TOP AUTO INSURERS 2022: THE BEST VS THE CHEAPEST

The comparison of the rates charged by auto insurers is a complex issue that will try to summarize practical references for users. Auto insurance premiums are very different within each of the auto insurers, due to several factors. Among the main ones are:

• Cost of the car for this variable, the following intervene:
  • Model year of the car. Also, if it is considered old or classic.
  • Mark.
  • The specific version of the car.
  • Type of car.
  • National, border or imported.
  • Factory or add-on special equipment.
  • If the policy is a real value, invoice value or agreed price.
• Type of auto insurance policy to be hired and coverage. The packages offer benefits in costs and coverage.
• State of residence.
• Age of the usual driver.
• Sex of the driver.
• Established deductible and/or coinsurance.
• Use of the car, whether private, public service, or for ERT (Transport Network Companies).
• Form of annual payment or in installments.

Because each auto insurer sets its prices primarily based on its own claims statistics, this causes differences in rates that can be huge between companies.

Which insurer is the cheapest for Basic Auto Insurance?

First of all, we will make a comparison of the prices of standardized basic automobile insurance, since these have the same coverage throughout the country and meet the minimum requirements of the Law of all states, even for highway use. The sum insured in these policies is 250 thousand pesos for Civil Liability for damage to third parties in their property or injuries to people, including death.

The only variants for the cost in these policies in the same insurer apply to the state of residence and the form of payment. The following table shows the premiums corresponding to Mexico City, including annualized premiums depending on the payment method:

The specific installment payments of each insurer are not shown, but these are easily calculated from the annualized premium corresponding to the type of installment payment, divided by the number of periods contained in the year, that is, 12 for monthly payment, 4 for quarterly and 2 for the semester.

The date in the column on the right side indicates when the last premium update was made by the insurer before the Qupratv. Due to the different interest rates that insurers charge for installment payments, some may have the best cost in annual payment, but not when payments are made in installments.

One of the examples can be seen with GNP, ANA, and Sura, where the latter insurer has a higher cost in annual payment but is cheaper than the others when making installment payments. La Latino does not accept installment payments for this auto insurance plan, but it does accept other, more comprehensive insurances.

Sompo International, HDI, and La Latino are the 3 insurers with the cheapest prices for standardized basic auto insurance. As a sample of the price variations according to the state, the following comparison of premiums of the first 4 insurers is shown:

With the general comparison that was made on Mexico City, Sompo International appears with the best price, but in this other table, we find that this was the only state in which Sompo had the cheapest price shown. Their prices are even improved by other insurers not shown in this comparison. La Latino has in all cases the second or third best price.

Now it is noted that Bancomer, which was the fourth cheapest insurer in Mexico City, has the lowest prices in 8 of the 10 states compared. HDI has a better price in the state of Mexico.

We have compared the 2 variants that affect the prices of standardized basic vehicle insurance, the method of payment, and the state of residence. To find the cheapest price, you must make the first table shown for the state in which the car is normally used.

Standardized basic insurance plan best rated by Condusef

In addition to the low price, it is important that the insurance plan meets the requirements indicated by the Condusef. The evaluations granted to the insurance of each insurer are aimed at protecting users, preventing the policy face, clauses or general conditions and endorsements from containing malicious clauses, with small letters, not clearly defined terms, and other conditions that could prevent the desired protection from being obtained.

The following list shows the insurers that offer standardized basic automobile insurance in order of the best qualification of their policy in the evaluation of the Condusef, in the period from January to September 2018. They include the User Service Index (IDATU), which is rated in the insurers that had claims, for the care provided for the solution of the controversy.

It also includes the number of claims that were made to each insurer before the Condusef related to this specific plan, as well as the rate of claims for every 10,000 claims :

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Although it is desirable that an insurer has no claims, the fact that it is is not a determining factor that indicates that it is a good insurer, since this is also a function of the volume of policies sold. The same happens if the number of complaints is high. Low rates for every 10,000 car claims insured by the company can be better indicators when they can be calculated due to complaints. 

The lowest index in this table corresponds to General Insurance, which equates to an acceptance of the decisions of the insurer and adjusters of 99.9602% by clients who have accidents. The worst is AIG with 37.87, equivalent to an acceptance of 99.6213% of its customers. Although it is lower than the best, it indicates a very high acceptance of all clients in this type of policy.

This indicates that any insurer is a good option in these plans. Higher product ratings indicate that these insurers’ plans better meet Condusef’s specifications. This guarantees clients greater clarity in the conditions and coverage, in addition to that in case of controversy, it will be easier for it to be resolved in favor of the clients because there are no ambiguities in the contract. 

Based on this, the medium and large companies that would be a good choice are General de Seguros, Quálitas, Atlas, Inbursa, and AXA, in addition to the small ones Solunion, Patrimonial, and Primero Seguros. Very low grades and failing grades can be a poor choice. The combination with the IDATU and the product rating can give another clue to the insurers that could be inconvenient if they are one of the few who have to file a complaint with the Condusef.

In this case, Quálitas and AXA, since if there are problems, the attention they offer to customers for a solution is poor. Considering this, La Latino, Banorte, Bancomer, Tokio Marine, and other insurers with a regular rating in the product but high in IDATU would be a better choice.

What is the cheapest resident car insurance in Mexico?

The comparator offered by the Condusef only allows you to compare prices for cars from 2008 to 2012 models, in addition to being limited to a few makes and types of cars. In any case, it will be useful to exemplify the variations in prices between insurers and show some others in coverage. 

The calculations were made for the comprehensive coverage auto insurance for a 2012 Honda Accord LX 4-door, driven by a 35-year-old man in Mexico City, and for annual policy payment:

Before continuing, it is convenient to note that the results could be totally different for another car and different data from those considered for this example. For this reason, it is convenient to quote for each specific case and make a complete comparison of plans and insurers.

There is no way to ensure that a single insurer has the cheapest prices for all the car makes, models, and other specifications that were mentioned as variables. 4 insurers have the lowest prices in this case and with premiums below 10,000 pesos.

The same insurers have plans with higher prices. This is because each broad coverage plan has different coverages, even though it corresponds to the same type of plan, which in this case is a broad coverage.

Therefore, it would be essential to go into details of the conditions of each insurance. Regardless of this, we will accept General de Seguros, El Águila, Mapfre, and Banorte as the lowest prices for this particular case, although the Condusef quote does not include rates from all auto insurers. The true cheapest insurers must be determined in each case.

Resident Car Insurance best rated by Condusef

Resident car insurance policies are those that are sold to cars for private use and trucks up to 3.5 tons. These plans are also periodically evaluated by the Confused. The following table shows the results from January to September 2018 for claims, the index per 10,000 claims, the user service rating (IDATU) when there are claims, and the rating of resident car insurance:

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The first 3 insurers on the list have no claims or complaints before the Condusef, but this is not relevant given their low volume of sales of these types of plans. The index for every 10,000 claims provides more information in this regard, although in general the differences are small and speak of the reliability of all insurers. 

In this case, the lowest index corresponds to El Potosí with 6.63. This is equivalent to an acceptance of the indemnities and resolutions of the decisions made by the insurer by 99.9337% of the clients who suffer a claim having these insurance policies. The highest index corresponds to Mapfre with 34.22, equivalent to an acceptance of 99.6578% of the clients who have claims.

From this point of view, all insurers are trustworthy and existing complaints are only rare exceptions. The ratings that resident auto insurance plans receive are helpful, though not determinative. The higher ones better meet the requirements of the Condusef, while the lower ones do not do it at all.

However, it is very rare for an insurer to have abusive clauses. Currently, no insurer has them. Differences in ratings are due to the use of unapproved formats for the typeface on the policy face, font sizes, and other minor details. A high rating on the plan is a good sign of the company’s commitment, but it is not definitive.

The combination with the IDATU says that if the product is well qualified and there is a discrepancy, the client will be properly served by the insurer to seek a solution before the Condusef.

Low ratings in IDATU with product drops may be an option that should be avoided, as there are insurers seeking to provide better service.

Other factors that determine the best insurers

We have already mentioned that complaints to the Condusef are not a determining factor, but they provide information on the good or bad availability of the representatives of the insurer, especially when considering the sanctions that Condusef applies to them if they deserve them. 

The following table shows the results of all the insurers that operate in the auto industry in their various plans, in relation to their total claims, penalties, and amount of fines:

Regardless of the number of claims that auto insurers have, what should be avoided is contracting with those that have financial penalties, especially those with higher amounts. The Condusef sanctions violations of the rights of users. Insurers that do this and do it with some frequency have trouble imposing a service system geared towards customer service, so it could be unpleasant to be one of the people who have to turn to Condusef to demand their rights. 

Several medium and large insurers are a good option as they do not have any claims in the period from January to September 2018, which is where the table is based. Among them are Mapfre, Atlas, Sura, General de Seguros, La Latino, El Águila, Zurich and others, which also tend to have low prices. 

The solidity of the insurers should not matter to the users of the insurance, since all the insurers are supervised by the SHCP (Ministry of Finance and Public Credit) to confirm that their mathematical reserves are sufficient to be able to cover the commitments acquired through their insurance. 

The Treasury is also the institution in charge of approving or rejecting the request of insurers to participate in the national market in each of the insurance lines and cancel them if necessary, first ensuring that the contracted insurance is transferred to a solid company.

Steps to follow to hire the best car insurance in 2022

As we can see, it cannot be guaranteed that a single insurer is the best for all cars, all states, all types of plans, all ages, or, in general, for all variables. Each case is different and the best and cheapest insurers vary. 

What is possible to ensure based on all the comparisons shown is that there is a logical comparison process to be able to select the best plan from the best insurer in each particular case. The steps would be the following:

• Clearly define the type of desired auto insurance plan with the coverage you want to hire.
• Compare the prices of all the insurers for that type of insurance and select some of the insurers with the cheapest premiums.
• If you travel a large area of ​​the country in your car, you must make sure that the insurer has national coverage in all its services, that is, mainly workshops and executives. If not, it may be enough to purchase your policy with a small regional coverage insurer, which could offer you better care.
• Review the product ratings and the IDATU of the selected insurers and choose those that present a good preference rating in both areas.
• Verify that the selected insurers have not been sanctioned more than 1 time recently.
• Check if it is possible to obtain additional discounts in the insurer or extraordinary benefits, such as assistance services on the road, at home, travel, medical, etc. Remember that the goal is to get the best auto insurance, so this is only desirable and not decisive.

All insurers have insurance agents and representatives who are continually being trained in order to properly advise clients. The foregoing does not guarantee that correct information can be obtained from agents in person or by phone, and there are other factors that may affect, such as people’s ethics. 

Therefore, it is important to always ensure that you clearly understand the coverage of the requested plan and require that the agent or advisor show you where the coverage is specified in writing. If it does not appear in writing, it is not included, no matter how much any representative of the insurance company assures you.

The insurance contract is made up of the policy face, the general conditions, and the additional endorsements. If what you want to contract does not appear in them, you will not be covered.