If you own a car, you know you need car insurance. While we all hope to never have to make an insurance claim, accidents of all sorts can happen.

Because car insurance is required in almost every state, there are many reviews and opinions about car insurance companies available on Clearsurance.com for you to read and evaluate. For most people, these reviews are based on interactions that people have had with agents, how functional the company’s website is, or how much the insurance costs. All of these factors matter when you’re looking for a car insurance company because you want to be satisfied with your customer service experience.

However, the real test of an auto insurance company is what happens after an accident. Claim satisfaction is where the “rubber meets the road” when it comes to customer happiness.

If you’ve ever had to file a car insurance claim, you probably understand this already. And, if you’ve ever had a car insurance claim denied, you probably had a few unhappy thoughts about your car insurance company, which possibly led to you switching insurers. So which states in the United States have the highest claim satisfaction rates among drivers on average? Clearsurance evaluated this. Let’s dig in.

Which states have the highest claim satisfaction rates?

Clearsurance has evaluated 160K+ customer reviews of insurance companies. Customers provide a range of answers about their experience with their insurance company, including whether or not the user has filed a claim with the company. We ask customers to rate their claim experience out of 5 stars if they had a claim. A Clearsurance.com analysis of customer reviews has revealed the top states with the highest claim satisfaction rates, as of October, 2020.

The analysis shows which 10 U.S. states have the highest car insurance claim satisfaction rates among drivers in the state. A high claim satisfaction rate was considered a claim experience with a rating of 4 or more stars out of 5. Each of the top 10 states rank at an 80 percent or higher satisfaction rate. Rates below are rounded to the nearest whole percent.

Top 10 states with the highest claim satisfaction rate

1. Pennsylvania: Average claim satisfaction rate of 83%
2. Illinois: Average claim satisfaction rate of 83%
3. New Jersey: Average claim satisfaction rate of 83%
4. North Carolina: Average claim satisfaction rate of 83%
5. New York: Average claim satisfaction rate of 82%
6. Georgia: Average claim satisfaction rate of 81%
7. Ohio: Average claim satisfaction rate of 81%
8. Florida: Average claim satisfaction rate of 81%
9. Texas: Average claim satisfaction rate of 80%
10. Michigan: Average claim satisfaction rate of 80%

What accounts for the high claim satisfaction ratings in these 10 states?

Customers may be satisfied with their claims experience if the claim process goes smoothly and they receive proper payout for the claim. Based on Clearsurance reviews, in general, customers tend to rate their claim experience with some companies better than others.

There are a number of companies that customers rated with a high average claim satisfaction rating of more than 80 percent. However, there are a few companies to highlight that have exceptionally high ratings nationally. (Rates below rounded to the nearest whole percent.)

1. USAA Insurance: Average claim satisfaction rating of 94%
2. Auto-Owners Insurance Group: Average claim satisfaction rating of 88%
3. Erie Insurance Group: Average claim satisfaction rating of 88%

Since USAA auto insurance is only available to members of the military and their families, states with high numbers of USAA ratings generally are states with major military bases, such as Texas, Florida, and Georgia.

USAA is the only insurance company that repeatedly had numbers over 90% claim satisfaction in multiple states including Pennsylvania, Georgia, Texas, Florida, New York, and Michigan. USAA is consistently one of the highest rated insurance companies on Clearsurance.com, according to customer reviews.

Car insurance claim settlements

There is more to a satisfactory car insurance claim settlement than just whether an insurer covers the claim or not. Of course, having a claim denied will likely garner an unhappy customer. However, even a claim that is approved can be frustrating to navigate.

An insurance company that makes the claims process as easy as possible is one that will receive accolades from its customers. Part of the process that makes filing a claim easier for the customer is educating car insurance customers on what they need to do to have a successful claim experience.

One of the more modern and convenient ways to get through the accident claim process is by using an insurance company’s mobile app. An app can make it easy to gather important information about the claim, such as photos of vehicle damage, the location, weather conditions, and time of day when the accident happened. Additionally, there is the process of gathering the contact and insurance information for any other vehicles involved.

What can you do to make sure the auto insurance claim process goes smoothly?

There are a few things that you can do to make sure your claim process is a good one. First and foremost, know what is in your car insurance policy. Understanding what goes into a claim settlement is important and starts with your auto policy. This includes things like knowing what your deductible is, and what your policy covers.

You should be sure to understand the following:

• The amount of your deductible.
• The type of coverage that you have, whether it’s comprehensive, collision or both. You may also have other add-on coverage types.
• The time limits on submitting a claim.
• What your rental car coverage includes, in case your vehicle needs extensive repairs.
• What your policy says about preferred repair shops, or if your insurer gets to select who will repair your vehicle’s damage.
• The repair policies and how repairs will be paid for by your insurer: either a check sent to you directly or if the insurer will pay the repair shop directly.
• And, for more serious accidents, it’s important to understand the basics of your medical and liability coverage.

If you don’t already know about these aspects of your car insurance coverage, call your insurer and ask. They should be happy to answer any questions that you may have about your auto insurance coverage. And knowing this information will help you in the event that you are involved in an accident.

Understanding the auto claim process

The more you understand about the car insurance claim process before you ever need to make a claim, the better. This is going to be particularly true if the reason for your claim is a major weather event, such as a hailstorm. That’s because not only will there likely be a lot of other people making similar claims, but your insurance company will likely be handling multiple cases all at once.

So, knowing how the process works and what to expect is going to be key to your satisfaction.

Are you satisfied with your insurance company’s claim handling? Write a review of your insurance company to let us know! If you think it’s time to shop for a new company, visit Clearsurance’s car insurance rankings page to see the top carriers in your state that customers say are the best.

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