Progressive Car Insurance Review

Progressive

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What we like

• Accident forgiveness
• Rideshare insurance for Uber and Lyft drivers
• Superior A+ Rating from A.M. Best
• Lower rates for teen drivers
• Bundling discounts
• High digital experience ratings

What we don’t like

• High complaint record
• Low auto claims satisfaction scores
• Middle-of-the-road insurance rates
• Small accident forgiveness only covers claims up to $500

Progressive’s rates are neither the cheapest nor the most expensive, but it does provide cheaper insurance options for adding teen drivers to your policy. For that reason alone, if you’re a teen or young driver (or looking to insure one) it might be worth getting a quote.

As one of the largest national insurers in the US, Progressive operates in all 50 states plus Washington, DC. Allstate runs the gamut of insurance products, ranging from vehicle and property to personal and business insurance.

Here’s our review of Progressive for 2022.

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Pros of using Progressive

Progressive has a large swath of insurance products, from car, boat and motorcycle insurance to renters, home and life policies. One major benefit Progressive offers is a discount for bundling policies together, bringing down your overall cost. 

Progressive also offers car coverage types that other major providers don’t, including gap insurance (which we recommend if you’re leasing or financing your vehicle) and rideshare insurance for Uber or Lyft drivers.

Cons of using Progressive

Progressive’s biggest drawback is its high complaint score, based on the National Association of Insurance Commissioner’s index. Its score indicates that Progressive has more than twice the number of complaints filed against it than the average filed against its competitors. Moreover, the carrier has particularly low auto claims customer satisfaction scores, according to a J.D. Power Survey. Combine low scores with average rates, and you get an insurance company that might not be the best option for everyone. 

Progressive insurance cost

Progressive is a middle-of-the-line insurer when it comes to costs. It isn’t the most expensive, but it also isn’t the cheapest -- its average annual full coverage premium is just $200 below the industry average, according to Bankrate. Moreover, Progressive’s minimum coverage per year is $542, compared with an industry average of $545.

Though Progressive’s rates are so-so across the board, adding a teen driver to your policy is a lot cheaper with this carrier. On average, adding a 16-year-old driver to your policy may cost $500 less with Progressive compared to the national average.

Progressive premium prices

Progressive coverage options

Progressive offers just about every major coverage type you might need for an auto policy. Here are some of their major options:

• Bodily injury liability protection: This coverage pays for injuries to others caused by the policyholder and other drivers listed on the policy. Bodily injury liability protection is required in most states.
  
  
• Property damage liability protection: This coverage pays for damage caused to another’s property. Most prominently, this is aimed at other cars, but it can also include other personal property like fences or mailboxes. Property damage liability is required in all US states. 
  
  
• Personal injury protection (PIP): This coverage pays for the medical costs and lost wages of the driver and passengers of the policyholder’s car if injury occurs, up to the policy’s limits, regardless of fault. PIP may also include coverage for funeral expenses and essential services, like child care or dog-walking, that you may be unable to perform due to physical injuries. PIP is required in 14 states.
  
  
• Uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage: This coverage pays for your and your passengers’ medical expenses up to the policy’s limits when an underinsured or uninsured motorist causes an accident. Uninsured motorist property damage is available in some states to help cover repairs to your vehicle if damaged by an uninsured driver.
  
  
• Medical payments: Similar to PIP coverage, medical payments help pay for medical costs of the policyholder and their passengers up to the policy limit, regardless of fault. However, unlike PIP, medical payments do not cover lost wages or essential services. Med Pay is an optional coverage in most states, but it is required in a few states. 
  
  
• Collision coverage: This coverage pays for damage to your vehicle in an accident resulting from a collision between your car and another car or an object.
  
  
• Comprehensive coverage: This coverage pays for damage to your car caused by an event other than collision. This includes theft, fire, flood, hail, vandalism and more.
  
  
• Rideshare coverage: This coverage helps you fill the gaps that Uber or Lyft doesn’t cover. At Progressive, you must add this coverage to your policy if you drive for a rideshare service.
  
  
• Loan/lease payoff coverage: Progressive doesn’t offer gap insurance, but it does offer loan and lease payoff coverage. Similar to gap insurance, payoff coverage helps you pay in the event an accident leaves your car badly damaged or totaled, covering the difference between what your vehicle’s market value is and the amount you owe on it. The main difference: For payoff coverage, payout is limited to no more than 25% of your vehicle’s actual cash value, though the limit varies by state.

Progressive discounts

Progressive offers a great list of discounts that may help you bring your premiums down. 

Here’s a list of notable discounts and how much you can save on average:

• Multi-policy discount: 5%
• Multi-car discount: 4%
• Snapshot: Safe driver discount: $146 per year
• Good student discount: 10%
• Homeowner discount: 10%
• Online quote discount: 7%
• Sign online discount: 9%

Progressive has other discounts, too, including a teen driver discount and a paperless discount. However, average savings vary for these discounts.

Customer satisfaction and complaints

Progressive has lower than average auto claims satisfaction scores, ranking particularly low at 862 out of 1,000, according to a J.D. Power survey. For context, the industry baseline for auto claims satisfaction clocks in at 880.

While these scores are low, Progressive customers are generally very satisfied with their digital experience, according to another J.D. Power survey. Progressive ranks second in this category among all large car insurers, just behind Geico, which has won two Webbys for its digital infrastructure (tough competition to beat!).

Here’s the biggest thorn in Progressive’s side: the number of complaints it receives nationally. According to the NAIC’s complaint index, Progressive is indexed at 1.23, meaning that it receives more complaints than the industry average.

Progressive customer satisfaction and complaint scoring for 2022

Telematics program

Progressive’s telematics program, Snapshot, monitors how safely and how much you drive. You can enroll in this program online and use Progressive’s mobile app or plug-in car device to participate. Most drivers save an average of $146 per year using Snapshot, according to Progressive. However, it’s important to note that using Snapshot could increase your rates if you engage in high-risk driving, including braking hard and accelerating suddenly. 

Other features we like

Progressive’s free mobile app is available on the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store. On this app, you can view your policy’s information, pay your bill, view your insurance card, file claims, call roadside assistance and get quotes for Progressive’s other policies. The “Name Your Price” tool is particularly helpful here: It lets you enter in how much you want to pay for your insurance, and Progressive will show coverage options that fit your budget.

However, the app only lets you manage your car insurance policy and not your home, renters, condo or umbrella policies with Progressive. Instead, these policies can be managed directly on Progressive’s website.

Methodology

CNET reviews insurance carriers and products by exhaustively comparing them across set criteria. For auto insurance, we examine average annual premium rates for full coverage, consumer complaints, collision repair scores, the carrier’s financial strength, auto claims satisfaction and overall customer satisfaction. Our data comes from a multitude of sources. 

Auto insurance rates come from Bankrate, which gathers data using Quadrant Information Services. We also use both J.D. Power annual surveys that collect data on customer auto claims satisfaction and overall customer satisfaction.

Consumer complaints are taken from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), which collects consumer complaints across states, indexing complaints on a scale that takes into account the industry average. We collect the financial strength rating of each carrier from the A.M. Best Rating. Lastly, we collected collision repair scores from the Crash Network Insurer Report Card, which collects data from collision repair professionals, including mechanics, to gauge the quality of collision claims service from insurance carriers.

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• Best Car Insurance for Teens and Young Drivers
• Best Car Insurance for Military and Veterans

The editorial content on this page is based solely on objective, independent assessments by our writers and is not influenced by advertising or partnerships. It has not been provided or commissioned by any third party. However, we may receive compensation when you click on links to products or services offered by our partners.