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Is it worth switching to American Family Insurance?
American Family Insurance (AmFam) has been in business for more than 90 years. The company sells a wide range of auto insurance policies and coverage options. So, is an auto insurance plan from American Family right for you? We’ll tell you everything you need to know about the company in our comprehensive review below.
As one of the largest auto insurance providers in the country, American Family Insurance offers customers a variety of coverage options and discounts. The company has nearly 3,000 local agents in 19 states, but policyholders can also utilize its website and mobile app to purchase coverage, manage payments and file claims.
Easy to bundle: You can save up to 23 percent by bundling your American Family auto insurance with their homeowner’s and life insurance policies.
Safe driving programs: American Family Insurance incentivizes safe driving habits in teens and young adults by offering discounts through the Know Your Drive and Teen Safe Driver programs. Drivers who go three years without at-fault accidents are eligible for complimentary accident forgiveness coverage, as well.
Limited coverage: American Family Insurance is only available in 19 states: Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin.
Customer dissatisfaction: Reviews on the Better Business Bureau (BBB) from American Family Auto Insurance customers cite a lack of transparency in the claims process and poor customer service.
You can save time by filing claims with an app. Upload photos of your vehicle’s damage so your claims representative has everything they need to process your claim quickly.
The average annual cost of an American Family Insurance policy is $1,371, which is below the annual average rate of $1,442. To find out your exact rate, however, you’ll need to contact the company directly and provide your personal information.
Your rate will depend on various factors, including your driving history, age and location. For example, rates for teen drivers are higher than rates for adult drivers, typically. Below you’ll find a breakdown of how age, driving history and credit scores may impact your annual cost:
Factor | American Family average annual cost of car insurance | National average annual cost of car insurance |
---|---|---|
Age 17 | $3,795 | $3,925 |
Age 25 | $1,584 | $1,728 |
Age 35 | $1,320 | $1,449 |
Age 60 | $1,209 | $1,425 |
Speeding ticket | $1,608 | $1,911 |
Accident | $1,658 | $2,180 |
DUI | $1,754 | $2,601 |
Poor credit | $2,233 | $2,757 |
American Family Insurance offers a variety of discounts that can cut the cost of your insurance rates.
The app processes this data and shows the route you took, the distance and time you drove, evaluating actions like distracted driving, high speeds, hard braking and time of day. You can get a discount of up to 10 percent once you participate for at least 3,000 miles or one year, whichever comes first. Learn more about teen distracted driving.
Remember that you can save up to 23 percent when you bundle your auto policy with American Family’s home insurance policy. You can also save up to 5 percent if you bundle renters insurance with your auto policy.
American Family Insurance is available in 19 states:
Despite the limited availability, American Family Insurance employs nearly 3,000 agents in the United States, with an average of 158 agents per state. If a local agent is the most important factor to you, American Family Insurance makes it easy to find one in your area with its online agent locator tool.
American Family Insurance gives you plenty of options when you need to contact the customer service team. The company’s representatives are available 24/7 over the phone, by email, live chat and by mail.
American Family Insurance’s mobile app, MyAmFam, has a rating of 4.8 out of five stars from iOS users and 4.2 from Android users. On American Family Insurance’s website and app, you can:
Founded in October 1927 as Farmers Mutual Insurance by Herman Wittwer in Madison, Wisconsin, American Family Insurance’s first product was auto insurance and its target market was Midwestern farmers. Wittwer believed farmers presented lower risks than city drivers because they drove less often and not at all in the winter.
In 1963, Farmers Mutual changed its name to American Family Insurance to reflect its growing customer base. Since then, the company has greatly expanded its offerings and, as of 2021, it had more than 13.1 million policies in force.
In addition to auto insurance, American Family Insurance provides a wide range of coverage for other insurable properties, including:
The easiest way to cancel a policy with American Family Insurance is to call your local agent or the customer service team at (800) 692-6326. The customer service representative can direct you to your local agent or submit a cancellation request form to your agent on your behalf.
American Family may cancel your policy if it determines that it’s high risk. Some determining factors for high-risk policies include filing multiple claims within a short period of time or causing an accident while under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
While we like that American Family Insurance ranks above average with third-party sources such as J.D. Power (874 out of 1000) and the BBB (A rating), we found that it often falls below competitors like Allstate or Farmers when it comes to customer satisfaction.
Some complaints from the BBB about American Family center on poor customer service and a lack of transparency as reflected in its customer rating of 1.16 out of five stars. Keep in mind that many insurance companies have low customer ratings on BBB as people mostly come there to complain. For example, Allstate Insurance has a higher rating from the BBB (A+), but its average customer rating is lower than American Family’s at 1.09 out of five stars.
J.D. Power derives its annual rankings from a survey of more than 8,000 drivers, which could be a better indicator of overall satisfaction than the BBB’s much smaller pool of customer ratings. Compared to the industry average ranking of 873 out of 1,000 points, American Family scored slightly higher at 874.
While this is good, it’s much lower than Allstate’s (889 out of 1,000) or Farmers’ (882 out of 1,000). If customer satisfaction is your top priority when shopping for auto insurance, you may want to take these ratings into account and look at insurance quotes from other companies.
American Family is a good choice if you’re looking for affordable auto insurance. The average cost of coverage with American Family is $1,371, which is below the industry average of $1,442 and significantly cheaper than Allstate ($1,673) and Farmers ($1,878). AmFam also offers discounts for policyholders and their family members, but the company does not offer discounts for military members. If that is important to you, consider other insurance providers like Farmers, GEICO or Liberty Mutual.
In terms of availability, American Family is more limited compared to its competitors. If there’s a chance you might move to a state that American Family does not cover, we suggest purchasing auto insurance from a company with coverage in all 50 states, like GEICO, State Farm or Progressive.
On average, American Family Insurance is cheaper than Allstate. The average cost of an annual policy is around $1,371 for American Family Insurance, while Allstate costs about $1,673. However, the exact cost will depend on the person, their driving record and their car.
Yes, American Family Insurance will insure a car that’s not in your name under a nonowner car insurance policy.
American Family Insurance is good at paying claims, but you may have to wait for your payment. Customers complain of slow processing speeds and a lack of transparency. The company is on firm financial footing, however, and has A ratings from credit agencies like AM Best, S&P and Moody’s.
Yes, American Family has a grace period of nine days for payments. During the grace period, policyholders can pay their past-due premiums to avoid lapses in coverage.
Yes, American Family Insurance offers recreational vehicle coverage, which covers your motorcycles, ATVs, RVs, snowmobiles, boats and personal watercraft.
Bodily Injury Liability Insurance. American Family Insurance. (2023).
https://www.amfam.com/insurance/car/coverages/bodily-injury-liability
Shopping for Auto Insurance. New York State Department of Financial Services. (2023).
https://www.dfs.ny.gov/consumers/auto_insurance/optional_auto_insurance
American Family Insurance. Better Business Bureau. (2023).
https://www.bbb.org/us/wi/madison/profile/insurance-companies/american-family-insurance-0694-5002017
Usage-Based Auto Insurance Takes Center Stage as Satisfaction Flatlines, J.D. Power Finds. J.D. Power. (2022, Jun 13).
https://www.jdpower.com/business/press-releases/2022-us-auto-insurance-study
Consumer Insurance Search Results. National Association of Insurance Commissioners. (2023).
https://content.naic.org/cis_refined_results.htm