or life.

Company Percent of customers satisfied with the company’s home and auto bundling
Auto-Owners 45%
Erie 69%
State Farm 61%

Auto-Owners car insurance coverages

  • Auto
  • Motorcycle
  • ATV and off-road vehicle
  • Motorhome and RV
  • Boat
  • Trailer

Auto-Owners additional policies

  • Homeowners
  • Condo insurance
  • Renters
  • Rental dwelling
  • Mobile home
  • Umbrella
  • Property and valuables
  • Farm insurance
  • Pet insurance
  • Flood insurance
  • Life insurance
  • Business insurance

Auto-Owners car insurance coverage options

  • Collision
  • Comprehensive
  • Bodily injury and property damage liability
  • Medical payments and personal injury protection
  • Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage
  • Roadside assistance
  • Loan gap/lease gap
  • Diminished value
  • Common loss deductible
  • Rental cars
  • Collision coverage advantage
  • At-fault accident forgiveness

Auto-Owners car insurance discounts

  • Multiple policies: Receive savings for other qualifying policies
  • Payment history: Discounts for people who have paid premiums on time for 36 months
  • Green discount: Enroll in paperless billing and save
  • Multi-car: Save when two or more vehicles are insured
  • Paid-in-full discount: Pay your premium in full
  • Safety features: Vehicles with anti-lock brake systems, airbags and anti-theft devices may bring savings
  • Advance quote
  • Student discounts: Good student, student-away at school and teen monitoring discounts

States where Auto-Owners offers coverage

Graph
Table
States where Auto-Owners offers coverage
Alabama
Arizona
Arkansas
Colorado
Florida
Georgia
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Michigan
Minnesota
Missouri
Nebraska
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Pennsylvania
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Utah
Virginia
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

Auto-Owners

Established in 1916 and headquartered in Lansing, Michigan, Auto-Owners provides insurance to about 3 million households nationwide. The company has nearly 48,000 licensed agents who operate in 26 states.

Resources & Methodology

Sources:

Auto-Owners.“Auto.” Accessed February 2024.

Auto-Owners. “Giving Back.” Accessed February 2024.

Auto-Owners. “Ways to Save.” Accessed February 2024.

Auto-Owners. “Who We Are.” 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
Laura Longero
Executive Editor

 
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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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