Provider review

Progressive Car Insurance Review

By YesWeSure EditorialReviewed September 2026Editorial standardsSources & methodology

Progressive is one of the two largest private-passenger auto insurers in the United States, backs its policies with an AM Best A+ (Superior) financial-strength rating, and publishes an unusually detailed menu of coverage add-ons and telematics disclosures on its own website. It looks weaker in recent J.D. Power customer-satisfaction results, and its Snapshot program is one of the industry's more transparent usage-based programs precisely because Progressive publicly discloses that some drivers pay more. Whether Progressive earns your business depends on your state, your driver profile, and how a real quote compares against two or three alternatives.

At a glance

Strengths & considerations

Coverage options

Progressive's auto coverage page names the standard building blocks and an above-average set of add-ons. Availability, limits, and state-specific rules vary; the following comes directly from progressive.com/auto/insurance-coverages/⁴.

• Liability. Bodily injury and property damage liability. State minimums vary; higher limits are generally available.
• Uninsured / underinsured motorist. Required or optional depending on state.
• Medical payments (Med Pay). Optional in most states.
• Personal injury protection (PIP). Offered in some states.
• Comprehensive and collision. Optional first-party coverages.
• Loan/Lease Payoff. Up to 25% of the vehicle's actual cash value if it is totaled while you still owe on it.
• Rental Car Reimbursement. Up to your policy's stated limits during covered repairs.
• Roadside Assistance. Towing, lock-out, tire changes, fuel or fluid delivery.
• Trip Interruption. In states where available: $500 daily maximum with a $100 lodging cap, $50 transportation cap, and $50 food cap per day.
• Custom Parts and Equipment (CPE). Reimbursement for covered custom modifications, subject to a $5,000 limit.
• Rideshare coverage. Available as an add-on for policyholders logged into rideshare or delivery apps, offered in select states.
• Deductible Savings Bank. $50 credit toward your collision or comprehensive deductible for each violation- and claim-free six-month policy period.
• Pet Injury Coverage. Automatically included when you add collision; $1,000 limit for veterinary expenses if your pet is injured in a covered accident.
• Vehicle Protection. Covers major system repairs, minor dents and dings, and lost or stolen keys for vehicles under seven years old that also carry liability, comprehensive, and collision.
• Renters insurance add-on. Available in select states to bundle renters coverage into a single policy.

Discounts

Progressive publishes an unusually detailed discount page for a large national auto insurer. The list below is drawn from progressive.com/auto/discounts/³ and preserves Progressive's own "average" wording where a figure is published. Actual discount amounts vary by state, insurance history, and eligibility.

• Three-year safe driving discount. An average of 33% less for drivers with no accidents in three years³.
• Five-year accident-free discount. Amount not published³.
• Five-year claim-free discount. Amount not published³.
• Snapshot. Average sign-up discount of $164 and average program-completion discount of $328; not available in California, and the sign-up discount is not available from all agents²³.
• Multi-policy (home + auto). Bundling auto with home saves over $1,000 on average³.
• Multi-car. 12% average savings³.
• Online quote. 7% average savings; not available in California, Georgia, or New York³.
• Sign online. 10% average savings; varies by state; not available in California or Hawaii³.
• Paperless. Discount amount varies by state; not available in California³.
• Pay in full. Discount amount varies; not available in California³.
• Automatic payment. Discount amount varies; cannot be combined with pay in full; not available in California³.
• Continuous insurance. Discount amount varies with prior continuously-insured tenure; not available in California³.
• Teen driver, good student, and distant student discounts. Good student starts at 5%; starting discount is lower in North Carolina, Texas, and Washington; not offered in California or Hawaii³.
• Homeowner discount. Amount varies; not available in all states or situations³.
• Accident forgiveness. Progressive publishes three overlapping tiers: Small Accident Forgiveness (first claim under $500 starting with your first term), Large Accident Forgiveness (customers of five or more years, accident and violation-free for up to five years), and purchasable Progressive Accident Forgiveness (not available in all states)³.

Snapshot

Snapshot is Progressive's usage-based-insurance program. It works either through the Snapshot mobile app or, for drivers who prefer it, a plug-in device. The device works similarly to the mobile app for the same tracked signals².

What Snapshot tracks. Progressive names hard braking and fast acceleration, phone use ("texting, calls, or other handheld phone activity"), mileage, and time-of-day. Progressive explicitly advises drivers to "avoid driving between 12 a.m. and 4 a.m. on weekends," and states that phone use is only considered in some states and when you choose the mobile app rather than the device².

What Snapshot offers on the upside. An average sign-up discount of $164 and an average discount of $328 at program completion, which usually applies at the six-month policy renewal following enrolment².

What Snapshot can do on the downside. Progressive itself states that "your rate may increase with high-risk driving" and adds "only about 2 out of 10 drivers actually get an increase"². That is a real trade-off, and it is stated in Progressive's own words. Whether the trade-off is worth it depends on how you actually drive.

Where Snapshot is available. Snapshot is not available in California². The sign-up discount is not available in Hawaii or New York, and Progressive notes that its savings claims for the program exclude the following states: North Carolina, Hawaii, New York, and Montana². The exact rules and eligibility for Snapshot in your state are governed by the Snapshot addendum Progressive attaches to your policy documents in states where it is offered.

Pricing

Independent modeled-rate publishers periodically calibrate a same-methodology sample rate for Progressive to make cross-carrier comparisons possible. Two anchors we treated as current at review time:

• NerdWallet, September 2026. Modeled full-coverage premium averaging $2,075 per year ($173 per month) for Progressive. Their September 2026 analysis pegs the national average at about $2,344 per year ($195 per month). NerdWallet also reports a modeled minimum-coverage premium of $613 per year ($51 per month) for Progressive⁵. Modeled by NerdWallet using its own methodology; not a quote.
• ValuePenguin. Reports a Progressive full-coverage average of about $207 per month, which the publisher describes as approximately one dollar below the national average per its methodology⁶. Modeled by ValuePenguin; not a quote.

How to read these numbers. Both figures are modeled rates rather than personalized quotes. The two publishers use different profile assumptions (age, ZIP band, vehicle, coverage limits) and will not agree to the dollar. The value of quoting these numbers is that they anchor Progressive within the ballpark of the national average, not that they predict your specific renewal. Your actual premium depends on your state, your ZIP, your vehicle, your driving and insurance history, credit-based insurance scoring where state law permits it, household composition, and whether you enroll in Snapshot.

Claims experience

Claims data is the hardest thing to fairly summarize for a large national auto insurer, because the answer depends on your state, your adjuster, and the specific circumstances of the loss. What we can surface:

• J.D. Power publishes an annual U.S. Auto Claims Satisfaction Study; the 2025 edition is publicly listed on J.D. Power's press- release landing page¹². We were not able to directly access full study-level standings for a specific Progressive rank at review time, so we do not publish one on this page.
• Carrier Management, reporting on the 2025 U.S. Auto Insurance Study, describes Progressive as ranking below State Farm, GEICO, and Allstate across regions¹¹. Because that reporting is Tier 2 via a Tier 3 secondary source, we label it MODERATE in "What we verified" above rather than publish it as a hard rank.

When you shop, ask the carrier for its state-level claim closing timelines, the escalation process if you disagree with an estimate, and how the appraisal clause works in your policy form. Those tend to matter more when you actually have a claim than a national survey average.

Customer experience

Regional satisfaction standings. Trade press reporting on the 2025 J.D. Power U.S. Auto Insurance Study places Progressive below State Farm, GEICO, and Allstate across the regions surveyed¹¹. That is a broad pattern, not a state-by-state fact about your policy.

Digital experience. In the 2025 J.D. Power U.S. Insurance Digital Experience Study, Progressive ranked in a tie for third with a score of 715 in the service segment, behind Nationwide (730) and Amica (724)¹³. The study is available on J.D. Power's press-release site.

App-store ratings and support-center wait times drift over time and vary by state, so we do not publish a single number for either. If you are choosing between Progressive and one or two alternatives, run the mobile app and try a real quote flow before you decide.

Complaints and regulatory record

The NAIC publishes a market-share-adjusted complaint index that is widely used to compare insurers of very different sizes. A value of 1.0 is the market-share-adjusted average across NAIC reporting; a value below 1.0 means the insurer had fewer complaints than its market share alone would predict for that year¹⁴.

Why we do not publish a single Progressive complaint number. Progressive writes personal auto through several separately rated underwriting subsidiaries, including but not limited to Progressive Casualty Insurance Company, Progressive Direct Insurance Company, Progressive Select Insurance Company, Progressive Paloverde Insurance Company, and Progressive Southeastern Insurance Company. NAIC complaint indices are reported per company and per reporting year. A given state may see very different indices from two different Progressive entities in the same year. Rolling them into a single national "Progressive" index papers over that complexity.

The honest way to check for your state. Use NAIC's Consumer Information Source lookup at content.naic.org/consumer.htm and search for the specific Progressive entity that would write your policy in your state¹⁴. That single lookup produces a cleaner signal than any national aggregate.

Financial strength

AM Best affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of A+ (Superior) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Ratings of "aa" (Superior) for The Progressive Corporation and its members on May 1, 2026, with a stable outlook¹. The affirmation cited an increase in underwriting profit in 2025 driven by lower personal and commercial auto accident frequency, lower weather-related catastrophe losses, and favorable prior accident year development, with the group reporting $11.3 billion in net income in 2025 compared with $8.5 billion in 2024¹.

AM Best's Financial Strength Rating expresses an independent opinion on an insurer's ability to meet its ongoing insurance obligations to policyholders. It is not a customer-satisfaction score, a price signal, or a claims-experience signal. Read the FSR alongside the customer-experience, complaints, and claims sections above rather than as a summary of the insurer.

Progressive vs. alternatives

For a full side-by-side treatment see the frozen GEICO vs Progressive comparison. The comparison page also includes sample-rate figures drawn from earlier 2026 modeled analyses; the standalone rate anchors on this page reflect fresher September 2026 data.

Common questions