State Farm is No. 1 in Insure.com’s ranking of the Best Car Insurance Companies for 2023 with 4.6 stars out of 5. State Farm has a high score for trustworthiness and 93% of its customers say they plan to renew.
Barry Eitel is a content writer and journalist focused on insurance, small business and finance. He has researched and written about personal finance since 2012, with a special focus on entrepreneurship, freelancing and other small business operations. His writing on insurance and small business has been featured in 7x7, Brit + Co, Intuit Quickbooks, Bankrate, Policygenius and Lendio.
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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State Farm ranked No. 1 in Insure.com’s ranking of the Best Car Insurance Companies of 2023 with 4.6 stars out of 5.
State Farm customers report being highly satisfied with the company, possibly because of its commitment to excellent in-person service. It also received one of the highest scores for trustworthiness and 93% of its customers said they would sign up again with the company.
State Farm also received an A++ credit rating for financial stability from AM Best and a J.D. Power score of 842 for customer service out of a possible 1,000. It had the highest average J.D. Power number of all the auto insurance companies we ranked.
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.
State Farm had the second lowest monthly rates among the companies in our survey and its average rates were noticeably lower than some competitors like Allstate.
When you ask State Farm customers about their satisfaction, the vast majority said they were satisfied with the company, which places it above many competitors like Progressive, Geico, and Allstate, which all scored 85% or lower.
State Farm scored highly in customer satisfaction, and it also scored well when customers were asked about its ease of service. Of the companies we ranked, State Farm and American Family tied for the third highest score. Allstate was first, and a group of companies that includes Progressive tied for second. Ease of service comprises access to policy documents and the ability to make changes to a policy easily.
When we asked customers to score insurance companies based on policy offerings, State Farm scored highly and scored higher than many competitors.
State Farm comes very highly recommended by survey respondents. Of the companies ranked on Insure.com’s list, it ranks second after a two-way tie for first between Travelers and Erie when customers were asked if they would recommend the company to others.
When customers were asked to rate insurance companies for trustworthiness, State Farm came out on top of all the companies we ranked. In addition, in our survey, which included more insurers than just the ones we ranked, it came out almost as high as USAA, which received the highest score in this category. USAA, however, was not included in the overall ranking because it only provides services to members of the military community.
Most State Farm customers who responded to the survey said they planned to renew, which was similar to major competitors Geico and Allstate.
When it comes to claims handling, State Farm ranked in the middle of the top 10 companies on our list. Its 66% survey score was lower than Geico’s and Allstate’s. However, looking at an outside metric, State Farm scored above average on J.D. Power’s claims satisfaction survey at 882/1,000. The average was 873.
For digital experience – including both website and apps – State Farm was ranked toward the very bottom, and customers clearly preferred the online experience offered by most of its major competitors. It should be noted that most insurers didn’t do well in this category. Despite the survey results, State Farm’s app has a 4.8-star score in the Apple app store with 619K ratings.
State Farm was ranked near the top of the heap when customers were asked about discounts. It bested most of its national competitors. With an average discount of 15%, State Farm is a great company for discounts.
State Farm did not rank very highly when customers were asked about bundling home and auto policies, and many competitors offer steeper bundling discounts. However, State Farm did land in the top five for the size of the discount for bundling auto and home.
Like a good neighbor, State Farm has been a supportive insurer across the United States for many years. Founded in 1922, it now holds the title of the largest car insurance company in the country with more than 19,000 agents in the U.S. and Canada.
State Farm is a mutual company that has been handling insurance claims since 1922. During that time, it has grown to offer a myriad of additional financial products, such as loans, banking and retirement accounts, investment accounts and estate planning. State Farm is also the largest home insurance company in the U.S.
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.
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:
In our rankings, no company received less than 1 star and no company received more than 5.