Allstate Insurance Review - The Right Way to Get Auto Insurance Online

Even if you’ve never shopped for insurance before, you probably have heard about Allstate. This major insurance company has been around since 1931, and it offers auto, home, renters, motorcycle, and life insurance.

As a large company, Allstate has a lot to offer, including handy online tools to make paying bills and filing claims easier. But is it the best car or motorcycle insurance for your particular needs? Check out the rest of this review to find out.

Insurance Coverage Offered

Like we mentioned in the beginning of the article, Allstate pretty much does it all. They offer auto insurance, homeowners insurance, renters insurance, motorcycle insurance, and life insurance. And many of these policies are highly customizable so that you can get exactly the coverage you need.

As with most car insurance companies, it offers customizable collision, comprehensive, and liability insurance. You can get your state’s minimum liability insurance or kick up your coverage if you need to. It also includes options for:

• Rental car reimbursement if your car is in the shop because of a covered incident
• Sound system insurance if you have an upgraded sound system
• Roadside coverage for tire changes, jump starts, and other common services
• Personal injury and umbrella policies to extend your liability coverage
• Property protection coverage to extend your liability coverage

Allstate also offers a couple of specialized types of car insurance coverage. One is classic car coverage. This type of coverage may be more expensive, but it’s made specifically to protect your valuable classic car.

Allstate also offers ridesharing coverage. Many insurance companies don’t offer coverage for incidents that happen while you are driving for a service like Uber or Lyft. But Allstate does. And the coverage doesn’t cost all that much either. It starts at just $15 to $20 per year. The coverage kicks in if you’re waiting for an assignment with your ridesharing app or if you’ve accepted a ride or have a trip or passenger en route.

What About Motorcycles?

Allstate also offers custom coverage for motorcycles, which can also apply to motorized scooters. This type of coverage can include liability coverage, which is required in most states, collision coverage, comprehensive coverage, and even uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage. This last piece can be essential if you get hit by a motorist who doesn’t have sufficient insurance to cover your costs.

Customize Your Insurance Policy Exactly to Your Needs, With Allstate

How Does Pricing Stack Up?

Car insurance rates vary wildly from state to state and even ZIP code to ZIP code. Plus, so many personal factors go into the cost of your insurance. This can include things like your age, driving record, and even your credit history. Bottom line: It’s impossible to determine what your insurance might cost from one company to the next.

With that said, the most recent JD Power Auto Insurance Shopping study showed that Allstate scored two out of five for pricing. This may mean that Allstate is on the more expensive side for most consumers for auto insurance.

However, the best way to know what pricing might look like is to get a quote. Luckily, Allstate has a great quote engine on their site that lets you check your potential premium for either auto or motorcycle insurance within a few minutes.

Additional Perks and Benefits

Price isn’t everything when it comes to car or motorcycle insurance, though it’s important. Allstate also has some additional perks and benefits to offer, which might make it worth a few extra bucks a month in premiums. Here are some you should consider:

Local Agents

As more and more insurance companies move to an online-driven model, it can be hard to get someone on the phone who actually understands you and your insurance needs. With Allstate’s local agent model, you’ll always connect with a local agent who will handle your questions and claims. If you get an agent you really like, they can be worth their weight in gold. Good agents will be on the lookout for ways to save you money and can make the claims process easier.

Great E-Tools

Even though they still rely on local agents, Allstate has some of the best-rated online and mobile tools around. You can use the app to pull up your insurance card, make payments, or process a claim. In fact, Allstate scored four out of five on most of its claims processing categories in JD Power’s Auto Claims survey. In short, these e-tools can save you a lot of time and hassle when it comes time to file a claim.

Loads of Discounts

Allstate offers lots of car insurance discounts. One of the advantages to working with a good local agent is that they’ll help you find the discounts that apply to your situation. These can save you a significant amount of money on your original premium quote. Available discounts include:

• New car discount if your vehicle is new and you’re the first owner
• Multiple car/policy discounts if you bundle multiple car insurance policies or car insurance with home or renters insurance
• Student discounts for good grades
• Discounts for vehicle features like anti-lock brakes and anti-theft devices
• Safe driver discounts

Available discounts for motorcycle insurance include:

• Multiple motorcycle discount
• Multi-policy discount if you insure motorcycle(s) and other things with Allstate
• Good rider discount if you go 60 months or more without an at-fault accident or major violation
• Transfer discount if you move from another company to Allstate
• Motorcycle organization discount if you belong to certain motorcycle associations
• Motorcycle safety course discount if you passed a safe driving program within the past three years

High Financial Strength

It can be tempting to opt for an insurance company with cut-rate premiums. But if the company doesn’t have cash on hand to pay out your claim, you could be out of luck. Allstate is not that type of company. This long-standing company has great financial strength, rated A+ by A.M. Best and Aa3 by Moody’s.

Decent Customer Satisfaction

“Decent” may not sound that great. But getting good customer satisfaction ratings as an insurance company is tough. Only a few companies get excellent ratings from their customers, and many of them are regional, smaller insurers. Allstate scores about average for customer satisfaction and has fewer than average customer complaints for a company of its size.

Get Insured by One of The Most Stable Insurance Companies  

Potential Drawbacks

So what might cause you to second-guess getting your car or motorcycle insurance through Allstate? The biggest thing would be pricing. You’ll definitely want to shop out the price of your car insurance with this company.

With that said, if you’re in the market for both home or renters and car insurance, you’ll get a hefty discount by insuring both with the company. You can’t do a quote for both of these types of insurance at once on the Allstate website. You have to get them quoted separately, and then you can’t see the bundled policy discounts easily. So if you’re shopping around for both of these options, call your local Allstate agent to get a good quote on both types of insurance. The savings you see from a bundle could outweigh potentially higher car insurance costs.

Who is it Best For?

Allstate is a great insurance option for anyone who likes the local agent model and wants that extra personalized customer service. It still offers excellent e-tools for those who are more drawn to handling their business that way. But it can let you get in touch with a real person who will get to know you and your insurance needs well over time.

It’s also a great option for people with unique insurance needs, especially for classic cars or ridesharing drivers. So if you’re in one of these situations, be sure to get a quote from Allstate while shopping around for car insurance.