Best Home and Auto Insurance Awards:
Rating Methodology
How we selected Canada's top home and auto insurers
Content manager
Methodology for Best Home and Auto Insurance Awards
A survey of insurance brokerage customers, including Scoop Insurance and NFP, an Aon company, was conducted by Pollara Strategic Insights, Canada’s premier research project leader. The Best Home and Auto Insurance survey considers many factors to determine which insurer performs the best in each category. This includes:
- Overall company performance and customer satisfaction.
- Brand performance – product innovation, coverage options, trustworthiness, sustainability and environment-conscious decision making.
- Service performance – website transparency, claims filing process, rates and available discounts, value for premium charged, availability of online account management tools.
- Communication with customers – channels of communication used to contact the insurer, reasons for reaching out to the insurer, ease of use of customer app.
The Best Home and Auto Insurance Awards survey was completed between August 18, 2023, and September 18, 2023, using an online survey methodology.
A total sample size of 8,875 auto insurance customers in Ontario and Alberta – the two largest markets for private auto insurance in anglophone Canada – responded to the survey.
Margin of Error calculations were adjusted to reflect the total number of customer records available based on the population size. As part of the survey, it was observed that 860 respondents of the total sample size of 8,875 customers filed for an auto insurance claim in the past year. The survey does not report results of claims experience for insurers with a margin of error of ±11% or higher.
The actual distribution of responses closely matched NFP and Scoop’s customer distribution by age, gender and province. As such, Pollara Strategic Insights did not apply any weighting to overall results. Results specific to NFP and Scoop customers, which are not included in this report, are weighted by market, to represent the actual distribution of each market within the brokerage.
Some percentages reported may not add up to 100% due to round figures.
Data collection and sample size
A total sample size of 8,875 auto insurance customers in Ontario and Alberta participated in the Best Home and Auto Insurance survey. Pollara Strategic Insights found 44% of the respondents identified as female, 55% identified as male, and 1% as other.
Out of the total surveyed customers only 7% are from Alberta, and the remaining 93% are from Ontario. Within Ontario, 15% of respondents live in Toronto, 41% are from the GTA, 12% from East Ontario, 17% from Southwest Ontario and 8% from North Ontario.
At least 98% of primary insurance decision makers responded in the survey – which means persons who take part in decision regarding insurance for their household.
Out of the sample size, 66% respondents were Scoop Insurance customers while 34% were customers of NFP brokerage.
In terms of age group, 21% were between 60-69 years old, 20% were 50-59 years old, 16% were 30-39 years old, 15% 40-49 years old, 14% 70+ years old and 11% respondents were between the age group of 16-29 years old. The age group of 2% of respondents is unknown.
Review team
The writers and editors behind our auto insurance reviews are insurance specialists who have had their work featured by or appear in leading publications in Canada.
Each writer and editor working on this survey report follows RATESDOTCA’s strict editorial guidelines for integrity and accuracy.
In addition to auto insurance, the team covers home insurance, mortgage, personal finance and travel insurance.
Rating specifics
The insurers in the survey are ranked based on the following categories:
- Best Overall - The insurer that performs the best across several categories ranked the highest in this category. Rankings are weighted based on how important each element is to overall satisfaction. Since only a small proportion file claims, this ranking uses perceptions of ease of filing a claim as a substitute for claims service.
- Most Trustworthy – In this category, customers rank based on how trustworthy an insurer’s brand is perceived. The most important driver of customer satisfaction is how innovative products or coverage options are available and whether the insurer cares about sustainability and environment issues.
- Best Auto Claims Experience – This category is based on only customers who have filed a auto claim in the past year, based on the ratings they provided about their claims experience. This includes ease of filing a claim, how user-friendly the website it and how easy it is to access details about your policy.
Shivani Kaul, Content manager
Shivani is a Content Manager at RATESDOTCA, focusing on mortgages. She is an experienced communication and marketing professional who specializes in content strategy and SEO optimization. Shivani ensures that our written materials meet the highest standards of quality and relevance.
She holds a Digital Marketing Management certificate from the University of Toronto, a Business Communications certificate from the University of British Columbia, a Masters degree in Mass Communication from Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communications and a Bachelor's degree in English from the University of Delhi.
Shivani has previously worked as a deputy digital productions editor with PMNA-The Canadian Press, and as an editor with The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, and the Investor's Digest of Canada. She has also worked in reputed news media groups in India and the Middle East.
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