A Closer Look at the Progressive Casualty Insurance Company

Progressive Casualty Insurance Company was founded in 1937 and is headquartered near Mayfield Village, Ohio. The company strives to offer service that is fast, fair and better according to their website. You have undoubtedly seen the humorous commercials featuring the retail mascot Flo enthusiastically selling insurance products. Living up to their name, the company was the first major insurer to join the web in 1995. A year later, they began allowing consumers to compare their rates with competitors. Adding to the convenience, the carrier was the first to give shoppers the ability to purchase a policy instantly online in 1997. The provider has grown to cover homes, RVs, boats, motorcycles, collector automobiles, commercial vehicles, condos, renters, snowmobiles, life and even pets.

Financial Outlook

As of 2008 Progressive is ranked 175th on the Fortune 500 list, putting it neck and neck with other insurers such as Allstate and State Farm. They are one of the fastest growing insurance companies in America. Their Standard & Poor rating is a very good A+. The reasons given by the rating firm are strong operating performance and sustainable competitive advantages.

Claims Service

While no insurer is perfect, Progressive has at least attempted to go to the next level regarding claims service. With its "concierge service" approach, agents not only take their customers' claims in the event of an accident, they actually see the vehicle through to the point of repair! According to the carrier, their intentions are: "...To [sic] handle entire claims/repair process from soup to nuts, provide one-stop convenience and peace of mind." Drawbacks of the system are that these full-service centers are not available in every area, and while they do take some of the hassle out of the repair process, it also leaves their customers subject to their insurer.

Customer Service

When it comes to JD Power ratings, this carrier is competitive with some of the other big names you may be familiar with such as State Farm, GEICO and GMAC. Progressive sits above average in the quality of their policies but lags slightly on billing and pricing. Overall this puts the provider in the middle of the pack with a 3/5 rating. The insurer has an A+ superior rating by the A.M. Best Company, which rates carriers on a variety of criteria. Some complaints have surfaced about the company's comparison shopping feature using outdated competitor rates leading to an unfair analysis. For this reason, we encourage you to use a free service such as ours to compare rates among several brands at once. Since we are not an insurer ourselves, you can rest assured that we have your best interests in mind. That said, you should be confident in doing business with the provider as they have shown to be strong through the market turmoil over the last several years. While some companies withered under the dismal conditions, this brand weathered the storm and continues to serve millions of consumers faithfully.