The Fast Auto Score™
Updated
The Fast Auto Score is a transparent 0 to 100 rating of an auto insurer, built only from data we can show our work for: the carrier's own filed rates and the public NAIC complaint record. It uses no purchased third-party ratings such as AM Best or J.D. Power, so it carries no licensing strings and cannot simply be copied from another site. Every input and its weight is published below, and a carrier is scored only once each input is backed by a real, dated source, never estimated.
What the Fast Auto Score measures
Most "best insurer" rankings you find online lean on purchased financial-strength ratings or on opaque editorial opinion. The Fast Auto Score is deliberately different. It answers one shopper question - is this carrier competitive on price, and does it treat customers well? - using only primary, verifiable inputs. The result is a single 0 to 100 number, where higher is better, that we can trace line by line back to a rate filing or a regulator dataset.
The score is a weighted average of four pillars. Each pillar is itself scored 0 to 100, multiplied by its published weight, and summed. Because the weights sum to 100 percent, the composite always lands on the same 0 to 100 scale. The formula is fixed and public; there is no hidden adjustment layer.
The four pillars and their weights
- Rate competitiveness 35 % Based on the carrier's filed base rate compared with its peers.
- NAIC complaint index 30 % Based on the carrier's complaint ratio from the NAIC, inverted so fewer complaints score higher.
- 12-month rate stability 20 % Based on how much the carrier's filed rates have moved over the past year.
- Coverage breadth 15 % Based on the coverages and options available in the carrier's filed policy.
Rate competitiveness carries the most weight because it is the most shopper-relevant and the input we build from our own transcribed filings. The NAIC complaint index - a free, credible regulator measure of how often a carrier's customers complain relative to its size - stands in for the claims-and-service experience that a price number alone cannot capture. Rate stability rewards carriers whose filed rates have not lurched over the past year, and coverage breadth reflects the options actually available in the filed policy.
Why the score cannot be copied
The Fast Auto Score is pure-proprietary by design. Three of its four pillars are built directly from the rate filings we read and transcribe ourselves, and the fourth comes from a free public regulator feed. Nothing in it is licensed from a ratings agency. That has two consequences that matter. First, there is no third-party licensing exposure - we are not republishing anyone else's paid product. Second, and more important for shoppers, the score is genuinely hard to reproduce: a competitor would have to pull and transcribe the same filed rate manuals we do, cell by cell, to arrive at the rate pillars. The moat is the work, not a purchased badge.
How a carrier earns a score - and why some are Pending
Integrity here is built into the code, not promised in a footer. A pillar is admitted to the score only if it carries a 0 to 100 value, a positive weight, and a fully sourced, dated data point behind it. A pillar can never hold an unsourced number. If we do not yet have a real, dated source for one of a carrier's inputs - for example, we have not transcribed its filings in a given state - that input is shown as "Pending" rather than guessed, and the carrier is not assigned a composite until the gap is closed.
This is the honest tradeoff behind a proprietary score: it grows only as fast as we can source it. We would rather publish fewer scores that are each fully traceable than a full leaderboard padded with estimates. The list below shows which carriers are ready to score now and which are queued as our filing corpus expands.
Which carriers we score
Under the pure-proprietary model, a carrier is ready to score once we hold the filings its rate pillars are built from. The rest follow as we transcribe their filings; until then their rate pillars stay Pending.
You can already see the underlying filed data we score on in our cost and rate-factor guides and our carrier profiles, each of which cites the exact SERFF filing behind every number.
How to read the score
The Fast Auto Score is informational, not a recommendation to buy any particular policy. A high score means a carrier looks competitive on the inputs we measure for a representative scenario; it does not guarantee the carrier will be cheapest for you, because your own rate depends on your age, vehicle, location, record, and coverage choices. The reliable way to find your price is to compare real quotes. Use the score to build a shortlist, then run your own quote to see what each carrier actually charges you.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Fast Auto Score?
It is a transparent 0 to 100 rating of an auto insurer, built only from the carrier's filed rates and the public NAIC complaint index. It is a weighted average of four published pillars, and every input traces to a real, dated source.
How is the Fast Auto Score calculated?
Each of four pillars is scored 0 to 100, multiplied by its published weight - rate competitiveness 35 percent, NAIC complaint index 30 percent, 12-month rate stability 20 percent, and coverage breadth 15 percent - and summed into a single 0 to 100 composite.
Does the Fast Auto Score use AM Best or J.D. Power?
No. It uses no purchased third-party ratings. Three pillars come from rate filings we transcribe ourselves and the fourth from the free NAIC complaint record, which is why it carries no licensing strings and cannot be copied from another site.
Why do some carriers not have a score yet?
A carrier is scored only once every input is backed by a real, dated source. If we have not yet transcribed the filings behind one of its pillars, that input is shown as Pending rather than estimated, and the carrier is not assigned a composite until the gap closes.
Is a higher Fast Auto Score always cheaper for me?
Not necessarily. A high score means a carrier looks competitive for a representative scenario, but your own price depends on your age, vehicle, location, driving record, and coverage. Compare real quotes to find your actual rate.
Who reviews the Fast Auto Score methodology?
A licensed Property and Casualty agent, Jason Wootton (NPN 7694718), reviews our rate, coverage, and methodology content before it publishes, and the pillar weights live in a single place in code so the published description can never drift from what the score uses.
