Is Your Insurance Company Rated?

 by: Sher Matsen

Insurance is serious business. It not only costs you a pretty penny, you need to know the company you purchase the insurance from will honor a claim with no hassle should you have an accident. The first thing you need to do is find out if your insurance company is rated.

Many of the national rating institutes rate insurance companies. They rate the variations in service and coverage from one company to another, as well as the differences in premiums.

Choosing a good insurance company is critical to your financial security. You want to find out if the insurance company you plan to deal with has the financial resources to keep you and your family safe. In other words are the liquid enough to pay claims as they occur.

If the financial situation is risky they’ll be of no use to you if they cannot pay out a large claim in the future. When national rating institutes rate the financial strength of an insurance company they use a complicated formula that determines the insurance companies long term viability.

To find out how your insurance company rates you can visit Standard & Poor’s Ratings Financial – they rate the financial strength of insurance companies as well as provide detailed profiles on almost 4000 insurance companies.

Fitch Ratings Financial – rates the financial strength of insurance companies.

When you are in the market for insurance the first thing you look for is good coverage for the lowest price. But then you have to make sure you’ve actually heard of the insurance company at some other time. You’ll also want to find out how much experience they have in auto insurance and claims.

The best source of information you have is your friends, family, and co-workers. Find out if they have dealt with this insurance company and if they had a claim how well they handled the process. Find out what they think about the company good and bad.

Another thing you need to check is to find out if they have a 24 hour number you can call in the event you need to make a claim. Is their claims management in-house or do they contract out to some outside source? These can make a huge difference on how quickly and fairly a claim is handled.

You buy auto insurance to protect your assets and you financial security now and into the future. The object of insurance is to protect you from personal liability claims. You need to have the peace of mind that the insurance company you are dealing with will come through if the need arises.

Funny thing is we often are so busy looking for the best rates that we neglect to check the financial security of the insurance company. Of course it’s great when we can save some money but it’s only a good deal if the insurance company does it’s part in the event of a claim.

All insurance companies issue quarterly reports that are accessable to the public. Of course you can’t guarantee the future from the past because one catastrophe can change the entire picture. But you can get a pretty good idea of how reliable they’ve been up to this point.

If the companies past looks shady or iffy, no matter how good the premium don’t part with your money! You can also check with the BBB to see if the company has had any unresolved complaints. You can also check car insurance ratings online.

So shop for the best price you can find, then check on the insurance company before you part with your money. You can have a win win situation this way!