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CSAA Insurance Group, a AAA-affiliated insurer, is a highly recommended insurance company with 85% of its customers saying they would tell friends and family about the company, according to Insure.com’s 2024 Best Insurance Companies auto survey. Eighty-five percent of customers also said they would renew their policies. It 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.
AM Best's Financial Strength Rating is an independent opinion of an insurer's financial strength and ability to meet its ongoing insurance policy and contract obligations.
CSAA Insurance Group (AAA) has the most expensive premiums of the companies we ranked with a monthly rate of $217, which is $102 more expensive than USAA and $94 more costly than Erie, which had the cheapest rates in our ranking. A company’s rates can bring down its place on the list as price is a major part of the overall ranking.
Of the customers surveyed, 75% said they were satisfied with CSAA Insurance Group’s customer service. Erie had a 90% customer satisfaction rate while The Auto Group Club came in at 59%. CSAA Insurance Group ranked alongside large insurers Allstate and Geico, which also received a 75% satisfaction rating.
CSAA Insurance Group came in lower than average from its customers on ease of service. Seventy-five percent of customers said they were satisfied with the ease and convenience of accessing policy documents and services. Nine in 10 Erie customers give it a high score in this category.
When it comes to policy offerings, CSAA Insurance Group had a lower satisfaction rate than some other insurers — 65% of respondents said they were satisfied with the companies in this category. Erie earned the highest score with an 88% satisfaction rating for policy offerings.
CSAA Insurance Group received an 85% recommendation rating. Erie topped this category with 100% of its customers saying they would recommend it.
Seven out of 10 CSAA Insurance Group customers say it’s trustworthy. Erie is the highest-ranking insurer, with 86%, followed by State Farm with 82%.
Eighty-five percent of CSAA Insurance Group customers say they plan to renew with the insurer. That’s a high percentage, but Erie led this category with 100% of its customers planning to re-sign with the company.
CSAA Insurance Group received a 73% rating for customer satisfaction on claims handling, the same as Progressive Insurance.
CSAA Insurance Group and Progressive ranked second-highest in the digital/online experience survey. Customers in the survey rated insurers based on the ease and convenience of locating necessary information, phone numbers and policy information online. But it should be noted that no insurers did particularly well in this category. Geico topped the ranking with a 60% rating for digital experience.
CSAA Insurance Group — an affiliate of AAA insurance — offers hundreds of discounts outside of its auto-related rate reductions. Customers of AAA’s membership services can receive discounts on travel, food and hospitality services, auto service, parts discounts and roadside assistance.
Half of CSAA’s customers are satisfied with their discounts. Comparatively, other AAA affiliates — Auto Club of Southern California at 70% and Auto Club Group at 69% — had higher scores.
When customers bundle their auto, home and life policies, they often save on their overall premium. Thirty-five percent of CSAA Insurance Group customers say they are satisfied with the company’s bundling offers. Conversely, Erie Insurance has the highest percentage of customers bundling policies at 69%.
CSAA Insurance Group offers hundreds of discounts through AAA. These often include entertainment, shopping and hospitality discounts, as well as auto, finance and home and business. Some of the top auto discounts include:
CSAA Insurance Group, an AAA insurer, offers auto, home and personal lines of insurance to its policyholders through AAA clubs in 24 states. CSAA was founded in 1914 and began offering auto insurance services to its members. Later in 1974, it began offering homeowners insurance and in 1998, it began offering life insurance services.
Today, it’s headquartered in Walnut Creek, California, and has offices in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Jersey and Oklahoma.
CSAA Insurance Group. “Insurance 101.” Accessed January 2024.
CSAA Insurance Group. “Our history.” Accessed January 2024.
CSAA Insurance Group. “What states are clubs offered in?” Accessed January 2024.
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.
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.