2023 Farmers Review

Farmers Insurance should appeal to many customers due to the wide range of coverage types it offers and the extensive list of discounts that policyholders can take advantage of to make their home and auto insurance coverage more affordable.

Although the company’s customer satisfaction ratings aren’t impressive, its low rate of complaints is impressive. So, while Farmers is unlikely to blow you away with the quality of its customer service, you’re also unlikely to encounter major issues while managing your policies.

Check out the rest of our Farmers Insurance review below to find out what Farmers’ greatest strengths are and what factors could make it ill suited for some customers.

Farmers auto insurance review summary: Farmers offers a high number of car insurance discounts matched by few other car insurance companies. The company should be able to meet your basic auto insurance needs and then some, all while giving customers little reason to file formal complaints. Farmers home insurance review summary: Similarly, Farmers can provide standard home insurance policies plus multiple useful add-ons. While the company offers fewer discounts for home insurance than it does car insurance, it also receives even fewer complaints related to home insurance than it does car insurance.

Farmers Insurance Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
48,000+ exclusive and independent agents nationwide	Limited availability in California and Florida
Very low rate of complaints for home and auto insurance	Unimpressive customer satisfaction ratings
Well-reviewed mobile app	Doesn’t sell gap insurance
Expansive coverage options including multiple home and auto endorsements
Several discounts for home and auto insurance

About Farmers Insurance

Farmers Insurance was founded in 1928 shortly before the Great Depression. As the company’s name suggests, its founders started off selling car insurance policies to farmers and ranchers in California.^[1] Today, Farmers sells several types of coverage across the nation through a team of more than 48,000 exclusive and independent agents.^[2]

Throughout its nearly century-long history, Farmers has boasted numerous firsts for the insurance industry. For example, it became the first major insurance company to offer comprehensive car insurance in the 1930s, the first to offer a monthly payment structure without charging interest in the 1960s and the first to offer discounts for alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs) in the 2000s.^[1]

Availability

Farmers operates in some capacity in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., but the availability of certain coverage types may depend on your location.^[3] For example, Farmers has placed a cap on the number of new home insurance policies it will sell in California.^[4]

In addition, the company has stopped selling new Farmers-branded home, auto and umbrella insurance policies in Florida and will nonrenew existing policies. However, this doesn’t apply to policies sold by Farmers subsidiaries like Bristol West and Foremost.^[4]

Coverage

Farmers offers a comprehensive line-up of insurance products designed to meet a wide range of common insurance needs. Coverage types you may be able to purchase from Farmers include the following:

• Home
• Renters
• Condo
• Mobile and manufactured home
• Specialty home
• Seasonal and vacation home
• Vacant home
• Landlord and rental property
• Auto
• Motorcycle
• Boat and personal watercraft
• Off-road vehicle
• Travel trailer
• Motor home
• Commercial
• Umbrella
• Earthquake
• Flood
• Life
• Identity shield

Consumer Experience

Line of Business	J.D. Power Score (Out of 1,000)[5][6]	NAIC Complaint Index[7]	NAIC Share of Complaints in U.S. Market[7]
General	N/A	0.79	0.04%
Auto	802.4*	0.35	0.08%
Home	800	0.16	0.03%

^{*Average score among nine profiled regions}

Customer Service

Farmers Insurance policyholders can ask questions related to their claims by filling out a request form or sending a message through the company’s online Customer Care Center. They can also call 888-327-6335 for other customer service needs.^[8]

Compared to other insurance companies, Farmers has low customer satisfaction ratings for car and homeowners insurance according to recent J.D. Power studies.^[5][6] In fact, across the nine regions where Farmers auto insurance coverage was rated, it ranked dead last among major insurers in four regions and ranked in the bottom five in another two regions. The company also ranked in the bottom three for customer satisfaction regarding usage-based auto insurance.^[5]

Despite its unimpressive customer satisfaction ratings relative to the industry average, Farmers receives fewer complaints than expected given its market share across all lines of business according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). In particular, Farmers received about a fourth as many complaints as expected between home and auto insurance in 2022.^[7]

Features

Farmers’ mobile app allows users to pay bills, show proof of insurance, file claims, request roadside assistance and more. Farmers insurance ratings for the mobile app were largely favorable across both Apple’s App Store and Google Play.^[9][10]

Platform	Number of Reviews	Star Rating
App Store	14.3K	4.8/5
Google Play	8.3K	4.6/5

If you are a Farmers customer, you can receive an upfront car insurance discount just for enrolling in the company’s telematics program. Then, you can participate by downloading the Signal app, which tracks driving behaviors like your braking patterns, speed and phone use and either raises or lowers your premium at renewal depending on how safely you drove during the previous policy period. Signal may also include CrashAssist, which can detect when you have gotten into a car accident and help you easily contact emergency responders.^[11]

In addition, Farmers partners with TrueCar to offer a car-buying service that allows users to see how much other people have paid for certain cars, get in contact with dealers and qualify for upwards of $2,000 worth of additional benefits for working with Farmers’ network of certified dealers.^[12]

Pricing

The Farmers Insurance website lists starting rates for a small number of coverage types including $10 per month for renters insurance and less than $1 per day for $1 million in personal umbrella insurance.^[13][14] However, for the most part, you will need to contact Farmers directly to receive a precise quote for any of the company’s insurance products.

Keep in mind that insurance rates vary from person to person and will depend on a number of factors such as where you live, how many insurance claims you have filed in the past, the coverage limits you intend to set and more.

Claims

Farmers customers can file and track claims online or contact the company’s Claims Call Center at 800-435-7764. Once your claim has been filed, Farmers recommends that you get in touch with your assigned claim representative if you have any further questions.^[8]

Farmers Car Insurance

Farmers offers car insurance coverage types that range from state-required basics to various extras you can purchase to enhance your insurance policy if you so choose.

What’s Covered

The following coverage types are available for Farmers customers to add to their auto insurance policies:^[15]

• Bodily injury and property damage liability coverage
• Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage
• Personal injury protection (PIP)
• Medical payments coverage
• Comprehensive and collision coverage
• Towing and roadside service
• Rental car reimbursement
• Rideshare insurance
• Loss of use coverage
• Guaranteed value coverage
• Customized equipment coverage
• Glass deductible buyback or full windshield and glass coverage
• Spare parts coverage
• Original equipment manufacturer (OEM) coverage
• New car replacement insurance
• Accident forgiveness

What Isn’t Covered

A typical Farmers car insurance policy will come with a set of exclusions, which are sources of damage that the policy doesn’t cover. Potential exclusions you could encounter in your private passenger auto insurance policy include the following:^[16]

• Commercial activities
• Intentional damage
• Racing and other kinds of high-performance driving
• Criminal acts
• War or nuclear hazards
• Theft of CDs and other personal property
• Wear and tear or freezing
• Mechanical or electrical breakdowns
• Poor maintenance
• Government confiscation

In addition, Farmers does not sell gap insurance.^[15] As a result, your Farmers auto insurance policy won’t help you make up the difference if your car is totaled in an accident and you still owe more on your auto loan than the car is worth.

Farmers Home Insurance

Farmers also offers a wide range of homeowners insurance coverage types including the standard coverages that come with most policies and several policy endorsement options.

What’s Covered

Some of the coverage types you may be able to add to a home insurance policy through Farmers include these:^[17]

• Dwelling coverage
• Other structures coverage
• Personal property coverage
• Loss of use coverage
• Personal liability coverage
• Medical payments coverage
• Extended replacement cost coverage and contents replacement cost coverage
• Ordinance or law coverage
• Debris removal coverage
• Trees, shrubs, plants and lawns coverage
• Fire department service charge coverage
• Identity fraud indemnity coverage
• Arson, burglary or vandalism and malicious mischief reward coverage

What Isn’t Covered

Meanwhile, examples of homeowners insurance exclusions you could encounter in your policy include the following:^[17]

• Earth movements
• Flooding
• War or nuclear hazards
• Neglect or poor maintenance
• Poor construction or defective products
• Wear and tear or mechanical breakdowns
• Fungi, pathogens or pollution
• Government action
• Loss of power
• Infestation of pests

Additional Policies Farmers Offers

Keep reading below for information about some of the other major types of insurance you may be able to purchase from Farmers.

Motorcycle

Basic motorcycle insurance policies from Farmers can include liability insurance, collision insurance and comprehensive insurance. In addition, Farmers offers numerous coverage packages to account for the varying insurance needs bikers have, including policies that pay for damage to your helmet and other belongings.

RV

Farmers also offers coverage to protect recreational vehicles (RVs) and other motor homes along with structures like awnings that are permanently attached to them. There are multiple policy endorsements you can use to enhance your RV coverage such as extra liability insurance that applies when you take your RV on vacation or to a campsite.

ATV

All-terrain vehicle (ATV) insurance from Farmers can apply to numerous types of vehicles including four-wheelers, snowmobiles, dirt bikes and golf carts. An ATV policy can provide coverage in case your vehicle is damaged or stolen, you damage someone else’s property, you injure yourself or someone else while off-roading and more.

Commercial

Farmers offers numerous types of commercial insurance including commercial property, general liability, commercial crime, commercial auto, workers’ compensation, commercial umbrella and commercial life insurance. The company also offers various loss control and prevention services to small business owners.^[18]

In addition, Farmers sells customized commercial insurance packages tailored to the needs of the following industries:^[18]

• Apartment
• Auto service and repair
• Commercial real estate
• Independent contracting
• Homeowners association (HOA)
• Manufacturing
• Office professional
• Restaurant
• Retail
• Wholesale

Renters

While your landlord’s insurance should cover the physical structure of the home you rent, you will need to buy your own renters insurance policy to protect the belongings you keep inside of your home. Renters insurance from Farmers also comes with additional living expense and liability coverage.

Condo

Similarly, a Farmers insurance policy for condos should include personal property, loss of use, personal liability and medical payments coverage. Your condo insurance should also cover any damage to the interior of your unit that wouldn’t be covered by the condo association’s insurance.

Life

With life insurance from Farmers, you can secure a death benefit to help take care of your beneficiaries financially in case you die during your policy’s coverage period. There are four main categories of life insurance policies offered by Farmers: term life, whole life, universal life and accidental death insurance.

Farmers Insurance Discounts

See the below tables for an overview of the Farmers car insurance discounts and home insurance discounts that can help you lower your insurance premiums. Keep in mind that some of these discounts are limited to policyholders in certain states.^[19]

Auto Insurance Discounts

Discount Name	Description
Multiline	This discount applies if you bundle your car insurance with another coverage type from Farmers like home, life, umbrella or small business insurance
Multicar	You can also get a lower rate if you add multiple vehicles to the same policy
Signal	Signing up for Signal gives you a discount right away plus another potential discount when you renew your policy depending on your driving behaviors
Affinity	Veterans, reservists and active duty military personnel get discounted auto insurance rates from Farmers as do members, employees or retirees of certain businesses, occupational groups and professional associations
ePolicy	You can qualify for this discount by signing up for ePolicy in order to receive bills and documents related to your policy electronically
Good Payer	Customers who have not been charged any late payment fees in the past year are rewarded with lower premiums for their next coverage period
Safe Driver	Drivers can earn lower Farmers car insurance rates if they have never filed a car insurance claim related to bodily injury
Distant Student	A student attending school at least 100 miles away from where their car is garaged can get a discount since there is a lower chance that they will need to file a claim while their car isn’t actively in use
Youthful Driver	Children and grandchildren of the primary named insured on a Farmers Smart Plan Auto policy can get lower car insurance rates if they are younger than 25 years old and the policy has been active for at least a year
Good Student	There are numerous ways to qualify for a good student discount through Farmers including maintaining a grade point average (GPA) of 3.0 or better, making your school’s dean’s list or honor roll, ranking in the top 20% of your class based on GPA or scoring in the top 20% on standardized tests
Shared Family Car	Your policy will be cheaper if there are more drivers than vehicles actively covered by the policy as long as one of those drivers is 20 years old or younger
On Your Own	Any driver under the age of 29 who moves out of their parents’ home can get a discount on a new Farmers policy as long as they were covered by a previous Farmers policy for at least a year
Mature / Defensive / Senior Driver	This discount applies to adults over the age of 55 who have completed approved defensive driving training in the last three years
Homeowner	You can secure a lower car insurance premium from Farmers if you own your home even if you buy a homeowners insurance policy from a different insurance company
Alternative Fuel	Farmers offers a discount to drivers in California with alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs) including hybrid cars, electric vehicles (EVs) and those powered by propane and natural gas
EFT	Your premiums will be lower if you pay them through an automatic electronic funds transfer (EFT)
Pay in Full	Paying the premium for your entire coverage period through a single upfront payment will save you money
Antilock Brakes	Factory-installed safety features like anti-lock brakes can also earn you an auto insurance discount
Anti-Theft	Similarly, you can get a lower rate if you install alarms and other protective devices in order to minimize your risk of being the victim of car theft
Daytime Running Lights	In some states, Farmers provides a discount if your vehicle has headlights that stay on all the time
Passive Restraint	Installing passive restraint features like airbags and automatic seatbelts may earn you a discount in some states
Homing Device	You can get a discount if you install a device approved by Farmers that enables you to track and locate your car in the event that it is stolen
VIN Etching	Similarly, you may be eligible for a discount if you etch your vehicle identification number (VIN) into glass and other parts of your car as directed by Farmers in order to increase the odds that your car will be recovered if it is stolen

Home Insurance Discounts

Discount Name	Description
Affinity	Farmers offers discounted homeowners insurance rates to members, employees or retirees of certain businesses, occupational groups and professional associations
Multiline	This discount applies if you bundle your home insurance with another coverage type from Farmers like auto, life, umbrella or small business insurance
ePolicy	Signing up to receive bills and documents related to your policy electronically can earn you an ePolicy discount
UL-Approved Roofing Materials	To qualify for this discount, you must add asphalt or fiberglass shingles that have been approved by the UL safety science company to your roof
New Home	Anyone who owns a house that is less than 14 years old can qualify for a discount through Farmers
Protective Devices	Installing protective devices like fire alarms, internal sprinklers and home security systems will lead to lower home insurance rates
Home Safety	You can also get a discount if you take steps to fortify your windows, walls, roof or foundation against damage from natural disasters or set up automatic shutoffs for your water and gas lines in certain circumstances
Green Certifications	Farmers offers eco-friendly home insurance discounts to people whose houses earn an Energy Star, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) or Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) certification
Claims Free	If you go three years without filing a homeowners insurance claim, you will become eligible for a discount
Connected Home	This discount applies to homeowners who install a smart home system, although you can’t claim this discount if you have already claimed a discount for protective devices, home safety or green certifications
Rent to Own	If you maintain renters insurance through Farmers for more than a year and then buy a house, you’ll get a discount on your home insurance if you stay with Farmers
Preferred Payment or EFT	This discount applies if you pay for coverage through one of Farmers’ preferred payment methods such as paying your premium in full up front or paying monthly through an EFT
Good Payer	Consistently paying your premiums on time can also lead to lower homeowners insurance rates

How Does Farmers Compare to Other Car Insurance Companies?

Farmers vs American Family	Farmers vs Auto Owners
Farmers vs Esurance	Farmers vs Hanover
Farmers vs Liberty Mutual	Farmers vs Mercury
Farmers vs Safeauto	Farmers vs State Auto
Farmers vs Travelers