Policyholders are less satisfied with their car-insurance companies than they were last year, mostly due to higher rates, according to the newly released JD Power 2013 U.S. Auto Insurance Study.
Still, JD Power said a decline from last year’s record high still puts 2013 satisfaction at the second-highest point since 2000.
In the North Central region, which includes Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan, the average score was 797 on a 1,000-point scale.
Tops was Auto-Owners Insurance, which got 833. Others that were above average included State Farm, at 824, and Hartford, at 803.
The study measures customer satisfaction cross five factors: interaction, price, policy offerings, billings and claims.
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Among companies that were below average in the region: Nationwide, 796; Geico, 794; American Family, 790; Allstate, 788; Country, 785; Liberty Mutual, 784; Farmers, 783; and Progressive, 782. The lowest score was Hanover’s 764.
Scores across all five measures were down year over year, though price and policy offerings were to blame the most for the score setbacks, JD Power said.
Nationally, customer satisfaction was 794 points, down 10 points from 2012.
“In 2013, there is a sharp rise in the number of customers who have experienced premium increases,” Jeremy Bowler, senior director of JD Power’s global insurance practice, said in a statement. “The dollar amount of those increases is also larger, averaging $153 in 2013, compared with an average rate increase of $113 reported in the 2012 study.”