How We Score
Our scores are built entirely from public regulatory data. No paid placements. No insurer relationships. Here's exactly what we use and why.
The core question we answer
Most insurance comparison sites answer: "Who is cheapest?"
We answer: "Who treats you fairly when you actually file a claim?"
Complaint data from regulators is the closest publicly available proxy for this. It measures how often customers felt wronged enough to formally complain — and in the case of California, how often those complaints were found to be justified.
Data sources
- What:
- Complaint Index for private passenger auto insurance by state
- How:
- The NAIC normalizes complaints per 1,000 policies and compares to the industry average. A score of 1.0 is exactly average. Below 1.0 is better.
- When:
- Annual. We use the most recently published year.
- What:
- Automobile Complaint Composite Report — justified complaints per $1M in premium
- How:
- California separately tracks "justified" complaints (where the insurer was found to be at fault). This is a stronger signal than raw complaint counts.
- When:
- Annual publication.
- What:
- Consumer Complaint Index — 3-year rolling complaint ratio by line of business
- How:
- Missouri uses a 3-year rolling average to smooth outlier years. Ratio is complaints per volume of premium.
- When:
- Annual publication.
Grading scale
We translate raw scores into letter grades for clarity:
| Grade | Complaint Index | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| A | ≤ 0.50 | Far fewer complaints than industry average |
| B | 0.51 – 0.90 | Below-average complaints |
| C | 0.91 – 1.10 | Near industry average |
| D | 1.11 – 2.00 | Above-average complaints |
| F | > 2.00 | Far more complaints than average |
What we do not do
- ✕ Accept payment from insurers to influence rankings
- ✕ Use self-reported insurer data
- ✕ Combine scores into a single opaque number
- ✕ Make editorial claims not backed by the source data
User submissions
Users can submit their own claim experiences through our structured form. These submissions are self-reported and unverified at this time. All user-submitted content is clearly labeled as such and kept separate from regulatory data in our scoring.
We do not collect names or contact information with submissions.
Data freshness
All regulatory data is annual. Scores reflect the most recently published year from each source, which is noted on every score. Insurance company behavior can change — a score from 2023 data may not reflect today's claims handling.