The Hartford is a publicly traded company. It offers property and casualty insurance, group benefits, and mutual funds. Founded in 1810, The Hartford has more than 200 years of institutional history. The Hartford is a Fortune 500 company. It has around 17,000 employees and $18 billion in revenue annually. The Hartford has insured both Abraham Lincoln and Babe Ruth. The Hartford also partnered with AARP to offer a special auto insurance program to AARP members 50 years of age or older.
Our Rating
Pros
Great for drivers 50 years and older
Known for paying all claims
Over 200 years of history
Satisfaction Rating
Claims Rating
Shopping Rating
Offerings Rating
Stability Rating
What Does The Hartford Offer?
The Hartford offers a range of coverage options. These include the following.
Collision coverage – This covers damage to your car when it collides with something else, whether a vehicle or an object.
Non-collision damage – This pays for damage to your car from events not involving a collision. Such incidences include theft, vandalism, or natural disasters. Some insurance companies call this “comprehensive” coverage.
Medical payments – If you or your family are injured in an accident, medical payments coverage pays the cost of medical care, recovery, rehab, and remedial care.
Auto policy bodily injury liability – This pays legal costs in the event that you are deemed to be at fault in an accident that injures someone else.
Property damage liability – This pays for damages you might cause to property belonging to others such as a house, other vehicles, a fence, or a mailbox.
Uninsured-underinsured motorist bodily injury – Let’s say you’re in an accident with an uninsured or underinsured driver. This will pay for costs associated with bodily injury or death for you and anyone that was in your vehicle.
Uninsured-underinsured motorist property damage – Let’s say you’re in an accident with an uninsured or underinsured driver. Or, you are injured by a hit-and-run driver. This will pay for costs associated with damage to your vehicle.
Personal injury protection – This is also known as “No-Fault Insurance.” It pays for losses tied to injuries regardless of who caused the accident. Personal injury protection coverage often comes in handy in accidents involving multiple cars.
Glass coverage – Let’s say damage happens to your car involving only glass (such as a break-in). You would have to pay the deductible required by the non-collision or comprehensive portion of your policy. However, let’s say you pay an additional premium for glass coverage. Glass losses are paid in full without requiring any deductible payment from you.
Towing coverage – If your vehicle breaks down, towing coverage pays the labor and towing costs. They are associated with getting your vehicle to a repair shop.
Rental car expense – This type of coverage pays for a rental car if you need another vehicle to use while your car is being repaired.
Personal umbrella insurance – This is purchased at an additional cost. It covers losses that exceed the limits of your car insurance policy.
The Hartford also offers the following special benefits to their policyholders.
Lifetime renewability – The Hartford makes a promise once you have a car insurance policy through them. You will be able to renew your policy for as long as you have a driver’s license (assuming you pay all premiums on time).
12-Month rate protection – Insurance premiums are guaranteed not to go up for a full year after you sign up.
RecoverCare – The Hartford’s RecoverCare feature reimburses customers for home services they are unable to pay themselves. This applies only after they are injured in an accident, and their injuries are not already covered by health insurance. Home services eligible for reimbursement include things like a cleaning service, lawn care, and dog walking.
New car replacement coverage – If a new car is declared to be a total loss within 15 months of purchase or 15,000 miles after it was purchased (whichever happens first). The Hartford will not deduct for depreciation in determining the value of the loss and the amount of replacement coverage you qualify for.
Lifetime car repair assurance: The Hartford stands by the repair shops in their network and will pay to redo any repair work that does not last the lifetime of your vehicle after an accident.
For those who would like to purchase additional coverage benefits, customers of The Hartford may add the Advantage PLUS Program to their policy. This adds the following features to your car insurance.
First accident forgiveness: As long as all drivers on your policy have a clean driving record for five consecutive years, the first accident you are involved in while covered will be forgiven. It will not lead to an increased premium.
Disappearing deductible: As long as you maintain a clean driving record, the collision deductible on your insurance policy will get smaller and smaller each year until it reaches $0.
One deductible: If an accident occurs between two vehicles covered on your insurance policy through The Hartford, you will not have to pay the deductible for each vehicle. You will only have to pay whichever deductible is higher in order to have both vehicles repaired. If you have home insurance through The Hartford, this also applies to accidents that involve your home and an insured vehicle.
Waiver of deductible for a not-at-fault accident: If you are not deemed to be at fault in an accident, The Hartford will usually waive your deductible.
$100 Deductible reduction: The Hartford does not require you to have vehicle repairs done at Hartford-authorized locations. However, if you do choose to have repairs done at an authorized shop and you are not at fault for the accident, The Hartford will reduce your deductible by $100.
Finally, there are a number of discounts offered by The Hartford to reduce the cost of your car insurance premiums.
Bundle insurance savings: If you insure both your home and your car through The Hartford, you can save up to 5% on car insurance and up to 20% on home, condo, or renters insurance.
Paid-in-full: If you pay your premium in full up-front, you will qualify for a discount.
Anti-theft devices and automatic airbags: You are eligible for a discount if your car has anti-theft devices like alarms or trackers. You will receive an additional discount if your car has automatic airbags or more than one airbag.
Defensive driver course: Taking an approved defensive driver course will qualify you for a discount for your next three policy years.
Vehicle fuel type: You can save money by driving an electric or hybrid car.
Driver training: Let’s say you have a driver under 21 years old on your policy. You can qualify for additional savings if they take an approved training course.
Good student: Students covered by The Hartford’s car insurance will receive credit if they are between 16 and 25 years old and meet one of the following criteria. They are in the top 20% of their class. They have a “B” average. They have a 3.0 out of 4.0 GPA. They qualify for the Honor Roll or Dean’s List.
Customer Satisfaction
The Hartford was ranked sixth overall in customer claims satisfaction in the J.D. Power 2017 U.S. Auto Claims Satisfaction Study. The Auto Claims Satisfaction Study is based on surveys of 11,857 car insurance customers who had claims in the six months prior to completing the survey. The Hartford’s ranking included the following factors.
First Notice of Loss (FNOL)
This is based on customer satisfaction with the initial claims reporting process.
Claim Servicing
This refers to how customers felt about the insurance representative handling their claim.
Estimation Process
This refers to how clients felt in regard to the reasonableness of the estimates they were given.
Repair Process
This is a rating of how satisfied policyholders were with The Hartford’s repair process, including what was covered and the length of time it took.
Rental Experience
Out of all the categories, The Hartford’s lowest score was in the ease and ability of using a rental vehicle while waiting on repairs to their vehicle.
Settlement
This is how fair consumers felt the claim settlement they received from The Hartford was in their particular case.
Overall Satisfaction
The Hartford’s rating is described as “better than most” by J.D. Power.
The Hartford was ranked fourth in the J.D. Power 2017 Insurance Shopping Study, which ranks auto insurers’ ability to provide a satisfying purchase experience. The Insurance Shopping Study results are based on the opinions of over 16,400 shoppers who requested car insurance quotes from at least one competitive insurer in the past nine months and include more than 50,000 unique customer evaluations of insurers. The Hartford’s ranking included the following factors.
Call Center Representative:
Consumers rated their experience connecting with The Hartford agents over the phone.
Local Agent
Consumers rated the prices they were given based on the level of coverage offered.
Pricing
Consumers rated the prices they were given based on the level of coverage offered.
Policy Offerings
Customers rated the variety of coverage options offered, the extent to which they met their needs, and the ease of buying a new insurance policy.
Overall Satisfaction
Consumers rated their new auto insurer overall.
Claims Processing
Claims can be filed to The Hartford either by phone or online. The Hartford offers a 24/7 claims hotline. Thus, you are able to start the claims process no matter what time an accident occurs.
Once you have filed a claim, a claims representative will be assigned to your case. The representative will document the details of what happened. They will also ask that you describe injuries and damage and provide them with the contact information of any witnesses.
As you wait for the claim to be settled, you can either track the claim online or contact your claims representative by phone.
Company Stability
The Hartford has been providing insurance policies for more than 200 years and has a strong institutional standard of excellence. The organization paid all of its claims after the Chicago fire of 1871, the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The September 11th attacks alone resulted in $850 million in claims. The Hartford has insured some of the most ambitious construction projects in history, including the Golden Gate Bridge and the Hoover Dam.
A.M. Best, one of the leading insurance rating agencies in the United States, gave The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc. an A- long-term credit rating and a “stable” outlook rating. The Hartford has been rated as one of Ethisphere’s World’s Most Ethical Companies nine times.
Value for Price
The Hartford’s car insurance customers seem content with the pricing offered for their policies, having rated it four out of five stars on J.D. Power’s 2017 Insurance Shopping Study.
The Hartford offers a number of savings opportunities to customers insuring their vehicles with the company, including discounts for bundling home and car insurance, paying premiums in full, driving a car with anti-theft devices and automatic airbags, taking driver training courses, driving fuel-efficient vehicles, and maintaining good grades. It is also noteworthy that The Hartford guarantees no premium increases for 12 months after a policy begins and that the organization offers lifetime renewability.
Who is this best for?
Although The Hartford offers car insurance to people of all ages, their partnership with AARP makes their policies particularly suited to people who are 50 years old or older. The organization’s auto insurance options will likely prove attractive to seniors who are interested in some of The Hartford’s more unique policy benefits, such as RecoverCare, 12-month rate protection, lifetime renewability, and lifetime car repair assurance.
Drivers with clean records are a particularly good fit since The Hartford incentivizes safe driving through benefits such as first accident forgiveness, disappearing deductibles, and deductible waivers for not-at-fault accidents.
What to look out for
Although The Hartford offers 12-month rate protection, some customers have expressed that their rates were increased once the 12-month period expired. The Hartford has a somewhat disappointing rating of 2.4 out of five stars based on 143 reviews.
Conclusion
The Hartford has excellent J.D. Power ratings for both customer claim satisfaction and purchase experience. The organization is partnered with AARP to offer special coverage to those 50 years of age or older. It offers stackable discounts that a wide range of people are likely to qualify for. The Hartford includes several unique policy benefits in their standard coverage. They offer even more uncommon features if you sign up for the Advantage PLUS Program. All of this plus a 200-year legacy of consistent performance means it is almost certainly worth your time to request a quote from The Hartford.
