How Good is Your Car Insurance?
"ValChoice, a data analytics company that aims to bring some transparency to the opaque insurance industry."
-Gretchen Morgenson
ValChoice is “Carfax for...insurance”
-Giovanni Rodriguez
Compare Auto Insurance Companies in Arizona
| Market Share | ValChoice Score | |
|---|---|---|
| State Farm | 16.87% |  |
| GEICO (Berkshire Hathaway Insurance ) | 14.91% |  |
| Progressive Insurance | 10.58% |  |
| Farmers Insurance | 8.10% | |
| Allstate Insurance | 7.61% | |
| ValChoice only comments publicly on companies that are above average. For any company that is below average we don't publicly display the score. For those interested, scores on all companies are available with free reports. All analysis based on quantitative, high-quality data. Data sources include: SERFF, state insurance commissioners, National Association of Insurance Commissioners and AM Best Company. Data used by permission. | ||
Arizona laws require drivers to have the minimum insurance coverage shown in the table below. The important point to know about auto insurance coverage amounts is they define the maximum amount any Arizona car insurance company is obligated to pay. If the costs are more than the amount of insurance coverage you purchased, you will be personally responsible for the costs above your coverage limits. More information on how insurance coverage protects you is included below the table.
Minimum Car Insurance Coverage Required in Arizona
| Minimum Coverage | |
|---|---|
| Bodily Injury, per person | 15,000 |
| Bodily Injury, per accident | 30,000 |
| Property Damage | 10,000 |
Types of Auto Insurance in Arizona
Under Arizona insurance laws, the costs of an accident are allocated to the driver who is at fault. This means, if you cause an accident, your insurance pays the medical bills, lost wages and cost of repairing the cars and property you damaged. If you don't have insurance, or don't have enough insurance, you are personally responsible.
Bodily Injury Protection
Bodily injury protection is a type of liability insurance. Liability insurance means it pays for the other party, not you. In the table above the minimum bodily injury coverage you can buy in Arizona is specified in the first line of the table. The minimum bodily injury coverage amount you can purchase to pay the bill when more than one person is injured in an accident is shown in the second line of the table.
Property Damage Protection
The property damage protection that is required under Arizona law is also liability insurance coverage. Property damage liability insurance pays for repairs to the other person's vehicle or property, not your own. The maximum amount the car insurance company will pay on your behalf is the coverage limit that you purchased. If you want coverage above the minimum amount, that can be purchased but is not required.
Protecting Yourself, Your Passengers and Your Car
Coverage for your own vehicle, yourself and your passengers can also be purchased. However, this type of accident insurance is not required by law. Instead, it's optional. Reasons you may not want this additional car insurance could be that you have an old car that isn't worth repairing if something happens. You may not want bodily injury coverage for yourself if you have a good health insurance policy. However, don't forget that when you are the driver, you need to protect your passengers too. When you take the option to buy bodily injury insurance for you and your passengers, it is sometimes called personal injury protection. Personal Injury Protection (PIP) is a type of accident insurance where your own car insurance company pays first. This is not required in Arizona. Don't let the different terms confuse you.
Uninsured Motorist and Underinsured Motorist
Despite laws that every driver have auto insurance, not everyone does. Or, they don't have enough coverage to pay the costs of a serious accident. Uninsured motorist coverage will pay the costs the other drivers insurance should have paid when they don't have insurance to cover the cost of an accident. Uninsured or underinsured motorist insurance changes the arrangement so your auto insurance company will pay the costs the other drivers insurance doesn't cover.
Getting an Auto Insurance Quote
When you get a car insurance quote, be sure to get an example of the insurance policy, or the declarations page. This will be proof of how much insurance you're actually buying. Also, be sure to keep a copy of the insurance policy so you know the full extent of your coverage.
Always ask your agent to provide you with a ValChoice report. ValChoice reports are the only reliable way to know how well insurance companies perform for providing a good value, their performance when handling claims and the level of service they provide.
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Arizona Homeowners Insurance Rates and Trends
The five largest home insurance companies in Arizona are shown in the table below. The market share of each company is shown in the second column. The third column shows their most recent ValChoice Score for homeowners insurance. ValChoice Scores are only presented for companies with above average performance. For companies where there is no needle on the fuel-gauge-style image, you can order a free report to get the ValChoice Score. This information is presented so you can reliably compare Arizona homeowners insurance companies in order to understand how to get the best homeowners insurance.
The ValChoice scoring system takes into account how they price, their historic performance for claims handling and the level of service they provide. This scoring system uses high quality data and grades on a curve. This approach to grading yields companies that score as high as 100 and as low as 0. Only a system like this gives consumers a true picture of company performance. For more details on any given company, order a ValChoice report.
Compare Homeowners Insurance Companies in Arizona
| Market Share | ValChoice Score | |
|---|---|---|
| USAA | 8.60% |  |
| State Farm | 18.26% |  |
| Allstate Insurance | 9.02% |  |
| Farmers Insurance | 13.73% | |
| Liberty Mutual Insurance Companies | 8.43% | |
| ValChoice only comments publicly on companies that are above average. For any company that is below average we don't publicly display the score. For those interested, scores on all companies are available with free reports. All analysis based on quantitative, high-quality data. Data sources include: SERFF, state insurance commissioners, National Association of Insurance Commissioners and AM Best Company. Data used by permission. | ||
Renters Insurance
Many companies that offer homeowners insurance also offer renters insurance. The ValChoice grading system applies to renters insurance as well as home insurance. To get a report on renters insurance, simply select homeowners insurance and choose the type of insurance report card you would like to have.
Flood Insurance
Flood insurance is offered separately from homeowners insurance. Talk to your insurance company or insurance agent if you wish to purchase flood insurance. At this time ValChoice does not grade any flood insurance offerings. For more information on flood insurance, read our blog post titled "10 Facts About Flood Insurance, Without Drowning in Details."
Getting an Insurance Quote
When getting a homeowners insurance quote, be sure to consider the following important items.
Amount of Coverage
The dollar amount of insurance coverage to purchase should be equal to the estimated cost of rebuilding the home. Do not include the property value when determining the amount of insurance to buy.
Extended Dwelling Endorsement
This coverage is often referred to as “extras.” This is additional coverage that addresses the problem that occurs when the actual cost to rebuild the home is more than was estimated when buying the insurance. In situations where there is a catastrophic event such as a flood, tornado or hurricane, building costs can increase significantly due to building materials increasing in price and contractors being scarce. Extended dwelling endorsements cover this higher than expected building cost. Extended dwelling endorsements are typically offered as a percentage of the coverage amount. The amount offered is commonly 10%, 25%, 50% or 100% of the coverage.
Building Code Coverage
When rebuilding a home, local laws will require that you rebuild to current building codes. If building damage is extensive, sometimes the laws even require you to upgrade the undamaged portion of the home to meet current building codes. This can be a significant additional expense. It's common that a homeowners insurance policy will exclude or limit the coverage for conforming to current building codes. Be sure to understand this important point about the insurance you buy.
Loss of Use
This specifies how much and how long the insurance company will pay for you to live somewhere else while your home is being rebuilt or repaired. One year in loss of use coverage is common. If your home requires a total rebuild, it’s wise to plan on a couple years for the project to be completed.
Covering Your Personal Items (“Contents”)
Your personal items will commonly be covered by what’s known as “replacement cost” coverage. This means you only get paid when you actually replace the item. There are two important items to understand here. 1) You must have a detailed home inventory to know what you had in order to replace these items, and 2) if you had $200,000 worth of contents and only replaced $20,000 worth of items, you would only receive the $20,000. “Replacement cost” sounds good. In reality, it may leave you far short of what you expected.
How Good is Your Home Insurance?
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Arizona Homeowners Insurance Rate Calculator
This calculator is an average of insurance prices across the state. Individual prices will vary depending on factors such as deductibles, coverage and the risks associated with the specific area where you live.
Use this calculator to estimate home insurance prices in Arizona. Just enter the replacement value (cost to rebuild, not including the land).
Compared to other states, the value Arizona homeowners get from their home insurance around the national average of all 50 states. Arizona residents are also fortunate that home insurance prices have been increasing at a rate slightly below the national average.
Homeowners insurance prices have increased at a faster rate than health insurance prices since 2000. This means Arizona residents need to pay close attention to their home insurance price and shop other providers every few years in order to continue getting homeowners insurance that's a good value.