State Regulators Release Auto Insurance Co. Complaint Rankings

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, CA, November 09, 2010 (Press-News.org) Connecticut and New York are the latest states to release their insurance departments' annual consumer-complaint report, an important public resource for consumers in the market for an auto insurance policy from a new coverage provider.

Along with financial rating agencies and sites that provide free car insurance quotes online, these reports help prospective policyholders get a better feel for a carrier from whom they may be considering purchasing coverage.

In addition to the affordability of premiums and the financial viability of a company, it is important for shoppers to evaluate the extent to which current and past policyholders have been satisfied with an insurer. Consumer complaint reports aid drivers in this last capacity by supplying them with a window into the customer-satisfaction records of major insurers in the state.

Most state insurance departments offer aid to consumers by acting as an objective mediator when a dispute over coverage cannot be resolved between the holder and writer of a policy. When such a dispute cannot be resolved between these two parties, the department can step in and conduct an investigation, and at the end of each year, the department compiles a report displaying how many complaints were filed against each company.

To access these reports, consumers can go to their respective state regulator's website and either access the report electronically or find contact information that can be used to obtain a copy. The website http://www.consumeraction.gov/insurance.shtml has a list of regulator websites.

Shoppers using this resource, though, should keep in mind two things. First, most departments' reports include the total numbers of justified and unjustified complaints that were filed that year; the justified complaints are the ones in which the department concluded that the insurer had been in the wrong. Second, the complaint ratio is more important than the total number of filed complaints. Although a large insurer may have accumulated a significantly large amount of complaints, it may have had fewer complaints per premium, which will be reflected in the ratio.

To learn more about evaluating coverage providers, consumers can go to http://www.onlineautoinsurance.com/ where visitors can learn about getting protected and can use the free quote-comparison generator.