Clearcover Auto Insurance Review

Who It’s Best For

• Drivers looking for cheap insurance policies
• Active-duty military members, who can receive car insurance discounts of at least 15 percent
• Rideshare drivers looking for specialized insurance

Who It’s Not Best For

• Customers who want to bundle multiple types of insurance like life insurance or renters insurance

• Bodily injury and property damage insurance: If you are found to be at fault in an auto accident, bodily injury liability insurance pays for medical care for injured parties other than yourself and your passengers. Similarly, property damage liability insurance covers the cost of repairing other peoples’ property if you’re determined to be at fault for an accident.
• Collision insurance: Collision insurance isn’t mandatory in any state, but we recommend this coverage because it protects your vehicle if it’s damaged in an accident, regardless of who caused the collision.
• Comprehensive coverage: Comprehensive insurance protects your vehicle when it comes to damage that’s not related to accidents. This includes car theft and vandalism, weather damage, and other damage that goes beyond the normal wear and tear of your vehicle.
• Mechanical breakdown insurance: Mechanical breakdown insurance can cover the cost of repairs to your car’s mechanical systems, such as the engine and transmission if they break down. Unlike collision insurance and comprehensive insurance, mechanical breakdown insurance extends to normal wear and tear damage.
• Medical payments insurance: Regardless of who’s at fault in an accident, medical payments coverage covers the policyholder’s medical care. This may include ambulance rides, doctor visits, surgeries, and medications, among other eligible medical expenses.
• Personal injury protection: Think of personal injury protection as a more powerful, more extensive version of medical payments coverage. Also known as no-fault insurance, PIP covers medical expenses for you and your passengers in the event of an accident, no matter who’s at fault.
  
  It may also cover other expenses, including lost wages, funeral expenses, and survivor’s benefits. It can even apply when you’re not in the car. For example, if a car hits you while you’re out walking, personal injury protection benefits can apply.
• Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage: If you’re involved in an accident in which a driver with no insurance or insufficient insurance coverage is at fault, uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage can pay for your medical care and for damage to your property beyond the level that the other driver’s insurance may cover.
• Roadside assistance: If your car breaks down, gets stuck, or runs out of gas, Clearcover’s partner Nation Safe Drivers will tow your vehicle to the most convenient qualified repair facility.
• Alternative transportation coverage: If an accident renders your vehicle undriveable, Clearcover’s alternative transportation coverage gives you money toward the alternate method of transportation of your choice. You can use the money to rent a car, hire rideshares, take public transit, or whatever method best suits your needs.
• Ridesharing coverage: If you drive for a ridesharing service such as Uber or Lyft, you probably switch back and forth between driving your vehicle for personal and business uses. While ridesharing companies often purchase insurance to cover their drivers while they are in the process of giving rides, that coverage does not extend to the period between rides, when you are working but do not have a passenger in the vehicle.  Ridesharing coverage fills in that gap to protect you between the times when your personal insurance and the rideshare company’s own insurance cover you.

Our AutoInsurance.com market analysis has found that the average annual cost for Clearcover auto insurance is $1,119.

When shopping for insurance, keep in mind that your personal rate will depend on factors like your driving record, age, address, and the type and age of car you drive. Your individual cost will also depend on the type of insurance you purchase, such as whether you stick to the legal minimum level of insurance your state requires or whether you purchase more thorough coverage.

Clearcover approaches discounts differently than many other companies, building them into its pricing so that customers don’t have to research and select discounts in order to save.¹ While Clearcover does not provide specific discounts other than its military discount (see below), the company advertises savings based on the following factors:

• Automatic billing
• Clean driving record
• Defensive driving course completion
• Early signing
• Electronic documents
• Good grades for students
• Policy renewal
• Upfront payments
• Vehicle safety features

Are you looking for a military discount? Clearcover offers a 15 percent discount to active duty military personnel in the following states:

• Alabama
• Arizona
• California
• Georgia
• Illinois
• Indiana
• Kentucky
• Maryland
• Mississippi
• Missouri
• Nebraska
• Ohio
• Oklahoma
• Pennsylvania
• Texas
• Utah
• Virginia
• West Virginia
• Wisconsin

In Louisiana, Clearcover offers a 25 percent discount to both active duty military personnel and to their children who are under the age of 25. This makes Clearcover one of our best sources of auto insurance for military and veterans.

As of October 2022, Clearcover provides auto insurance in the states listed below:

• Alabama
• Arizona
• California
• Georgia
• Illinois
• Indiana
• Kentucky
• Louisiana
• Maryland
• Mississippi
• Missouri
• Nebraska
• Ohio
• Oklahoma
• Pennsylvania
• Texas
• Utah
• Virginia
• West Virginia
• Wisconsin

Clearcover’s website states that it is working to expand its auto insurance coverage into more states.

There are multiple ways to get in touch with Clearcover, which primarily offers digital options for customer service:

• Live chat: Clearcover’s mobile app offers a customer advocate live chat function, which is also available via Clearcover’s desktop website.
• Email: You can also submit a longer, email-style message via Clearcover’s contact request form at https://support.clearcover.com/hc/en-us/requests/new.
• Phone: Call the toll-free phone number: (855) 444-1875. Clearcover’s customer advocates are available via phone or live chat during the following hours:
  • Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. CT
  • Saturday through Sunday, 8:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. CT
• Social media: Connect with Clearcover on social media:
  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/15251887/
  • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/clearcoverinc/
  • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clearcoverinc/
  • Twitter: https://twitter.com/clearcover/
  • Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/clearcover

Clearcover offers a mobile app for convenient, on-the-go use by both iOS and Android users. The app is highly rated, with a 4.8 average score from more than 8,400 Apple App Store reviews and an average score of 4.6 from more than 3,300 Google Play Store reviews. Many reviews describe the app as intuitive and easy to use. Check out the list below for the services Clearcover’s mobile app offers:

• Digital insurance ID card: Looking for convenient access to your insurance information? Clearcover’s app allows you to pull up your Clearcover ID card, including your policy number and coverage period, even when you’re not connected to a wire or mobile service.
• Payment management portal: Clearcover’s app allows you to make instant policy payments, view your payment history and upcoming bills, and change your digital payment method.
• Digital claims for faster payouts: Instantly submit a claim and upload photos and other supporting information with Clearcover’s mobile app digital claims process. You can also use the app to check the status of existing claims and find information about past claims. Clearcover advertises that it pays most claims in under a week and cites a fastest-ever payment record of seven minutes. For faster claims processing and payments, Clearcover recommends filing claims through the app.
• Contact roadside assistance and schedule glass repair: Eligible customers can request roadside assistance directly via Clearcover’s app if they’re stranded. Are you in need of glass repair? You’ll be able to schedule an appointment through the app, as well, given you have windshield coverage.
• Customer service: Clearcover’s mobile app offers a live chat function so you can contact one of its customer advocates with any policy questions or changes you may need to make.

• Better Business Bureau: The Better Business Bureau has accredited Clearcover since November 2017, and gives the company an A+ rating. Clearcover’s customer rating on the Better Business Bureau website is 3.77 out of five, averaged from 90 consumer reviews.²
• National Association of Insurance Commissioners: Clearcover’s 2021 complaint index score from NAIC, the regulatory organization for the American insurance industry, is 3.54. This means that NAIC has received 3.54 times more complaints about Clearcover than would be expected based on its market share.
  
  Clearcover was the subject of nine complaints in 2021, the most recent year for which data is available, and zero complaints in both 2020 and 2019. Of those nine complaints, four list policy cancellation as the reason for the complaint. Nine is a very small sample size, so these complaints may not offer the most accurate picture of the company.³

Clearcover is a relatively new insurance company. It was founded in 2016 by entrepreneurs Kyle Nakatsuji and Derek Brigham, both of whom previously held leadership roles at American Family Insurance. The company’s headquarters are located in Chicago, Illinois, though many of its employees work remotely.

Clearcover is a tech-first company that uses artificial intelligence to maximize the efficiency of claims processing and pass those savings on to its customers. Its proprietary machine-learning technology is called ClearAI. It uses a driver’s policy history, along with information from the first notice of loss ( the document that starts the claim process), to reduce fraud and to resolve and pay claims quickly.⁴

Clearcover itself does not offer any forms of insurance aside from automobile insurance. However, Clearcover refers its customers who are looking for homeowners insurance to its partner, Hippo, a digital-first provider of homeowners insurance and smart home security systems. Hippo advertises an up to 25 percent discount for customers who buy a homeowners insurance policy through this partnership with Clearcover.⁵

Unlike many other insurance companies, which offer 12-month-long insurance contracts, Clearcover offers six-month policies, which the company says allow it to evaluate customer driving history more often. This also means that you’re not locked into a policy for a full year, so you may be able to decline to renew your policy rather than cancel it.

If you’re looking to cancel your policy, Clearcover offers two methods to contact its customer advocates to do so. You can either use the live chat function of the Clearcover mobile app or call 855-444-1875 during business hours.