Let’s find out the difference between two well-known car insurance companies. In this Nationwide Vs GEICO article, we will be comparing the discounts that each company has to offer. We will be comparing quotes and average monthly rates. We also will be comparing insurance claims and much more.
Insurance products available
It’s always awesome to have more insurance products available to you. Why you ask? It’s awesome because more insurance products mean that you have the potential to save more with a multi-policy discount. Nationwide gains the edge in this category. Nationwide offers 28 insurance options while GEICO only offers 24.
Nationwide insurance options
Nationwide offers 9 forms of vehicle insurance such as auto, classic car, motorcycle, snowmobile, ATV, RV, boat, personal watercraft, and scooter insurance.
Nationwide offers 4 forms of property insurance such as homeowners, renters, condo, and flood insurance.
Nationwide offers 11 forms of specialty insurance such as small business, identity theft, personal umbrella, pet, accident medical, specialty liability, travel, farm, wedding, dental, and legal plans insurance.
Nationwide offers 4 types of life insurance including term, whole, universal, and variable life insurance.
GEICO insurance options
Just like Nationwide, GEICO offers various insurance products for their customers. These insurance products include auto, homeowners, renters, condo, motorcycle & ATV, boat, umbrella, RV, collector auto, mobile home, flood, commercial auto, general liability, professional liability, business owner’s, workers’ compensation, life, ridesharing, travel, overseas, Identity Protection, pet, jewelry, and landlord insurance.
Car insurance rates comparison
Nationwide costs slightly more than GEICO and other well-known insurance companies. Nationwide is not for those who desire minimum coverage.
With Nationwide you will have to choose coverage options that are more than the state requirement, which is why Nationwide can cost slightly more.
However, I strongly recommend that you compare quotes yourself. Rates differ per person depending on age, gender, driving history, car, state, etc.
Insurance claims comparison
We compared overall claims using the J.D. Power (2017) U.S. Auto Claims Satisfaction Study. A few companies that did not do well in the study are Mercury, COUNTRY Financial, Liberty Mutual, and Safeco.
However, both insurance companies were on the top half of the insurance list. This means that they rated higher than a majority of insurance companies for overall claims satisfaction. In overall claims GEICO is 4 spots ahead of Nationwide with 4 out of 5 stars. In the initial claims reporting process GEICO is 2 spots ahead of Nationwide.
In Claim servicing GEICO is 7 spots ahead of Nationwide. In the settlement category which reveals on average which insurance company offers the fairest settlements to their customers, GEICO beat out Nationwide yet again.
Nationwide discounts
Unlike many of the larger insurance companies, Nationwide doesn’t offer a lot of discounts to their customers, but there are some discounts that you might love.
- SmartRide discount – SmartRide is only available to Nationwide members who have auto insurance. With this discount you can save up to 40% when you drive safely. All that you have to do is plug in a small device and track your discount. This device is going to measure 4 driving factors. SmartRide measures miles driven. It’s simple. The more miles that you drive the greater the chance that you get into an accident. With SmartRide the less that you drive the better and the more money that you can save. SmartRide also takes into consideration hard braking & acceleration. This program lasts approximately 4-6 months.
- Nationwide Family Plan discount – Nationwide offers a great family discount that can potentially save you up to 25% on auto insurance. What makes this discount so awesome is that anyone who lives under your roof can enjoy the same discounts that you are entitled to. If you have a large family, then this discount is going to help you save a lot of money.
- Paperless documents – When you sign up for paperless which takes 2 minutes you can save money on your auto insurance.
- Accident free discount – Depending on where that you live you can save up to 10% on your auto insurance. All that you need for this discount is to be free of all major violations for at least 5 years.
- Anti-theft device – In 2010 alone almost 750,000 vehicles were stolen. It is great to have factory-installed anti-theft devices. Not only is it a good deterrent, but it also helps you to save 5% on your auto insurance with Nationwide.
- Roadside Assistance & Roadside Assistance Plus – Up to $100 in lock-out services, gas delivery, ditch extraction service, car towing up to 15 miles, jump start a dead battery, and replace a flat tire. With Plus you will have car towing service up to 100 miles and you will also be given trip interruption coverage.
GEICO discounts
GEICO is rich in insurance features and easily beats out Nationwide in this category.
- Anti-Theft System – GEICO’s anti-theft discount allows you to save more than Nationwide. Instead of a 5% discount you are given a 25% discount.
- Good Driver Discount – Just like Nationwide GEICO offers a good driver discount for drivers who have been accident-free for 5 years or more. However, instead of a 10% discount you are given a 26% insurance discount.
- Seat Belt Use – Making a habit of always wearing your seat belt can save you 15% off the medical payments portion of your premium.
- Air Bag discount – Having airbags in your vehicle can help you to save up to 40% on the medical payments or personal injury portion of your insurance premium.
- Military discount – Are you a service man or woman? Whether you are active or retired you can save 15% on your total car insurance with GEICO’s military discount.
- Incident forgiveness – Incident forgiveness is different from accident forgiveness. With accident forgiveness your rates won’t go up after an accident. With incident forgiveness you will not have to worry about your rates going up after a traffic citation.
- Driver’s Education – Completing a driver’s education course can earn you a discount on most GEICO coverages.
- GEICO Emergency Road Service – Jump starts, change a flat tire, lockout services, and towing. With GEICO’s mobile app you are given a GPS locator to help you to be found by their roadside assistance team.
Mobile app comparison
Nationwide
The Nationwide app allows you to do basic things that you would expect such as pay bills, get your insurance card information, collect and exchange accident information, start claims, locate agents, and find accident help. Although the Nationwide app is easy to use it’s boring and basic compared to some other insurance apps.
GEICO
The GEICO mobile app is far more intuitive than Nationwide’s app. In fact, GEICO has the #1 rated Insurance app in the world. One of the impressive things about GEICO’s app is that along with digital ID cards, vehicle care, and the chat with an agent feature, customers will be given a virtual assistant to help them find answers to their questions.
Which is better?
Although Nationwide offers more insurance products, GEICO is the clear insurance winner. With GEICO you will receive better insurance rates, features, claims, etc.