National General Car Insurance Review 2025

National General provides an easy quote and purchase process, and caters to drivers with violations.

National General Is Best for Those Who:

• Have violations on their record, including DUIs
• Prefer to purchase their policy online or through an agent, as National General offers both options
• Those who drive less than average

National General Is Not Best for Those Who:

• Prioritize customer service
• Lease or finance their car and need gap coverage

National General’s full coverage rates are a bit below the national average at $2,109 per year (compared to the national average of $2,399 annually). Its average minimum coverage rate of $733 per year is above the national average of $635.

These averages are for good drivers, so if you have a violation on your record, you should expect to pay more — National General’s average annual premium for drivers with a DUI, for example, is $3,110. However, that’s still below the national average of $3,305.

The table below displays average annual premiums for full and minimum coverage for major national insurers so you can see how National General compares:

National General offers various auto insurance discounts that can be applied to your policy.

Highlighted Discount: DynamicDrive

If you purchase a National General auto policy, you’ll have access to DynamicDrive, which is the telematics program affiliated with several Allstate subsidiaries, including Direct Auto. You’ll get a 10 percent discount just for signing up, and an additional discount at renewal if you drive safely. National General doesn’t advertise the maximum discount.

I also think it’s important to note that National General doesn’t specify whether DynamicDrive could increase your rates, but Allstate’s Drivewise can, so I recommend confirming with an agent before signing up. If you’re not confident in your safe driving habits, it’s risky to participate if there’s a chance of your rates going up.

Other Discounts

Here are some of the other discounts that you may qualify for with National General:

• Bundling discount: Get a discount for bundling home and auto.
• Multi-vehicle discount: Insuring more than one vehicle with National General will save you money.
• Safe driver discount: You may qualify for a discount if you haven’t had any driving violations in the last three years.
• Low-mileage discount: Save on your premium if you drive under a certain number of miles per year.
• Pay-in-full discount: You’ll pay less if you pay your entire premium up front rather than in monthly installments.
• Paperless discount: Get a discount for signing up for paperless billing.
• Security device discount: If your car has certain anti-theft features, you can qualify for a discount on comprehensive coverage.

National General provides quotes through an easy online process, as well as through local independent agents. You can also purchase policies online or through an agent. I tried getting a quote on the company’s website, and it was quick and easy.

The first screen asks a few basic questions, including whether you currently have car insurance and how many cars and drivers you’re looking to insure.

Then, I needed to select my vehicle year, make, and model. It also asked if I currently make payments on the vehicle. Finally, I input my details as the driver on the policy, including my garaging address, and answered a few more questions about my driving history. These included whether I’ve had any violations within the past three years and whether I’m required to file an SR-22. Once I completed everything, I received my quote.

The initial quote was for liability limits of 50/100/50, even though I indicated that I was looking for at least 100/300/100. I was able to modify my coverage, but it wouldn’t let me select more than 50/100/50 online, and I assume I would need to call an agent to request higher limits.

The quote shown above would come out to $421 for a six-month policy. I also checked the pay-in-full price, which includes a slight discount and would come out to $383 for six months, or $38 less.

I was able to add other coverages to my policy, including collision, comprehensive, and rental reimbursement, right from the online platform. If I were satisfied with the options provided, I would be able to easily move forward with purchasing the policy without contacting an agent.

The other discounts applied to my policy were homeowners, accident-free/claims-free, and paperless. I also had the option of adding accident forgiveness and roadside assistance to my policy, as well as enrolling in DynamicDrive for another discount.

National General offers all of the basic coverages that you may need, including bodily injury liability, property damage liability, collision, comprehensive, medical payments, personal injury protection, and uninsured motorist coverage.

It also has additional coverage options, including the following:

Customer satisfaction is one of National General’s main weak points. I looked at several industry metrics, and it scored far below average on all of them.

Starting with J.D. Power’s most recent U.S. Claims Satisfaction Study, National General ranked last among 20 total insurers, scoring almost 100 points below average and over 60 points less than the next-lowest insurer. It was also included in J.D. Power’s Auto Insurance Study for the California, Mid-Atlantic, and Southeast regions, ranking below average in all of them (and last in California).

It didn’t fare much better on the CRASH Network Report Card, which gave National General a D+ rating and ranked it 91st out of 97 insurers. In addition, it has an NAIC Complaint Index of 5.16, indicating that it receives more complaints than average. Even when filtering for private passenger policies, it still has an above-average number of complaints with an index of 3.44.

Based on these customer service ratings, I would not recommend National General unless you’re having trouble finding coverage from other insurers due to violations or low credit.

That said, National General does have an A+ rating from AM Best, indicating that it can reliably pay out claims. However, I don’t think this factor is enough to make up for its very low ratings otherwise.

National General provides several ways to file a claim and is available 24/7, which I do appreciate about the company, as that is not always the case. To file a claim, you can call the number on your policy card or 1-800-468-3466 at any time. You can also file one online through the website portal or by chatting with a loss taking specialist.

Eligible policyholders can use the company’s virtual estimating tool, called MyClaimsPics, which allows you to take photos of the damage to your car and submit them for a quick estimate. National General states that simple claims may be processed in as little as 24 hours, but more complex cases, especially involving disputes, can take longer.

National General’s website is clear and user-friendly, though I found that it did not provide as much information on coverages and discounts as I would have liked. However, it clearly directs visitors to find an agent or get a quote online, and also has links to log in to your account and file a claim from the homepage.

You can use your online account to access your ID cards, make a payment, enroll in paperless billing, renew your policy, and more. I also downloaded the app, but I wasn’t able to access anything without registering my account or logging in.

However, I noted that clicking “log in” opens a web browser, which I thought was strange. Sure enough, that’s a common complaint about the app, which has very low ratings on both the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store. The entire app isn’t a web browser, but you need to log in via the website, which makes for a poor user experience. Beyond that, many users complain that the site won’t load, so they can’t even access the app.

National General’s telematics program, DynamicDrive, requires a separate app, which has much better reviews.

At AutoInsurance.com, we review auto insurance providers based on four key factors:

• Price (40%): We analyze average full and minimum coverage rates for safe drivers with good credit. Since National General specializes in high-risk insurance, we also looked at rates for drivers with DUIs. We take into account available discounts as well. Full coverage averages use the following limits:
  • Bodily injury liability: $100,000 per person/$300,000 per accident
  • Property damage liability: $100,000 per accident
  • Comprehensive and collision: $500 deductible
• Claims Handling (25%): Claims processing is the most important role of an insurance company, and we assess how satisfied customers are with insurers’ claims practices through sources like the J.D. Power U.S. Auto Claims Satisfaction Study and the CRASH Network Insurer Report Card. We also factor in financial strength ratings from sources like AM Best.
• Customer Experience (25%): We evaluate auto insurance companies based on their customer experience, which includes the ease of getting a quote and buying a policy. We also consider how much customers can do online versus through an agent. Our sources include the NAIC complaint index, J.D. Power’s Auto Insurance Study, and app store reviews.
• Coverage Options (10%): We look at the range of coverages available from each insurer, including whether they have selections beyond the state-required minimums, such as accident forgiveness, gap coverage, and more.

Read more about our ratings and methodology.