Travelers Auto Insurance Review

The first automobile insurance policy was issued in 1897 to a resident of Dayton, Ohio by the name of Gilbert J. Loomis. The policy issuer? The Travelers Insurance Company. Ever since then, Travelers Insurance, headquartered jointly in St. Paul, Minnesota and Hartford, Connecticut, has been one of the leading providers of car insurance in the United States.

Today, Travelers ranks Number 9 among the nation’s auto insurers through its network of 13,000 independent agencies. Find cheap auto insurance by entering your ZIP code and compare auto insurance companies from across the country!

History of Travelers Insurance

The present company was formed in a 2004 merger between The St. Paul Companies, Inc. — originally The St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company — and Travelers Property Casualty Corporation.

Travelers was founded in Hartford, America’s insurance capital, in 1864. As its name implies, the company originally provided reimbursement for injury or death to the beneficiaries of train and steamboat travel. In fact, Travelers paid out more than one million dollars worth of claims to the beneficiaries of passengers who died when the Titanic sank.

The St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company was founded in Minnesota in 1853 in response to the concerns of Midwestern farmers and businessmen who felt their claims weren’t being processed quickly enough by East Coast-based insurance consortiums. The company made its reputation in the wake of two of the nation’s biggest disasters, the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

In the 1990s, Travelers acquired rival insurance company Aetna’s property and casualty insurance divisions before briefly becoming part of the mega-banking corporation Citigroup in 1998. Insurance and banking did not work well together under the same red umbrella however, and the insurance arm of Citigroup was spun off. Ironically, in 2009, when Travelers became a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average under the ticker symbol TRV, it replaced one-time owner Citigroup.

After the merger that created present company, the new insurance giant was initially called St. Paul Travelers, but shed “St. Paul” as part of its corporate rebranding strategy when it repurchased the rights to its red umbrella logo in 2007, repositioning itself as The Travelers Companies.

Today Travelers is ranked at 99 on Fortune Magazine’s list of the 500 largest companies in the United States. It employs 30,000 workers nationwide and as of 2009, its valuation was approximately $110 billion.

Travelers Auto Insurance Products

Travelers Insurance offers a number of different types of automobile insurance products that can be seen in there various auto insurance quotes. These include:

• Liability Coverage: Basic liability insurance is required by auto insurance laws in the District of Columbia and all states except New Hampshire. Basic liability insurance covers costs that occur when an accident causes bodily injuries, as well as costs that occur when accidents cause property damage.
• Collision Coverage: Travelers collision coverage pays for the repair of any damage to your automobile in an accident that happens as a result of your own actions. As with most insurance policies, the higher the deductible on your Travelers collision policy, the less the cost of the policy.
• Comprehensive Coverage: Travelers comprehensive coverage reimburses for damage to your car that occurs in non-accidental situations such as vandalism, theft, fire or natural disasters such as floods.
• Medical Payments (MedPay) and Personal Injury Protection (PIP): A medical payments policy reimburses you for the medical expenses associated with an automobile accident, either incurred by you or incurred by your passengers, regardless of whose fault the accident is. You are covered even if the car you’re driving at the time of the accident isn’t your own, so long as you were driving with permission. You are also covered if you are a pedestrian and hit by a car. Personal injury protection, required by law in 16 states, reimburses you and all other injured passengers in the event of an accident for medical expenses and lost wages.
• Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist: Insurance that covers all the costs associated with an accident is the exception rather than the rule. Uninsured motorist coverage, required by law in 20 states and the District of Columbia, reimburses you for medical bills in the event that an uninsured motorist causes an accident that you are involved with. It also covers you if you are the victim of a hit-and-run. Underinsured motorist coverage kicks in when there are additional expenses after the culpable driver’s insurance maximums have been reached.
• Extended Transportation Expenses and Towing: The former policy reimburses you for the cost of renting a temporary replacement vehicle in situations if your automobile is damaged and repairs will take longer than 24 hours; the latter policy covers towing costs should your car break down on the road.
• Hybrid Travelers: Hybrid Travelers is a customized insurance policy for the owners of automobiles that utilize both conventional gasoline-powered engines and electric drivetrains that kick in at low speeds. Travelers offers hybrid drivers the same policies described above but at a ten percent discount.

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Travelers Auto Insurance Discounts

Travelers offers a number of auto insurance discounts to its policy holders including:

• Safe driver discount to policyholders whose driving records are free of moving violations
• Multi-vehicle discount to policyholders who insure more than one vehicle with Travelers
• Full payment discount to policyholders who eschew installment arrangements
• Hybrid automobile discount

Is Travelers Insurance a good bargain?

Is Travelers Insurance a good bargain? Well, it can be, although the company is so large and diversified you may not get the same level of customer service from Travelers that you get from a smaller company. You should take the time to compare auto insurance reviews and find the best company!

As with any insurance, the best deals are to be found when you compare Travelers insurance quotes for your state and zip code with car insurance quotes from other companies. Our ZIP code search will do the auto insurance comparison for you! Find the auto insurance companies that will properly insure you!