Farmers auto insurance review and ratings

Farmers is among the top companies in Insure.com’s 2024 Best Auto Insurance Companies ranking with 3.69 stars out of 5. Customers rated Farmers highly for renewal rates and trustworthiness.
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Our take

Farmers is ranked No. 12 in the 2024 Insure.com Best car insurance companies survey with 3.69 stars out of 5. Although Farmers has the third-most expensive premiums on our list, it is highly rated for trustworthiness and a strong renewal rate. High rates can bring down an insurer’s star ranking as price is a major part of the score.

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.

Farmers
Farmers Ratings
Overall Rating: 3.7
Average Premium: 1.8
NAIC: 0.80
Customer Satisfaction: 4.1
AM Best Rating: A

Pros and Cons

Pros:
  • Had one of the highest customer satisfaction ratings in our survey
  • Customers said they trust Farmers
  • A large number of auto insurance discounts
Cons:
  • Higher than average premiums
  • Customers didn’t give its discounts high marks

How much Farmers costs

Farmers has an average monthly premium of $199 per month, the third-highest rate among Insure’s top auto insurers for 2024 behind CSAA Insurance Group ($217) and Allstate ($209).

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 Farmers rates for customer satisfaction

The company’s customers give it high marks when it comes to customer satisfaction. Eighty-four percent of Farmers’ customers said they were satisfied with the company’s customer service. Only Erie and American Family did better than Farmers in this category.

CompanyPercent of customers who are satisfied
Farmers84%
Erie90%
Auto-Owners71%

How Farmers scores on ease of service

Farmers received average marks from its customers in our survey for ease of service – accessing policy documents and services. Of the customers surveyed, 78% said they were satisfied with the company’s ease of service. Erie led this category, with 90% of its customers giving it high marks.

CompanyPercent of customers satisfied with the company’s ease of service
Farmers78%
Allstate82%
State Farm86%

How Farmers scores on policy offerings

When it comes to policy offerings, 79% of Farmers’ customers said they’re satisfied with the companies’ policy offerings like rideshare coverage, umbrella insurance and homeowners/condo/rental policies. Erie scored the highest in this category with 88% of its customers grading it highly followed by American Family.

CompanyPercent of customers satisfied with the company’s policy offerings
Farmers 79%
Erie88%
Auto-Owners74%

Would current customers recommend Farmers to others?

Farmers insurance comes highly recommended by customers – 90% said they would recommend the company to others. Most companies had percentages in the upper eighties and nineties in this category. Erie led this category with a 100% recommendation rate.

CompanyPercent of customers who would recommend the company to others
Farmers90%
Erie100%
Mercury84%

How trustworthy is Farmers?

Farmers earned high marks for trustworthiness with a score of 79%, the fourth-highest score in our survey. Farmers tied with Auto-Owners in this category but ranked behind only Erie (86%), State Farm (82%) and American Family (81%).

CompanyPercent of customers who say they trust the company 
Farmers79%
Erie86%
Amica72%

Do Farmers’ customers plan to renew?

Regarding renewals, 90% of customers surveyed said they planned to renew their policies. Most companies earned scores in the 80th and 90th percentile for renewals with Erie taking the top spot with a 100% renewal rate.

CompanyPercent of customers who plan to renew with the company 
Farmers90%
Erie100%
Nationwide84%

How Farmers scores on claims handling

For claims handling, three-quarters of Farmers’ customers said they approved of how the company handles claims. Allstate led this category followed by State Farm.

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

How Farmers scores on digital experience

Farmers had a lower survey score for digital experience, with 46% of customers saying it’s the best in this category. But no insurers in our survey did particularly well here. The top scorer was Geico with 64%.

Company Percent of customers satisfied with the company’s digital experience
Farmers 46%
Geico 64%
Allstate 57%

How Farmers scores for discounts

Despite a long list of available discounts, respondents rated Farmers in the lower half of our survey for discounts. But this is another category where insurers in our survey didn’t do particularly well. The best in this category was Auto Club of Southern California – 70% of its customers gave it high marks for discounts.

Company Percent of customers satisfied with the company’s discounts
Farmers 53%
Auto Club of Southern California 70%
Allstate 61%

How Farmers scores for bundling home and auto policies

When it comes to discounts and bundling home and auto policies, Farmers was ranked in the top half of companies by survey respondents. Almost 70% of Erie customers rated it well for bundling. Farmers came in with 57% of respondents saying it was best for bundling.

Company Percent of customers satisfied with the company’s discounts
Farmers 57%
Erie 69%
Geico 37%

Farmers car insurance coverages

  • Motorcycle 
  • Boat and watercraft 
  • Collectible auto
  • RV
  • Offroad and ATV insurance
  • RV and motorhome
  • 5th wheel
  • Travel trailer

Farmers additional policies

  • Homeowners
  • Renters
  • Condo
  • Mobile and manufactured homes
  • Vacation homes
  • Vacant homes
  • Earthquake
  • Flood
  • Commercial auto
  • Pet insurance
  • Life insurance
  • Umbrella 
  • Business 

Farmers car insurance coverage options

  • Liability
  • Collision
  • Comprehensive
  • Uninsured/underinsured motorist
  • Medical payments
  • Personal injury protection (PIP)
  • Towing and roadside assistance
  • Rental car reimbursement
  • Rideshare
  • Loss of use
  • Guaranteed value
  • Customized equipment
  • Personal umbrella
  • Glass deductible buyback
  • Full windshield and glass coverage
  • Spare parts coverage
  • Original equipment manufacturer (OEM)
  • New car replacement coverage
  • Accident forgiveness

Farmers car insurance discounts

  • Multiline policy
  • Multicar
  • Affinity
  • ePolicy
  • Good payer (not in California)
  • Safe driver
  • Distant student
  • Youthful driver
  • Good student
  • Shared family car (not in California)
  • On your own
  • Mature driver/defensive driver/senior driver
  • Homeowner
  • Alternative fuel (California only)
  • EFT
  • Pay in full
  • Anti-lock brakes (not in all states)
  • Anti-theft (not in all states)
  • Daytime running lights (not in all states)
  • Passive restraint (not in all states)
  • Homing device
  • VIN etching (not in all states)

States where Farmers offers coverage

Graph
Table
States where Farmers offers coverage
Alabama
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
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
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
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

Farmers

Farmers was launched from a one-room office in downtown Los Angeles in 1928. Farmers expanded to acquire New World Life Company of Seattle and became the first major insurance organization to offer a monthly payment plan that didn’t charge customers any interest. In 2021, Farmers completed an acquisition of MetLife’s home and auto business.

Farmers was the first U.S.-based insurance carrier to sign the Principles for Sustainable Insurance pledge, a collaboration between the United Nations and global insurance companies to advance sustainable practices across the industry. The UN called this pledge “a landmark step in advancing sustainable insurance thinking and practices across a range of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues such as climate change, nature and biodiversity loss.”

Resources & Methodology

Sources:

Farmers Insurance. “ Available 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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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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