Liberty Mutual Auto Insurance Review [Rates, Coverage, & More]

It can be hard to know what insurance company to pick out of the hundreds available. The last thing you want is to pick out a company without researching it first, as its rates and service could disappoint you later.

Liberty Mutual is one of the largest insurance companies in the U.S., and its commercial jingle seems to play every two seconds on the TV! Customers may be attracted to Liberty Mutual because of its prominence, but it is important to research a company thoroughly regardless of how popular it is.

Wondering if a Liberty Mutual Auto Insurance policy is right for you?

We want you to be aware of what EXACTLY Liberty Mutual Auto Insurance has to offer so you can make the best decision for your needs. To help you make this decision, we have reviewed Liberty Mutual Auto Insurance’s ratings, history, and other important details.

Keep reading to learn about Liberty Mutual. Want to start comparing rates today? Enter your zip code in our FREE online tool!

Ratings Agency

Knowing the ratings of an insurance company is important. Not only do rating help show a company’s financial security, but they also show if a company has good customer service. If you are considering switching providers, ratings are an important factor to look at.

Let’s take a quick look at Liberty Mutual’s ratings.

Not sure what these numbers and ratings mean? Below, we’ve outlined why you should care about these ratings.

AM Best

An AM Best rating looks at the financial strength of a company. You may have noticed the loss ratio listed in the overview box at the beginning. Loss ratios are a factor in determining an AM Best rating. Why? Loss ratios show if a company is paying out too few or too many claims.

• Low Loss Ratio — means a company is paying out too few claims to insurance customers
• High Loss Ratio (over 100 percent) — means a company is paying out too many claims to insurance customers and risks going bankrupt

Now that we know how loss ratios factor into a company’s financial ratings, let’s look again at the AM Best rating.

Liberty Mutual’s rating is an A, which means AM Best considers Liberty Mutual to be a top company.

According to AM Best, the top ratings are A++, A+, A, and A-. These companies are considered financially stable, which means Liberty Mutual Insurance has good financial standing.

This is partly because Liberty Mutual has a loss ratio of 66.77 percent, which is a little low but not detrimental to the company. After all, a company that pays out too many claims risks going bankrupt and will not be financially secure.

Better Business Bureau

Better Business Bureau provides ratings on companies to help customers make decisions when picking out providers. Liberty Mutual’s rating is an A-, which is a decent grade (A+ is the highest grade).

Better Business Bureau based this rating on a number of factors, such as the company’s complaint history, how long it has been in business, and its business practices.

You may have noticed that we only included the Better Business Bureau rating for the state of California. We provided this to give you an idea of how Liberty Mutual rates at Better Business Bureau, but Better Business Bureau’s ratings may differ slightly from state to state.

Moody’s Rating

Moody’s highest rating is Aaa, which is given to the highest quality companies that have the lowest level of credit risk. Moody’s rating for Liberty Mutual is Baa2.

So what does this lower rating mean? It’s not bad. According to Moody, a Baa2 rating means a company has moderate credit risk, is medium-grade, and may have speculative characteristics (potential high risk of loss for investors).

Moody’s conclusion is that the outlook is stable for Liberty Mutual, but there are more investment risk factors than a company with an Aaa rating.

S&P Rating

Let’s move onto another rating. S&P bases its rating on different factors, such as a company’s credit history and its risk factors. Once again, Liberty Mutual rates as a medium-grade BBB.

The highest grade S&P gives is an AAA rating, which means a company has the ability to meet financial responsibilities. A BBB rating means a company has the capacity to meet financial responsibilities, but poor economic conditions are more detrimental to a company with a BBB rating.

As you can see, Liberty Mutual has solid ratings at all the major rating companies, but they are not the highest a company can have. Let’s look now at another aspect of Liberty Mutual — customer complaints.

NAIC Complaint Index

Customer satisfaction plays a huge role in a company’s success, but keep in mind that how a company deals with complaints is also important. That being said, let’s look closer at Liberty Mutual’s complaint index.

As you can see, the biggest branches of Liberty Mutual have a fairly low complaint index.

JD Power Ranking

JD Power ranks a company based on numerous different factors. Below, you can see each ranking JD Power gave Liberty Mutual.

Clearly, Liberty Mutual has some work to do to increase its numbers! On the overall ranking of companies, JD Power placed Liberty Mutual near the bottom for customer satisfaction. This doesn’t mean Liberty Mutual is terrible at customer service, but it does mean that other companies are better at it.

Consumer Reports

Consumer satisfaction plays an important role in the rating of a company. Below, we have listed the 2017 ratings that Consumer Reports collected. These ratings are based on customer surveys. Each rating looks at the different services that Liberty Mutual provides.

According to consumer reports, Liberty Mutual is great at making sure the claim process goes smoothly and to the customer’s satisfaction. Up next, we will take an in-depth look at the history of Liberty Mutual.

Liberty Mutual’s Company History

Knowing the history of a company is important to determine if an insurer is right for you. That’s why we are going to take a close look at Liberty Mutual’s market share, service methods, and much more!

After all, you want to make that the company you are purchasing insurance from has a decent past record.

Market Share

The NAIC reported on Liberty Mutual’s market shares. Market shares are an important factor in judging how effective a company will be at generating revenue in the future.

The market share has gone up slightly since 2015, which is good news.

Companies with higher market shares are more competitive, as low market shares mean a company isn’t large enough or good enough to compete with other companies on the market.

Service Type

At Liberty Mutual, there are multiple ways to get in touch with the company. You can actually create and access an account online at Liberty Mutual’s website, as well as contact a local agent.

Liberty Mutual Insurance also offers roadside assistance services, so if you are a Liberty Mutual customer already, make sure to check out this feature.

Commercial Insurance

Businesses who have multiple employees operating company vehicles may choose to purchase commercial auto insurance. This insurance works well whether you have only a few vehicle operators OR hundreds of vehicle operators.

There are also risk control options you can choose to use with commercial insurance.

• Decision Driving — Liberty Mutual will provide safety training for vehicle operators.
• Managing Vital Driving Performance — This device monitors and collects data on unsafe driving to help prevent accidents. Examples include sharp turns, sudden braking, and speeding.

If a business vehicle is in an accident, Liberty Mutual has the following systems in place to make filing a claim easier.

• Liberty Mutual Expedite — An app that allows drivers to take pictures of the damage and request an estimate. There will be a response usually within three hours.
• Guaranteed Repair Network — Liberty Mutual is partnered with different repair shops, so if a business vehicle is damaged one of these repair shops will give Liberty Mutual customers priority status.

So if you are a business looking for auto insurance, make sure to check out commercial coverage.

Community Service

Community service may seem like the last thing you need to be concerned about when looking at car insurance providers. But a company that completes community service shows that it is involved in its community — and therefore cares about its customers.

On its webpage, Liberty Mutual also offers information about its different community involvements.

In 2017, Liberty Mutual’s employees volunteered 2,680,844 hours. The company also donated $40,636,577 to the Liberty Mutual Foundation and other charities.

Clearly, Liberty Mutual cares about community involvement, which is a good sign!

Future Position of the Company

Based on all the information we’ve gone through, Liberty Mutual has a stable future. Not only is its complaint ratio low, but the company has a decent loss ratio (financial standing). This means that if the company maintains its loss ratio, it has great potential to grow in the future.

While some of the ratings (like Moody’s and S&P’s) were mediocre, none of the ratings were terrible. Rather, the ratings show that Liberty Mutual Insurance has a decent financial future and is good at making sure customers are satisfied with its services.

However, Liberty Mutual still needs to work on some issues in order to continue attracting customers. Otherwise, Liberty Mutual could see its total premiums and customer satisfaction going down.

Coverage Options

Now that we’ve gone through all the ratings, let’s start looking at what exactly Liberty Mutual offers its customers. There are many different types of coverage options available, and we are going to go through them to help you decide if Liberty Mutual is right for you.

In a basic auto insurance package, Liberty Mutual Insurance offers the following types of insurance:

• Body Injury Liability — If you at fault in a car accident and are liable, body injury liability insurance will cover OTHER’S medical costs.
• Property Damage —  Have you run into any mailboxes lately? Nothing is worse than backing out of another person’s driveway and hearing a telltale bump! Property damage insurance will cover your costs if you damage other’s property, such as mailboxes or fences.
• Medical Payments — This insurance protects both you and your passengers. Medical payments will cover both your costs and your passengers’ costs for initial medical treatment (from whiplash to more serious injuries). This includes ambulance transportation, emergency room costs, hospital stay, and other accident-related expenses.

If you are looking for more than the basic coverage options above, Liberty Mutual Insurance offers multiple add on protections and coverage options.

• Accident Forgiveness — When you are in an accident, your rates will usually increase because you are considered a higher-risk driver. This coverage ensures your rates won’t be raised after your FIRST accident.
• Better Car Replacement — If you total your car, Liberty Mutual will replace your car with another. This car will be one model year newer than your old car AND have 15,000 fewer miles.
• Comprehensive — There are many situations in which your car can be damaged by something other than a collision. Storms, floods, fires, vandalism, and theft can all contribute to a damaged vehicle. If this happens to you, Liberty Mutual will cover the cost of repairs or replacement of your vehicle.
• Collision — If you run into another car (or a tree), Liberty Mutual will cover the repair or replacement costs.
• Lifetime Repair Guarantee — If you are in an accident, Liberty Mutual will cover the cost of repairs (minus the cost of deductibles). However, you are required to use a repair shop that is approved by Liberty Mutual.
• New Car Replacement — Unlike better car replacement, Liberty Mutual will help you find a new car to replace your totaled one.
• Original Parts Replacements — If you need new parts for your car, Liberty Mutual will make sure that the new parts are of the highest quality. If original manufacturer parts aren’t available, Liberty Mutual will provide estimates for parts that are comparable in quality or reconditioned parts.
• Rental Car Coverage — If your car is in the shop, Liberty Mutual will cover the costs of a rental car until yours is fixed.
• Ridesharing — If you want to join a company like Uber or Lyft, you need ridesharing insurance. Unfortunately, Liberty Mutual doesn’t offer a ridesharing policy, but the company will still cover you when you are driving for personal reasons (non-ridesharing). Basically, if you drop someone off and then get into an accident on your way home, Liberty Mutual will still cover you.
• Towing and Labor — If you get a flat on the side of the road and have towing and labor coverage, Liberty Mutual will send someone to assist you. Common situations include flat tires, dead batteries, locked out of the car, ran out of gas, or if you need to be towed.
• Uninsured Motorist — There are many uninsured motorists out on the roads! If you are in an accident with one and they are at fault, they likely won’t be able to pay off your medical and property damage costs. With uninsured motorist insurance, Liberty Mutual will cover your costs.

Coverage Bundles

Liberty Mutual Insurance offers coverage bundles, which are intended to help you save on insurance. You can bundle together multiple insurance policies, such as home and auto insurance, to qualify for the Liberty Mutual Multi-Policy Discount.

If you find keeping all your insurance policies at one provider is easier, Liberty Mutual may be a potential choice. Especially because you can access all your insurance policy accounts through the website.

Operational States

Because Liberty Mutual is a chain of providers, there are a number of states it operates in. Liberty Mutual is licensed to sell insurance in almost all states in the U.S., but policies and promotions will be different from state to state.

Liberty Mutual also has global offices and serves countries outside of the United States. So if you don’t live in the U.S. and are curious if Liberty Mutual is a provider in your area, visit the company’s website and enter your zip code to find providers.

Discounts

Everyone loves to save money! Sometimes, it can be hard to pay for car insurance bills each month, but there are tips and tricks to saving money. At Liberty Mutual, discounts can lessen the strain on your wallet. Make sure to ask Liberty Mutual about the following discounts.

Curious to see how much you will save with all these discounts? We’ve put together the data below, so you can determine which discounts will save you the most.

Liberty Mutual offers quite a few discounts that other companies don’t. For example, Liberty Mutual offers discounts on a wide range of safety features, from adaptive cruise control to forward collision warning.

Liberty Mutual also has discounts for federal employees, new graduates, and the newly licensed, which are rarer discounts to receive.

While this seems great, there are quite a few discount options missing from Liberty Mutual’s options.

We know, it seems like an exhaustive list! But Liberty Mutual offers 38 discounts total, which is a fairly high number of discounts compared to other companies.

One important missing discount is a good credit discount. Bear in mind that while Liberty Mutual may not offer good credit discounts, the company may increase your policy if you have bad credit.

How to Make a Claim

If you are in an accident, you will have to make a claim in order to receive the money you are owed. That’s why we are going to take a look at multiple aspects of Liberty Mutual’s claim process, from the number of claims they pay out to the ease of making claims.

As you can see, Liberty Mutual has gradually increased its number of premiums written. This is good news, as it means Liberty Mutual is attracting more customers.

Loss ratio also plays an important part in the claim process. The higher the loss ratio, the more claims Liberty Mutual is paying out.

The increase in loss ratio is great news for Liberty Mutual’s customers, as Liberty Mutual is paying out a decent amount of claims. Let’s move onto another important factor — the ease of making a claim. After all, accidents are traumatizing enough. The last thing you want is to be overwhelmed and frustrated by the claim process.

Luckily, there are plenty of ways to file claims at Liberty Mutual.

• Online
• iPhone App
• Android App
• Call an agent

If you are in an accident, you can use any of the above methods to file a claim.

Car Insurance Rates

Knowing how an insurance company compares to others is important. Keep reading to discover Liberty Mutual’s standings, from state rates to credit history rates.

Planning on moving? There is a huge difference in prices between the most and least expensive states — over 18 thousand dollars! Since where you live is important in determining costs, it might be worth looking into when you are considering a move.

Next, let’s look at Liberty Mutual’s annual rates compared to other companies. Liberty Mutual is available in all 50 states.

Liberty Mutual has the highest average rates compared to the nine other companies, but Liberty Mutual also has one of the biggest differences in price between states. This means that the state plays a bigger role in Liberty Mutual’s costs, rather than overall average annual premiums.

So make sure to compare state averages as well as overall averages when shopping for car insurance.

Let’s dive into some more statistics — commute rates. If you drive a long distance to work, your rates may increase.

Once again, Liberty Mutual has the highest rates. Liberty Mutual does give a discount for less commute time, though, so make sure to take advantage of that. If you go on a longer commute, you may wish to consider a company that doesn’t change rates.

Let’s jump into another factor. At Liberty Mutual, a good credit score can reduce your rates by thousands. In the U.S. the average credit score is 675, which means most Americans should qualify for fair or good credit scores.

We know, there is a pattern in the statistics we are showing you — Liberty Mutual’s rates are the most expensive. While this may discourage you from purchasing insurance from Liberty Mutual, remember that the annual rates vary greatly from state to state.

One last statistic we want to share is driving record rates. At all insurance companies, a bad driving record increases rates. Everyone sometimes has a heavy foot on the gas pedal and earns a speeding ticket. Or maybe that fence pole came out of nowhere, ruining your day.

Regardless of how these small tragedies happened, these accidents will raise your insurance unless you have Liberty Mutual’s accident forgiveness plan.

After you use your accident forgiveness plan, though, your rates may become higher with your next accident!

Good news! Liberty Mutual’s increased rates are actually lower than some of the other companies, such as Allstate.

How to Get a Quote Online

Alright, we’ve gone through all the details and statistics. If you are still with us, you are probably considering Liberty Mutual as a potential insurer. Nobody wants to go through a long, drawn-out process to apply for car insurance, and it helps that you can get a quote online before applying to Liberty Mutual.

If you want to get a quote online, the first thing you will need to do is go to Liberty Mutual’s home page.

On the home page, you will see options right away to select the type of insurance you want a quote for. Simply select the type of insurance you want and enter your zip code.

Next, you will see a page that requests some basic information. Simply enter in your address and continue to the next step.

Finally, enter some basic contact information so that Liberty Mutual can send you your free quote!

You may want to apply to Liberty Mutual after receiving your free quote. If so, you will need the following information.

Liberty Mutual’s App

If you a person who prefers to access your information on a phone or iPad rather than a laptop, Liberty Mutual’s app may be for you. Customers have given the app glowing reviews, as the app has earned an average of 4.8 stars on Apple from over 25,000 reviews.

On the app, you can do the following:

• View policy details and make changes
• View and save auto insurance ID cards
• Electronically sign documents
• Pay bills/set up automatic payment plans

The ability to view auto insurance ID cards is useful if you are pulled over by law enforcement. Even if you do have a paper copy of your insurance policy, pulling a copy up on your phone is usually easier than digging through a pile of papers. If you are in an accident, you can also use the app for every step of the process.

• Call Emergency Roadside Services
• Take pictures of auto damage
• Report and track claim
• Find repair shop and request a rental vehicle
• Track vehicle repairs

While most of the reviewers say the app is easy to navigate, there are a few complaints about bugs on the app that needed to be worked out.

• Fingerprint login doesn’t work
• Difficult to remove auto pay
• Difficulty uploading documents
• “Remember me” doesn’t work — have to re-enter password each time

These bugs seem to not be an issue for most of the reviewers, but bear in mind that bugs are constantly being worked on in each update of an app. As for Liberty Mutual’s website, it is fairly easy to navigate and is user-friendly.

In the upper right-hand corner, there is a search box that makes answering your questions easier. You can also find FAQ pages, useful information sections, and much more.

Pros and Cons

Alright, we’ve dug deep into the different aspects of Liberty Mutual. Now we are going to put all this information together you can see a comprehensive list of pros and cons.

We imagine the biggest deterrent is the higher cost of Liberty Mutual’s policies. Remember that area is a huge factor in Liberty Mutual’s costs, so make sure to check what the average annual rate is in your area.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

We know you likely still have some questions about Liberty Mutual. We have put together a quick FAQ section, and you can also visit Liberty Mutual’s FAQ page for more answers.

What discounts am I eligible for? It can be hard to know which discounts you may receive out of the dozens available. Liberty Mutual offers a summary of your eligible discounts when you apply for a quote online, so you can have a better idea of the types of savings you will receive. If you end up purchasing Liberty Mutual, make sure to further discuss discounts to make sure none are missed.

What is Liberty Mutual’s Right Track Program? Liberty Mutual’s Right Track Program gives you a small device that collects data on your driving habits. If you make safe choices consistently, Liberty Mutual offers up to a 30 percent discount on your policy. Liberty Mutual created a short explanatory video with more information, which we have included below.

What grades do I need to receive a good student discount? Students must be under 26 years old and have at least a B average. Graduates and alumni can also receive a discount, though it is in a separate category than Liberty Mutual’s good student discount.

We hope this review of Liberty Mutual has helped you reach a decision about your future provider. Enter your zip code below in our FREE online tool to start comparing rates today!