Auto-Owners Home and Auto Insurance Review
- Auto-Owners offers cheap car insurance with flexible coverage options.
- Its home insurance rates are slightly more expensive than other companies.
- Auto-Owners’ discounts can make it affordable to bundle your car insurance with a home or renters policy.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Affordable car insurance rates Flexible home and auto insurance coverages Excellent complaint rating Independent agents make it easy to comparison shop | Higher-than-average home insurance rates Mixed ratings for overall customer satisfaction Only available in 26 states |
Is Auto-Owners a good insurance company?
Auto-Owners is a very good regional company for home and auto insurance.
Its car insurance rates are cheaper than national averages and it has an excellent complaint rating. These factors help Auto-Owners get a 5-star rating for car insurance from LendingTree.
However, Auto-Owners only gets a 3.5-star LendingTree rating for home insurance. This is mostly due to its higher-than-average home insurance rates. Still, the company’s discounts can make it affordable to bundle your home and auto insurance with Auto-Owners.
Auto-Owners get mixed reviews in J.D. Power’s customer surveys. Its overall satisfaction rating for homeowners insurance is better than the industry average. Its overall auto satisfaction rating, however, is a little worse.
Auto-Owners ratings at a glance
| Rating | Auto-Owners score | Industry average |
|---|---|---|
| NAIC auto complaint rating (lower is better) | 0.49 | 1.0 |
| NAIC home complaint rating (lower is better) | 0.40 | 1.0 |
| Overall auto satisfaction (higher is better) | 814 | 820 |
| Overall home satisfaction (higher is better) | 834 | 819 |
| Auto claims satisfaction (higher is better) | 888 | 878 |
| Home claims satisfaction (higher is better) | 853 | 874 |
| Financial strength | Rated A++ by AM Best | Highest possible rating |
Sources: NAIC, J.D. Power
How much is Auto-Owners car insurance?
Auto-Owners’ liability car insurance rates average $516 a year, or $43 a month. This is 33% less than the national average of $64 a month.
Car insurance rate comparison
| Company | Annual rate full coverage | Annual rate liability | |
|---|---|---|---|
 | State Farm | $1,487 | $597 |
 | Auto-Owners | $1,690 | $516 |
 | Geico | $1,937 | $727 |
 | Progressive | $2,032 | $791 |
 | Allstate | $2,609 | $1,158 |
 | Farmers | $3,091 | $1,188 |
Auto-Owners car insurance cost by driving record
Auto-Owners also offers cheap car insurance for drivers with a bad driving record. It charges drivers with a speeding ticket an average of $1,822 a year, or $152 a month. This is 25% less than the national average.
Auto-Owners’ rate for drivers with a prior at-fault accident is 24% less than the national average. Its rates for drivers with a DUI (driving under the influence) average $285 a month. This is also cheaper than the national average, but only by 6%.
Auto-Owners’ rates with a bad driving record
| Driving record | Auto-Owners annual rate | U.S. average annual rate |
|---|---|---|
| Clean record | $1,690 | $1,970 |
| Ticket | $1,822 | $2,427 |
| Accident | $2,215 | $2,930 |
| DUI | $3,422 | $3,626 |
Auto-Owners car insurance for teens
Auto-Owners offers cheap car insurance for teens. It charges young drivers an average of $1,700 a year for liability insurance. This works out to $142 a month, which is 30% less than the national average of $203 a month.
The company charges teens an average of $4,349 a year for full coverage car insurance. While this may seem expensive, it’s actually 25% less than the national average.
Young driver car insurance rates
| Type of insurance | Auto-Owners annual rate | U.S. average annual rate |
|---|---|---|
| Liability only | $1,700 | $2,433 |
| Full coverage | $4,349 | $5,824 |
Auto-Owners insurance rates by state
Auto-Owners’ car insurance rates are cheaper than the state averages in most areas. For example, Auto-Owners’ full-coverage rate in Utah is 40% less than the state’s average.
Auto-Owners’ full-coverage rates vs. state averages
| State | Auto-Owners annual | State average annual | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Colorado | $2,424 | $2,542 | -5% |
| Georgia | $1,458 | $1,832 | -20% |
| Idaho | $981 | $1,227 | -20% |
| Indiana | $1,167 | $1,511 | -23% |
| Iowa | $1,292 | $1,663 | -22% |
| Kentucky | $1,868 | $2,295 | -19% |
| Michigan | $3,192 | $4,638 | -31% |
| Minnesota | $1,587 | $1,884 | -16% |
| North Dakota | $1,580 | $1,858 | -15% |
| South Carolina | $1,402 | $1,808 | -22% |
| South Dakota | $1,960 | $2,016 | -3% |
| Utah | $1,364 | $2,261 | -40% |
Full coverage includes collision and comprehensive, which cover your car for damage and theft.
Auto-Owners liability-only car insurance rates also tend to be lower than state averages. Most notably, its liability-only rate in Iowa is 44% less than the state average.
Auto-Owners’ liability-only rates vs. state averages
| State | Auto-Owners annual | State average annual | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Colorado | $563 | $897 | -37% |
| Georgia | $500 | $790 | -37% |
| Idaho | $306 | $413 | -26% |
| Indiana | $339 | $533 | -36% |
| Iowa | $249 | $444 | -44% |
| Kentucky | $864 | $1,183 | -27% |
| Michigan | $1,134 | $1,849 | -39% |
| Minnesota | $531 | $743 | -29% |
| North Dakota | $342 | $522 | -34% |
| South Carolina | $512 | $803 | -36% |
| South Dakota | $234 | $351 | -33% |
| Utah | $615 | $989 | -38% |
Car insurance discounts from Auto-Owners
Auto-Owners offers most of the same car insurance discounts that other companies offer. These include a discount for bundling your car insurance with a home or renters policy. You can also add life insurance and other lines of coverage to your bundle.
Unlike most larger companies, though, Auto-Owners doesn’t offer an app-based safe driver program. These programs use an app to monitor your driving. You get discounts for signing up and driving safely.
Auto-Owners does offer a way for teens to get a discount for driving safely. You have to use an approved monitoring app like Mama Bear, Life360 or AT&T Drive Mode to qualify.
Auto-Owners also offer discounts to teens who get good grades. Further, you can get a discount for going to a school more than 100 miles from home without a vehicle.
Auto-Owners car insurance discount comparison
| Discount | Auto-Owners | State Farm | Progressive | Geico | Allstate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bundling | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Vehicle safety features | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Good student | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Safe driving app | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Military | No | No | No | Yes | No |
The names and availability of these discounts vary by company and state. It’s good to ask about these and other discounts any time you compare car insurance quotes.
Auto-Owners car insurance coverages
Along with the normal car insurance coverages, Auto-Owners offers these interesting add-ons:
- At-fault accident forgiveness: Protects you from a rate increase after your first at-fault accident.
- Common loss deductible: You only pay one deductible for damage to your car and home during the same event. You have to insure both with Auto-Owners to qualify.
- Additional expense: This covers rental car costs while your car is in the shop for covered damage. If you’re far enough away from home, it also pays for meals, lodging and incidentals.
- Gap insurance: If your car is totaled, gap insurance covers the shortfall between your insurance check and loan balance. You may need this if you owe more for your car than it’s worth. It’s usually also required for a lease.
How much does Auto-Owners charge for home insurance?
Home insurance rate comparison
| Company | Annual rate |
|---|---|
 Country Financial | $2,617 |
 American Family | $2,689 |
| Allstate | $2,776 |
| Auto-Owners | $3,167 |
| State Farm | $3,295 |
| Farmers | $3,605 |
Homeowners insurance discounts from Auto-Owners
Auto-Owners offers a mix of common and unique homeowners insurance discounts. The more unique ways to save include:
- Having an automatic backup generator
- Not having a mortgage
- Having a water shut-off system
- Wind-proofing your home (in Florida, North Carolina or South Carolina)
You can also get many of the common discounts most other companies offer from Auto-Owners. These include discounts for:
- Bundling your homeowners policy with your car insurance
- Paying in full up front
- Choosing a paperless policy
- Not having prior insurance claims
- Having protective devices, like deadbolt locks and smoke detectors
Auto-Owners home insurance discount comparison
| Discount | Auto-Owners | State Farm | Allstate | Liberty Mutual | Farmers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bundling | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Backup generator | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Mortgage free | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Water shut-off | Yes | No | No | No | Yes |
| Protective devices | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
Homeowners insurance coverage from Auto-Owners
Auto-Owners’ standard homeowners insurance coverages offer most of the protections you need. Depending on your situation, these optional coverages may be worth adding to your policy:
- Water backup coverage: Most home insurance companies don’t automatically cover backups of your sewer or drainage systems. This add-on is usually cheap and worth having.
- Guaranteed home replacement cost: Your dwelling limit is the most you’ll get to rebuild your home after a disaster. Guaranteed replacement cost coverage covers approved overages if your dwelling limit is not high enough.
- Ordinance or law coverage: Standard home insurance pays to restore your home to its current condition. If your area’s building codes changed after your home was built, ordinance or law pays the added costs of meeting new requirements.
- Inland flood coverage: This add-ons protects against certain types of water damage in your home or basement. You can’t get it in a high-risk flood zone.
How to get Auto-Owners insurance quotes
Companies like Nationwide, Liberty Mutual and Travelers also work with independent agents. An independent agent can help you get quotes from multiple companies at once.
However, you still have to contact companies that use exclusive agents separately for quotes. State Farm, Allstate and Farmers are among the better-known companies with exclusive agents.
Methodology
LendingTree gets insurance rate data from Quadrant Information Services using publicly sourced insurance company filings. Rates are based on an analysis of hundreds of thousands of car insurance quotes for a typical driver. Your own rates may be different.
Unless noted otherwise, quotes are for a full-coverage policy for a 30-year-old man with a clean driving record and good credit. He drives a 2015 Honda Civic EX. Teen rates are for an 18-year-old male with no tickets or accidents.
Minimum-liability policies provide liability coverage with each state’s required minimum limits.
Full-coverage policies include collision, comprehensive and liability coverage:
- Bodily injury liability: $50,000 per person, $100,000 per accident
- Property damage liability: $25,000
- Uninsured motorist: $50,000 per person, $100,000 per accident
- Personal injury protection: Minimum limits, where required
- Collision: $500 deductible
- Comprehensive: $500 deductible
Home insurance rates are based on an analysis of quotes obtained for a typical home in North Dakota. The following coverages and deductible were used:
- Dwelling: $400,000
- Other structures: $40,000
- Personal property: $200,000
- Loss of use: $80,000
- Personal liability: $100,000
- Medical payments: $5,000
- Deductible: $1,000