Donegal
Donegal
Home Insurance
Smart Score

Smart Score

79

Industry Average: 77

Smart Score

Mini Shield

79
/100

Industry Average: 77

Customer Service

Mini Shield

7.7
/10

Industry Average: 7.9

Claims Process

Mini Shield

7.7
/10

Industry Average: 7.9

Value for Price

Mini Shield

8.4
/10

Industry Average: 7.6

Donegal Overview

The Donegal family of property and casualty insurance companies provides full lines of personal, farm and commercial insurance products across multiple regions of the United States. It is proud of its heritage, which spans more than 125 years in the insurance business. Donegal Mutual might be a good choice to protect your automobile as it offers a wide range of coverage options, attractive features and discounts, often providing qualified customers added insurance protection that is either not offered by other insurance companies or only available at an additional charge.

Lines of Business:

Donegal Ratings Breakdown

Smart Score

79

Donegal: 79
Industry Average: 77
Donegal: 79
Industry Average: 77

Why our Smart Score matters

Donegal’s Smart Score of 79 was created by combining weighted averages of ratings for customer service, claims process, and value for price from 3rd party sources as well as our own research. We view these as the most important factors since they cover the entire experience of shopping for, maintaining, and making a claim on an insurance policy.


How our Smart Score is calculated

Data comes from customer reviews, officially filed complaints, financial stability data, and other insurance industry rating companies. Combining these metrics and sources provides the most accurate and broad-based analysis of what matters most when considering Donegal’s overall quality compared to other home insurers. While there is some overlap between our three primary metrics, each has unique characteristics that set them apart from each other.


What does this mean for you?

With a score of 79, Donegal sits near the industry average of 77. While this metric isn’t the be-all and end-all, it’s definitely a good point of reference when comparing home insurance options.

Customer Service

7.7

Donegal: 7.7
Industry Average: 7.9
Donegal: 7.7
Industry Average: 7.9

Our customer service score measures two primary things: user satisfaction when interacting with Donegal’s representatives, and their experience with online tools like quoting and managing a policy via website or app. Donegal’s customer service score comes from a variety of places. These include user reviews on Honest Policy, as well as other analytics companies such as JD Power, Insure.com, and Consumer Reports.


What does this mean for you?

As you can see from Donegal’s service score of 7.7, they have a decent rating compared to similar home insurance companies, which clock in at an average of 7.9.


With minimal sources reporting customer service data for this company, we can’t calculate the estimated range. Consequently, we’re not certain about the accuracy of this score, but it’s the closest estimate we have.

Claims Process

7.7

Donegal: 7.7
Industry Average: 7.9
Donegal: 7.7
Industry Average: 7.9

Our claims process score looks at users' experiences when filing claims with Donegal. It takes into account not only claim outcomes, but also the ease of making and tracking a claim, as well as how fast Donegal handles it.


Donegal’s claim score is derived from various sources. These include reviews from Honest Policy users, and outside sources including Consumer Reports, Insure.com and JD Power. We round off our calculation with official complaints filed with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (which primarily are claim related). These complaints are weighted against the size of each company to ensure an apples-to-apples comparison. This gives our claim score the most complete picture of what to expect when filing a claim with Donegal.


What does this mean for you?

Evident from a claims score of 7.7, Donegal has a reasonable rating compared to the average claim score of 7.9 for similar home insurance companies.


With minimal sources reporting claims quality data for this company, we can’t calculate an estimated range. Thus, we can’t be certain about the accuracy of this score, it’s just our best estimate.

Value for Price

8.4

Donegal: 8.4
Industry Average: 7.6
Donegal: 8.4
Industry Average: 7.6

Donegal’s value score measures customer satisfaction when considering how much they pay versus the quality of their experience when dealing with the company.


How Donegal comes up with the price of a policy varies by state, and relates to a number of different factors. Some of these include driving record, how much you use your car, location, age, gender, and the car you drive. While price is a critical factor for most insurance customers, what they get for that money is even more important. As with our other scores, this rating comes from a variety of sources: Honest Policy, JD Power, Insure.com, Clearsurance, and Consumer Reports.


What does this mean for you?

Donegal’s value for price score of 8.4 is excellent compared to the average of 7.6 from other home insurance companies.

With few sources reporting price value data for this company, we don’t have an estimated range. As a result, we’re not 100% sure about this score. It’s more of an educated guess, so take it with a grain of salt.

Donegal Home Official Complaints

Home Official Complaints

Worse than average

Tracks how many more or less official complaints Donegal has than average. With an index of 1.2 Donegal is worse than average.


The complaint index comes from two variables for each year and type of insurance.

  • The percentage of how many complaints Donegal has filed against them with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) compared to the total number of complaints filed with every company.

  • The percentage of how much insurance business (total policy premiums) Donegal has compared to the total amount of business of all the other companies.

By weighting complaints and business against their totals, and then dividing share of compliants by share of the market, we get the index value. With 1.0 being an average number of complaints, a 0.5 would be half as many complaints. With an index of 1.2 Donegal is worse than average.

Complaints by year (normalized against company size)

Customer Reviews

Donegal doesn't have reviews yet.

Donegal Coverage Options

When it comes to their home, everyone has a different situation and differing needs for protection. While every home insurer offers the same standard coverages. they tend to differ when it comes to what they offer or optional additional protections. Below we list and describe all the extras offered by Donegal

Optional
Standard
Available OptionWhat it means
Additional Insured

The additional insured endorsement extends the liability portion (Coverage E) of your homeowner policy to others living in the home who are not related by blood, marriage, or adoption. It can also apply to those not living with you but who have partial ownership of the property. For example, if your girlfriend's dog bites someone and she gets sued, this endorsement would allow her to make a claim on your policy to cover the costs.

Assisted Living

Generally, this endorsement just extends coverage to personal property that a family member has in an assisted living facility. Some insurers also reimburse a portion of the additional living expenses if your loved one is temporarily displaced.

Business Pursuits

Standard liability coverage protects you and your family against bodily injury or property damage claims made by others. However, this coverage extends only to your personal liability, not your business liability. This endorsement removes that exclusion, thereby providing coverage for harm resulting from business pursuits. Some businesses may not be eligible for this endorsement, depending on the state and insurer.

Child Care Liability

This niche endorsement offers some protection from potential lawsuits and damages for those that operate daycares from home. They cover liability (bodily injury and property damage claims from others). Some policies also cover damages to your personal property. Certain states may also require separate daycare insurance.

Computer

Like Scheduled Property, this endorsement provides additional coverage for households with expensive (or multiple) computers. A standard policy will provide some protection, but this extends it. Keep in mind; this is not a warranty. If a laptop simply malfunctions, coverage likely won't apply with most insurers. External damage from risks like fire, theft, and lightning surges are more what it covers.

Debris Removal

While many homeowners insurance policies cover some amount of debris removal after a covered loss, they tend to limit how much they will pay. This endorsement raises those limits on the standard policy. For insurers who don't offer debris removal by default, this endorsement enables such coverage.

Electronic Data Recovery

This endorsement covers the cost of recovering lost personal computer data caused by a loss.

Donegal availability in these states

Home
Auto

Donegal Home Discounts

While all companies offer a range of home insurance discounts, it's hard to judge any individual discount's value in a meaningful way. For one, the discounts are typically a percentage off the base price, instead of the whole policy.

What does this mean?

Your best bet is to directly discuss your particular situation with an agent to make sure you're getting all the discounts that you may be eligible for on your home policy. For reference, we've listed all the discounts we believe Donegal has below in order to help determine which ones may fit your profile (though keep in mind that they can vary by state).

Available OptionDiscount DataWhat it means
Claim-free

5% to 5%

When a homeowner has not had any claims, it's a sign to insurers that they are less likely to make one in the future. With this lower risk profile, insurers can offer savings. The look-back window is almost always five years, but some insurers only look back three years or offer the discount on a sliding scale.

Green Home

5% to 5%

To qualify as a green home, most insurers require LEED certification for the house. Some will qualify customers that use geothermal heat or solar energy though, so it's good to ask when considering a policy.

Renewal / Loyalty / Tenure

2% to 8%

Insurers are not huge fans of customers who switch from company to company on a regular basis. They naturally prefer the steady income of repeat business year after year, since it lowers their costs. As an incentive to policyholders, a portion of these savings is provided as a discount, most often after three years (on the fourth renewal).

Compare

How does Donegal compare to other insurance companies? Click the following links below to compare Donegal to other top insurance companies.

Donegal logo
Vs

Other Carriers