GEICO vs. AAA Car Insurance Comparison

In terms of third-party ratings, GEICO wins over AAA, as it gets stronger marks when it comes to both customer service and financial strength. GEICO’s insurance pricing is also lower on average.

That said, many factors affect the cost of car insurance, so for some people, AAA’s car insurance pricing may be lower than GEICO’s. To find out which insurer is cheaper for you, you’ll need to request auto insurance quotes from each provider. You may find lower or slightly higher auto insurance rates with either company, so be sure to give your ZIP code to get insurance quotes specifically for your area.

GEICO is better for:

• Good drivers
• Federal employees
• Members of the military, especially those called into emergency deployment

AAA is better for:

• Low-mileage drivers
• People who wanted extended medical payments coverage
• Drivers who have loans or leases on their cars

Both GEICO and AAA are available in every state and Washington, D.C. However, AAA works a little differently than GEICO, as it’s the parent company of different Auto Clubs throughout the nation. So, if you live in San Francisco, for example, you’ll buy insurance from the Auto Club of Northern California, but if you live in Providence, you’ll buy from AAA Northeast. Either way, you can get car insurance anywhere in the United States with both AAA and GEICO.

AAA and GEICO both offer full coverage, customizable car insurance. The only major differences in terms of their coverages are under medical payments, gap insurance, mechanical breakdown insurance and custom equipment.

• Excess MedPay: If you want to be sure your car insurance will cover you and your passengers’ medical bills in the event of an at-fault accident, AAA’s excess MedPay goes beyond typical MedPay and health insurance coverages. If you still have losses after you’ve exhausted your MedPay and health insurance options, it will kick in to cover the remaining expenses, including ambulance fees and funeral costs.
• Gap insurance: Only AAA offers gap insurance, which means that if you have a loan or a lease on your car, GEICO may not be an option for you as many loan and lease companies require gap insurance.
• Mechanical breakdown insurance: While GEICO includes mechanical breakdown insurance as a coverage add-on, with AAA, it’s a separate extended warranty called a Vehicle Protection Plan. If your car has more than 15,000 miles on it but less than 150,000, AAA is your only option for mechanical repairs.
• Custom equipment: If you’ve added any custom equipment to your vehicle that you want to insure, only AAA offers coverage ― this means features like stereos, custom wheels or permanently installed TVs.

Roadside Assistance

Although AAA is primarily known for its roadside assistance program, you may be surprised to learn GEICO has a similar service that’s much cheaper. However, AAA offers more protection in terms of towing distance, lockout and key reimbursements and even labor discounts at repair stations.

While AAA offers three roadside assistance plans, GEICO sells one and it’s much cheaper. That said, neither plan will break your bank. Learn more about AAA’s roadside assistance program in our AAA auto insurance review.

The cost of car insurance depends on many unique factors: where you live, what kind of car you drive, your driving history and more. So, take it with a grain of salt that GEICO has lower average car insurance costs compared to AAA, although both are near the national average, which, as of the latest data, was $1,070.47.¹

• AAA: $1,903
• GEICO: $1,194

Discounts

Another factor to consider when it comes to car insurance pricing is discounts. Both AAA and GEICO offer a slew of discounts, but not every discount will apply to every driver.

While GEICO offers discounts for federal employees and military members, only AAA has a low-mileage program. If you let AAA track your mileage, you can save up to 19 percent on your car insurance costs, a form of pay-per-mile insurance. GEICO doesn’t offer a similar program, which means AAA may be a better option for those with a short or no commute.

Both companies offer mobile apps for iOS and Android devices, AAA under the name Auto Club App and GEICO under the name GEICO Mobile. Despite similar ratings, the GEICO app is much more comprehensive while the AAA app caters to the regular AAA membership and not necessarily car insurance.

With the GEICO app, you can manage your policy, get a quote, pay bills and take other actions regarding your insurance policy. AAA’s app focuses more on nearby discounts, roadside assistance and travel bookings, so GEICO wins when it comes to the usefulness of its mobile app for car insurance.

As for other online services, both companies offer what you’d expect in terms of customer service: online help centers, live chat and phone support. However, one cool feature that AAA has is its Virtual Video Appointment, which allows you to video chat with an insurance agent. Of course, if you’re not super tech-savvy, both insurers also have local offices across the country where you can speak to someone in person.

Both AAA and GEICO offer telematics — telecommunications systems that communicate with each other through GPS receivers to track vehicles.² However, they track different data points. While AAA’s telematics track mileage, rewarding drivers who drive fewer miles, GEICO’s DriveEasy program tracks distracted driving ― including handheld phone calls and active usage of a phone ― hard braking and speeding.

So if you’re a good driver, GEICO’s DriveEasy could save you money. But if you’re a low-mileage driver, AAA offering may be a better option.

Both AAA and GEICO have many different types of insurance policies you can bundle with auto. You can save the most money by bundling multiple policies under the same provider, so make sure your chosen company offers coverage for everything you want to secure.

In addition to completing our own analysis, we also viewed third-party ratings for GEICO and AAA from customer service and financial strength organizations like AM Best, the BBB, J.D. Power, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) and Standard & Poor’s (S&P).

No matter the category, GEICO had ratings higher than or equal to AAA. Still, both have high AM Best rankings, BBB ratings and JD Power ratings. Neither company has a good customer rating from the BBB, but this is typical for insurance companies, unfortunately. As AAA isn’t on the NAIC Complaint Index Score or S&P, we were unable to compare the two in those regards.

Our methodology for comparing insurance companies involves combining our proprietary data on customer success with third-party ratings and research about each company, its coverages and its discounts. To learn more about GEICO and AAA, keep reading for our auto insurance frequently asked questions below.