How do you save money on insurance? By regularly shopping around for the best deals. We’ll tell you about some discounts worth checking out in our Allstate insurance review.
Allstate
Pros
- Available in all 50 states
- Agents in your local area
- Multiple discounts offered
- Several policy options available
Cons
- Rideshare coverage not available in every state
- Average customer satisfaction
Table of Contents
If you’re in the market for a new insurance policy–whether home, auto, or life–Allstate has probably popped up in your search at least once or twice. The company, which was the 4th largest auto insurer in the country in 2017 (and 3rd largest in 2016), is the top pick for many Americans. But is this company the right one for you and your family?
Let’s take a look at what Allstate has to offer, what makes this company unique, and why it’s one of the largest insurers in the country.
What Allstate Offers
While Allstate is best-known for its auto insurance coverage, the company also provides a one-stop-shop for customers looking to buy auto, home, business, and/or life insurance policies. It’s the largest publicly held insurer in America, and is available in all 50 states. Allstate was founded in 1931, providing stellar customer service and peace of mind to Americans for almost a century.
Unlike some insurers where you’ll just deal with the company directly, Allstate provides you with agents in your local area. These agents are available to help you in-person with your shopping, purchasing, and claims needs, day or night and whenever tragedy strikes. Allstate values itself on these local agents, allowing the company to feel as though it’s part of each and every community served
Allstate offers coverage for vehicles of all types, including cars, trucks, motorcycles, RVs, and even boats. If you’re looking for life insurance, Allstate offers both term and whole life policies to suit your needs. Want to protect your small business from risks or unexpected events? The right business policy could be exactly what you need. And if you want coverage for your home, you can purchase both homeowners and renters insurance through the company.
Coverage and Discounts
No matter your needs, Allstate agents can create a policy to cover them.
They offer a variety of auto insurance options, whether you want to buy state-minimum liability or insure your whole family with comprehensive and collision coverage. You can also build your own package with their property damage, bodily injury, and even uninsured motorist coverage options. If you want the peace of mind that comes with roadside assistance, they have a number of packages and price points to choose from.
Auto insurance discounts include:
- Smart Student discount
- Multiple Policy discount
- New Car discount
- Full-pay and ePay discounts
- Anti-theft Device discounts
Whether you own or rent your home, are the landlord of a rental property, own a condo, or even have a mobile home, Allstate can protect you. Coverage options even include things like personal property insurance (for jewelry or other valuable items), guest medical coverage, yard and garden coverage, electronic data recovery, and even host coverage if you plan to rent out your home through Airbnb (or similar services). Your home insurance policy shouldn’t be identical to your neighbor’s, so Allstate wants to ensure that you have the coverage that perfectly fits you and your needs… not a cookie cutter policy.
Home insurance coverage discounts include:
- Claim-free discount
- Multiple Policy discount
- Home-buyer discount
- Safe Home discount
- Easy Pay Plan discount
Allstate provides life insurance options for term, whole life, universal life, and even variable universal life coverage. You can purchase a policy that will cover you for as little as 10 years or until the rest of your life.
Allstate Auto Insurance
Since Allstate is known best for auto insurance, here’s a little bit more about what they offer to their drivers.
With an Allstate auto policy, you’ll enjoy benefits like new car replacement, a safe driving bonus (for every 6 months that you go accident-free), accident forgiveness, deductible rewards ($100 off for each year you go without a violation), and even a claim satisfaction guarantee (not happy with the way a claim is handled? You can get up to six months’ of premiums credited back).
If you want to save even more, you can take advantage of the Drivewise app. Simply download Allstate’s safe-driving app and drive as usual; the app will track your speed and braking behavior, and use this data to analyze your driving habits. You’ll be rewarded with at least 3% off just for using the app, and if you’re a safe driver, and as much as a 15% discount.
Drive for Uber or Lyft, or thinking about signing up to ride-share? Allstate also offers coverage for ride-hailing drivers, which kicks in when they have passengers in the car. Rideshare coverage isn’t yet in every state, so be sure to ask your local Allstate agent if it’s available where you work.
Allstate Home Insurance
If you need homeowners insurance, Allstate is a great place to start your search. The insurer offers options to meet your needs, no matter what kind of home you have, the coverage you’re looking to buy, or what you plan to do with your property (such as rent it out).
Home insurance policies are designed to cover your actual dwelling with everything from theft, fire, smoke, windstorms, hail, falling objects, freezing pipes, sudden and accidental water damage (a leaking hot water heater, for example). Home insurance can also protect your guests and loved ones in cases of injury in your home.
If you live in a condominium, you can buy Allstate home insurance, too. This coverage will protect your family and your belongings in case of things like fire, smoke damage, and other accidental and sudden losses. Just be aware that certain issues–floods, water backups, and earthquakes–are excluded from most condominium policies, including those offered by Allstate.
If you plan to rent out your home to tenants, Allstate offers landlord insurance policies. These are not only designed to protect your dwelling from the typical perils (like floods or falling trees), but also against the specific risks that come along with renting out a property. This type of coverage can protect your general financial assets, as well as your monthly rental income, were a situation to arise.
Allstate also provides insurance policies for manufactured homes, though the policy coverage varies slightly. Contact a local agent to determine exactly what you need to protect you and your home, and what’s available in your state.
Allstate Motorcycle Insurance
If you prefer to cruise around on two wheels instead of four, Allstate has a policy for you. It will provide protection for both you and your motorcycle (or scooter), whether it’s your daily rider or stays in storage most of the year.
Allstate bike insurance offers policyholders protection in terms of liability, collision, comprehensive, and uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage. The coverage limits and terms, as well as requirements for your policy, will vary state-to-state. Be sure to contact a local Allstate agent to create a policy that’s right for you and the area in which you live.
Allstate Renters Insurance
Renting a home means that you’re not responsible if the A/C unit suddenly goes kaput or the foundation shifts. But what if the home is burglarized and your valuables were stolen, or a fire/smoke damage ruins your belongings? Your landlord may not be on the hook for much, if any of that, which is where an Allstate renters insurance comes into play.
A renters insurance policy is considerably cheaper than a homeowners policy, as you are simply protecting yourself and your belongings–not the dwelling itself. For only a few dollars a month, you can ensure that if your rental home catches fire or burglars steal all of your valuable items, you aren’t on the hook for their replacement.
Keep in mind that, as with most renters insurance policies, Allstate does not cover flood damage to your belongings with renters coverage.
Valuable Personal Property Insurance
If you have high-dollar items (furs, jewelry, camera equipment, and even antiques), you may want to look into a valuable personal property policy through Allstate. Even if these items were to be lost, stolen, or damaged in an otherwise-covered event (through, say, your homeowners policy), you still might not get their full value. That’s because other policy types have coverage limits, and your most valuable items are likely to exceed these limits.
Be sure to look into your insurance policies to see the individual and total coverage limits. Then, think about the most valuable items in your home, and consider whether you need personal property coverage. If someone were to break in and steal a diamond necklace, for instance, the replacement value for that piece might exceed the individual item limits offered by your homeowners policy. Without personal property coverage, you’re stuck covering the difference out of pocket.
Recreational Vehicles
Allstate also offers coverage for your “toys.” We’re referring to snowmobiles, boats, ATVs, etc. The types of coverage, limits, and prices for these policies will depend on your state, the age of the recreational vehicle, and more.
Allstate Life Insurance
Allstate doesn’t just protect the things you own; the insurance company also offers policies to protect you.
If you’re looking for either a term or whole life insurance policy, you can find one through Allstate that offers a range of coverage options to protect those you love most. You can purchase a life insurance policy on its own or bundle that coverage with your auto, home, or renters insurance to save quite a bit, too.
Allstate term life policies are available in terms of 10-30 years, with coverage options of $200,000 to $1,000,000. You can also choose the exact number of years you want for your insurance term–this means that whether you want 12 years or 23, you aren’t stuck buying in increments of 5 or 10 years.
Whole life policies are also available from Allstate.
Mobile App Pros and Cons
Allstate offers a free mobile app so you can have access to all of your products and services on the go. Whether you need to check coverage, file a claim, or pay your premium bill, you can do so with a few taps of your thumb.
The Pros
With Allstate Mobile, you can:
- Contact your Allstate agent immediately
- Access proof of coverage/your ID cards
- View your policy information
- Email coverage information to yourself
- Start a claim
- Manage existing claims’ progress
- Earn discounts through the Drivewise program
- Take and upload claim photos to Allstate
- Access roadside assistance if you have a flat tire, dead battery, need a tow, or run out of gas
- Pay your bill
Allstate Mobile App Features
Aside from simply managing your coverage and accessing the specifics of your policy, the Allstate Mobile app also offers a few bonus features. Through your mobile device, you can also:
- Plan a digital fire escape route through your home or work
- Get parking reminders
- Locate the nearest gas stations
- Save money with Allstate’s car buying service
The Allstate Mobile insurance app is available in the App Store and on Google Play.
The Cons
As with any mobile app, there are some downsides to using Allstate Mobile.
The biggest complaint from consumers is in regards to the Drivewise feature. While this offers customers an opportunity to earn discounts for being a safe driver, the app isn’t as polished as some would like.
First, the app is always running in the background, which could easily drain your cell phone’s battery, whether you’re driving or not.
Second, there is currently no way for you to note when you start or end a trip–or when you’re a passenger in someone else’s vehicle–so some customers question whether the data is accurate.
Another common complaint is in regards to taking photos for submitted claims. As of this writing, the app will only allow customers to submit new photos through the app. This means that if you’re not in front of the vehicle and are trying to upload photos taken previously, you won’t be able to do so.
Lastly, even though Allstate offers life insurance policies, the app does not allow you to view the policy details on your smartphone. You also cannot pay premiums through the app for life insurance coverage, as you can other policies.
Customer Satisfaction
There’s a reason that Allstate is consistently in the top of the insurance market share: customers are usually pretty happy with their services.
JD Power and Associates gives Allstate four stars in categories like claims, policy offerings, the billing process, and interactions with customers. In 2016, Allstate was the 3rd-largest auto insurance company in the country, only falling to number four in 2017.
Allstate has an A rating and is accredited with the Better Business Bureau, though customers give the company just over 1-star on BBB ratings. The Allstate app, however, seems to make customers incredibly happy: it has 4.4 stars on Google Play and 4.8 stars on iTunes.
Alternatives
Allstate offers easy ways to find quotes online. Just click on Get A Quote online and choose the product(s) you want to see how much you can save on your coverage.
Get a Quote Online
You could also contact an Allstate agent directly, who could help walk you through the exact policies that you need, and the bundle discounts you could earn by purchasing more than one type of coverage.
It’s important to shop around for the lowest cost for quality coverage, though. If you want to ensure that you’re getting the best possible price for the policies you choose, there are other options available to you.
You could look at PolicyGenius, for instance, which is an aggregate insurance quote company. Through PolicyGenius, you can see quotes from multiple insurance companies at once, saving you the time and energy of entering your information on various different sites.
You can also see if you qualify for discounts through any organizations or banking institutions of which you’re a member. Some credit unions, for example, will have special insurance rates through specific insurers, and even offer online portals to get direct quotes.
Read more: PolicyGenius Review
Is Allstate Right for You?
Depending on your needs, Allstate might be just the right insurance company for you. Whether you’re looking for auto, life, home, boat, motorcycle, and even business coverage, their local agents can build a policy that’s just right.
The company holds one of the largest market shares among U.S. insurers. They rank about average when it comes to customer satisfaction, but above average when it comes to claims and policies. Plus, they offer discounts for a number of reasons, so you can trim costs on whatever coverage you choose.
The next time you’re shopping around for insurance, give Allstate a look. Whether you wind up buying a policy, they’re definitely worth getting a quote (and even talking to a local agent) to see if this company is the right choice for you and your family.
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