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Bankrate Auto Insurance Scores Methodology
Each category was assigned a metric to determine performance, and the weighted sum adds up to a company’s total Bankrate Score — out of 5 points. Our scoring model provides a comprehensive view, indicating when companies excel across several key areas and highlighting where they fall short.
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Bankrate strives to help consumers navigate their auto insurance shopping experience, no matter where they are in their financial journey. Since our founding in 1976, we’ve built a strong reputation for creating valuable content that gives people the confidence to make smart and informed decisions about insurance and other personal financial needs.
Whether you are purchasing a new vehicle, need help filing an insurance claim or have questions about your coverage options, Bankrate has resources to guide you. We help more than 100 million consumers learn about and shop for insurance each year, through a series of product comparison tools and educational content, including roundups of the best and cheapest car insurance companies.
Overall Bankrate Score for auto insurance
Our Bankrate Score for auto insurance considers key variables that our insurance editorial team determined impact policyholders’ experiences with an insurance company. These factors include a robust assessment of each company’s cost of coverage, product availability, financial strength ratings, online capabilities and customer and claims support accessibility. We grouped these factors into three essential categories — cost and ratings, coverage and savings, and support — which we then weighted in a tiered approach.
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Cost & ratings 50%
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Coverage & savings 30%
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Support 20%
Cost & ratings score
To determine how well auto insurance companies satisfy these priorities, our team analyzed quoted premiums from Quadrant Information Services (if available), as well as any of the latest third-party agency ratings from J.D. Power, AM Best, Demotech and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC).
Quadrant Information Services is a pricing analytics company serving the U.S. property and casualty insurance industry. Quadrant maintains pricing data for insurers in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. from a wide range of carriers, including preferred and non-standard insurers.
J.D. Power is a consumer data and analytics company that conducts several annual studies across various industries, including the annual U.S. Auto Claims Satisfaction Study, Auto Insurance Study, Insurance Digital Experience Study and more.
AM Best is the largest and oldest credit agency in the world, and it specializes in the insurance industry. An AM Best rating is a letter grade based on the carrier’s historical ability to pay out claims, the amount of debt a carrier holds and other financial obligations.
Demotech, Inc. is a financial analysis firm that provides objective and independent Financial Stability Ratings® (FSRs) for property & casualty insurance companies, life & health insurance companies and title underwriters, among others.
The NAIC is composed of insurance commissioners and its role is to standardize insurance agencies and their practices in the United States. The NAIC Complaint Index keeps track of customer complaints it receives about insurance companies, converting these complaints into a complaint index score.
How do we get average premium data?
To source up-to-date, accurate insurance premium data, we work with Quadrant Information Services, a pricing analytics leader in the property and casualty industry. Bankrate’s insurance editorial team analyzes average premiums for all ZIP codes and carriers in every U.S. state and Washington, D.C. To keep our average estimates accurate, we weight rates based on population density and run new data reports on a monthly basis to keep up with rate filings and other carrier adjustments.
Our base rates for car insurance reflect the average cost of coverage for a single 40-year-old driver with a clean record and a 2-year-old Toyota Camry. For each type of insurance, we analyze certain default coverage limits based on the typical needs of drivers.
Coverage & savings score
We assessed companies’ coverage options and availability to help policyholders find a provider that balances cost with coverage. Additionally, we evaluated the discount options listed on each company’s website.
Support score
To encompass the many ways an auto insurance company can support policyholders, we analyzed avenues of customer accessibility along with community support. This analysis incorporated additional financial strength ratings from Standard & Poor's (S&P) and Moody’s and factored in a company’s corporate sustainability efforts.
S&P is primarily a credit rating agency that produces regular reports on the debt carried by private and public companies, countries and regional governments. S&P’s long-term issuer credit ratings are represented as letter grades — "AAA" is the highest and "D" is the lowest.
Moody’s is a bond credit rating business with global long-term and short-term rating scales. Ratings focus on the relative credit risks of financial obligations issued by financial institutions, public sector entities and more.
How are Bankrate Scores used?
Bankrate Scores are used across our auto insurance pages whenever we review a single provider, compare multiple providers or publish a roundup of the best providers in a specific category. These scores can be useful when comparing several providers to gain a better understanding of how each carrier stacks up against the rest.
The four main pages where you will find Bankrate Scores include:
- Best car insurance companies: This resource is a roundup of the best car insurance companies overall on the market. We determine the best providers based on our in-depth research and a company’s subsequent Bankrate Score. We also provide an overview of the best car insurance companies at the state level, offering analysis based on in-state driver needs and circumstances.
- Best cheap car insurance companies: This guide features the best cheap car insurance companies in different cities at the time of publishing. While cost is a driving factor for these lists, we also review and select companies based on their customer service ratings and coverage options. The companies highlighted represent some of the cheapest providers based on average premium data from Quadrant Information Services and available discounts.
You’ll also find Bankrate Scores on some of our other pages, such as guides to the best auto insurer in your state.
Why you can trust Bankrate
At Bankrate, we follow a strict editorial policy to ensure that every car insurance company is reviewed and rated accurately and objectively. We are committed to creating content that is worthy of your trust, which is why we have insurance professionals write and review our content.
One of our primary goals at Bankrate is to make insurance content more accessible to our readers, regardless of their financial literacy or stage in life. Our insurance editorial team strives to help consumers choose the right auto insurance for themselves and their families, which is why we create timely content to help every driver throughout the insurance shopping process — from getting a quote to filing a claim, and everything in between.