Direct General Insurance: All You Need To Know

Direct General Insurance is the parent organization of Direct Insurance Company, which was established in 1991 in Nashville, Tennessee. The organization extended all through the southeastern states, zeroing in on giving non-standard insurance to drivers who are viewed as high-risk because of their driving history, financial record, or other issues. Direct likewise writes term life insurance and gives travel car insurance in Mexico, alongside a couple of different services. They sell products online and through local storefront offices.

Apart from being a supplier of non-standard accident coverage, Direct General sells products through 400 storefronts, a call center and the web in 13 southeastern states. Notwithstanding car insurance, the organization sells other monetary products and services including life insurance, roadside assistance, prepaid debit cards, security in case of an emergency, and tax preparation services. Direct General Insurance has more than 2400 representatives and more than $500 million in yearly incomes. For more details, continue reading the article below.

What is Direct General Insurance?

Direct Auto and Life Insurance Company, otherwise called Direct General, centers around offering clients reasonable rates and regard. Direct Auto is found principally in the south and southeastern parts of the United States. The organization offers clients low rates, paying little mind to their driving history, since it goes by the ideology that everybody has the right to have the coverage that they need. With adaptable payment choices, you can make your payments in the manner that is most advantageous and convenient for you. They have some expertise in getting you the minimum required insurance coverage for your state. However, they can also assist you with getting a more significant amount of coverage to give you the peace of mind you need.

They give non-standard personal auto protection, premium finance and other insurance and non-insurance products and services. The activities are focused in the southeastern part of the United States. Clients looking for minimum coverage could discover cheaper rates with Direct Auto car insurance (earlier known as Direct General). Keep in mind that their rates are not the cheapest, but are still less expensive than average. Notwithstanding, as policyholders raise their security levels, their rates are probably going to increment to levels that are not as alluring as compared to those of other insurance providers.

Direct Auto advertises its readiness to give coverage to practically every candidate, including those with a background marked with accidents or driving while inebriated. To this end, high-risk drivers can buy a SR-22 from the insurer, alongside a couple of other helpful types of coverage that could boost numerous types of drivers.

The business model integrates the company’s insurance, premium finance and agency auxiliaries. It additionally underlines the conveyance of its products and services through local sales offices staffed by employee-agents rather than commissioned agents. The extension of their local sales offices in specific states incorporates the utilization of independent insurance offices, which they generally have the option to gain later on.

The center of the business includes giving non-standard personal auto protection arrangements. These policies, which are generally given for the minimum limits of coverage needed by state laws, give coverage to drivers who cannot acquire insurance from standard carriers because of an assortment of variables, including the absence of flexible payment methods, the inability to keep up continuous coverage, age, any accidents occurred in the past, driving infringement, occupation and the type of vehicle.

Clients in the non-standard market generally have higher average premiums for a similar measure of coverage than clients who meet all requirements for the standard market. The higher average premiums ordinarily result from an increase in the frequency of losses, which is somewhat counterbalanced by the reduction in the level of seriousness of losses coming about because of lower limits of coverage. In certain states, they produce personal auto insurance policies for unaffiliated insurance organizations through the distribution system. It is assumed that this business from unaffiliated insurers through reinsurance arrangements, and acquires service charges for the agency, underwriting, policy administration and claims adjustment services performed for the unaffiliated insurers.

Through the premium finance auxiliary, the organization finances the premiums on most of the insurance strategies that it sells by loaning to clients the premium because of the insurance organization. They procure charges and interest pay from their premium finance tasks. These credits are upheld by the unearned part of the insurance premiums being financed, which is the segment of the loan inferable from future times of coverage. Direct General structures its payment plans and incorporates its systems, trying to limit principal losses on its premium finance loans.

The organization tries to draw in clients by creating solid brand name acknowledgment in its business sectors through minimal expense TV advertising efforts that underline their low down payment, adaptable payment plans, convenient local areas and customer service. Their local offices fill in as an organization for both item delivery and payment collection. All policy applications are finished in the local sales offices, and the vast majority of the clients return to these workplaces at least on a monthly premise, to make their intermittent payments.

The business model furnishes the company’s employee-agents with client contact at the point of sale, and when the client gets back to make intermittent payments. This contact permits the organization to offer an assortment of products notwithstanding their core item, non-standard personal auto insurance. They give term life insurance approaches through their wholly-owned life insurance subsidiary, just as vehicle security insurance, travel protection insurance and hospital indemnity insurance underwritten by unaffiliated insurers, for which they get commission and administration expense pay. They likewise offer auxiliary non-insurance products and services.

Direct General Insurance Coverage

When it comes to purchasing automobile insurance from Direct Auto, there are several coverage options to choose from:

Direct General Strategy

The company’s goal is to create a superior return to its shareholders. To reach this objective, it has come up with a strategy that aims to capitalize on its strengths. Key aspects of the strategy are:

• Keeping a local market presence and a strong brand awareness in the business sectors they serve;
• Circulating the products and services through a wide network of local sales offices workplaces that stress upon the utilization of salaried employees and a largely fixed expense of distribution;
• Utilizing its integrated business model to catch critical extra incomes from premium financing, term life insurance premiums and commissions, and settling a huge segment of its working costs with these extra incomes;
• Utilizing its distribution system to build deals of its non-core insurance and non-insurance products and services, including extended offerings of these products and services;
• Expanding its distribution network through acquisitions of local offices and the kickoff of new sales offices; and
• Controlling expenses through its in-house claims management and disciplines policy underwriting and estimating.

Risks Faced by Direct General

The company’s efforts to capitalize on its strengths and successfully implement its strategy comes with its fair share of risks. For instance:

• Since the core item is non-standard personal auto insurance, negative advancements in this industry could antagonistically influence the company to a more prominent degree than more broadened insurers that additionally sell other kinds of auto insurance products;
• Adverse turns of events and repeating changes in the personal auto insurance market could make the company’s outcomes to suffer;
• The concentration of the business in Florida and Tennessee makes them (the company) more vulnerable to any negative developments in the predominant regulatory, administrative, financial, competitive, or other conditions in these states, and could make it all the more exorbitant or hard for them to lead their business;
• The success of the development plan, which incorporates venturing into new states by obtaining the business and resources of local offices, relies on the company’s capacity to distinguish organization securing competitors and, when procured, integrating their activities;
• Due to the company’s largely fixed expense structure, a decrease in sales volume could, in addition to other things, decline its productivity;
• Execution of the development plan necessitates that they keep on reinforcing their capitalization or keep on utilizing reinsurance to meet their administrative capital and surplus prerequisites, which could leave the organization open to a failure by its reinsurers to pay sums because of them;
• The organization’s status as a holding organization makes it subject to the capacity of its operating subsidiaries to deliver profits to it, and state insurance laws limit such payments and require its insurance auxiliaries to keep up certain minimum degrees of legal capital and surplus; and
• The current appraisals of the insurance auxiliaries or any disappointment of our insurance auxiliaries to keep up their present evaluations and ratings, could bring about an increase in loan fees or reinsurance expenses for the company.

What Types of Insurance Products Are Offered?

Despite the fact that auto insurance for high-risk drivers is the main product offered by Direct General, the company also offers motorcycle and life insurance, along with a few other related products.

Auto Insurance

Direct’s vehicle insurance program is focused on high-risk drivers like those with numerous tickets and accidents, drivers requiring a SR-22, and drivers with bad credit. Their program is comprehensive and incorporates numerous alternatives seen at bigger organizations, unlike any other non-standard insurance organizations that only offer the essentials.

Direct car insurance strategies can be bought as basic, liability-only to meet the legal necessities of the state, or as full coverage arrangements that incorporate comprehensive coverage and collision coverage to pay for any damage done to the driver’s vehicle in both, accidents where the driver is not to be blamed and for burglary, vandalism, and other harm.

Extra alternatives incorporate rental repayment, towing and work, and accidental death coverage. There is a good list of insurance limits offered by General Direct, including military, senior, homeowner, multi-strategy, and a good student discount. They additionally offer a proclivity discount for clients who are members of partnered groups, despite the fact that there is no list of these groups that can be accessed online. Direct General’s car insurance program offers a flexible payment framework that permits clients to choose how and when they want to pay for their insurance.

Motorcycle Insurance

Like the vehicle insurance program, Direct General offers liability coverage and full coverage arrangements for motorcycles. Their arrangements incorporate all the normal coverage options along with discretionary insurance coverage for custom parts and the option to add replacement cost coverage.

Life Insurance

Direct General offers extremely fundamental, simplified  term life insurance approaches. Term lengths last for six months or for a year, with a maximum death benefit of $15,000. The organization offers ensured renewal at similar rate for two years, and strategies can be renewed on a continuous premise. There is no clinical test for these plans, and Direct General offers the choice to buy with no extra down payment to clients who buy life insurance alongside vehicle insurance.

Other Products

Direct General likewise offers an independent Roadside Assistance program and vehicle insurance for coverage in Mexico. They additionally write Commercial Auto. Moreover, they offer Prepaid Mastercard services, which obliges their objective market of drivers who may have credit issues.

What coverages does Direct General offer?

Apart from personal auto insurance, Direct General also provides commercial auto insurance and many supplemental optional insurance coverages that you can add to your personal automobile insurance policy. Some currently available add-ons are as follows:

• Rental Reimbursement: You can get rental repayment as a discretionary coverage that you can add to your Direct General car insurance strategy. This coverage assists you with taking care of the expense of a rental vehicle if your vehicle is being fixed after it was in an accident, and you do not have another vehicle.
• Towing & Labor: Direct General offers towing and labor coverage as discretionary coverage to add to your vehicle insurance strategy. This help takes care of the expense for emergency towing costs if your vehicle cannot be driven due to an accident or breakdown, and for the expense of labor if your vehicle needs service on the road. Normally, towing and labor coverage is just accessible with comprehensive and collision coverage however, Direct General has a roadside assistance program.
• Roadside Assistance: Direct General’s roadside assistance program offers clients emergency services accessible 24 hours a day. The organization affirms that the expense of its roadside assistance program is only around a couple of dollars a month and the program pays for itself after one use. Roadside assistance from Direct General is controlled through NationSafeDriver. A few advantages of the program are:
• 24-Hour emergency towing
• Concierge benefits (free maps and travel routes)
• Gas and essential fluid delivery
• Jump-start for dead batteries
• Lockout services
• Mechanical help
• Mexico Auto Insurance: If you are traveling to Mexico from the United States, you can buy Mexico auto insurance to get auto insurance protection during your stay in Mexico.

Does Direct General have motorcycle insurance?

Direct General Insurance offers motorcycle coverage to ensure you and your bike. It offers the essential coverages of bodily injury liability, property harm, collision and comprehensive, motorcycle guest passenger liability, clinical payments, personal injury protection, and uninsured driver coverage. It likewise offers extra terms that you can add to your approach including custom parts and gear or accessories coverage, motorcycle replacement coverage, and towing.

Does the Company Offer Competitive Rates?

The website offers a basic graph showing life insurance costs. $10,000 worth of coverage on a year-long term for a protected individual between the age of 18 and 50 has a recorded expense of $118 each year, or $9.83 per month. We have seen simplified life with ten times the coverage for a more drawn out term for expenses that are not much more than this. So while this appears to be very reasonable, more coverage can be received from somewhere else in a similar price range.

Direct General does not write insurance in California, so it is difficult to compare them to other organizations in California. Keep in mind that Direct General does have a web based quoting framework, which is fairly uncommon for a non-standard insurance organization. The system is simple to utilize and clear. Since this is a non-standard insurance provider writing for high-risk drivers, one cannot expect the rate should to be tantamount to standard insurance organizations. The rates to insure a high-risk driver are usually higher than standard.

The expense of Direct Auto Insurance keeps on changing, based upon the measure of coverage the policyholder chooses. According to ValuePenguin, for minimum coverage, Direct Auto vehicle insurance is a decent, reasonable insurer. Direct Auto was more costly than State Farm and GEICO, however more reasonable than Allstate and Progressive for similar coverage.

In any case, Direct Auto Insurance gets comparatively more out of reach and expensive if the policyholder purchases full coverage. Furthermore, regardless of Direct Auto’s standing for providing insurance to  drivers with inconsistent insurance histories, drivers with one accident could see a lot less expensive rates with different suppliers.

The following list shows the rates offered by Direct General in comparison with the rates offered by its competitors:

GEICO           

• Minimum coverage: $63
• Full coverage: $143
• Full coverage with one accident: $199

State Farm    

• Minimum coverage: $123
• Full coverage: $211
• Full coverage with one accident: $246

Direct Auto   

• Minimum coverage: $148
• Full coverage: $344
• Full coverage with one accident: $436

Allstate          

• Minimum coverage: $157
• Full coverage: $303
• Full coverage with one accident: $382

Progressive  

• Minimum coverage: $211
• Full coverage: $390
• Full coverage with one accident: $584

Is Direct General Insurance good?

Direct General has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) in the United States. There have been 160 complaints recorded in the previous three years, and 57 of those were shut in the previous a year. That is a higher complaint volume than we like to see for an organization of this size. A review site by the name of My Three Cents has 15 reviews of this organization with a 1.5-star general rating. The protests will in general focus on poor customer service and trouble reaching individuals, along with claims issues.

Direct auto insurance acquired 4 stars out of 5 for its general performance according to NerdWallet. NerdWallet’s evaluations are dictated by their publication group. The scoring equation considers pricing and discounts, simplicity of recording a claim, website straightforwardness, monetary strength, complaint information from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and more.

Complaints Board has a considerable rundown of issues from clients and surprisingly more than one from previous employees. These complaints incorporate claims issues and clients expressing they had options added to their insurance strategy and were charged without their knowledge. It is not common for a non-standard insurance organization to see a ton of complaints, however the objection volume and the recurring remarks about poor service and assistance, alongside the input from previous workers, raises warnings.

Direct General Insurance claims

It is not difficult to document a claim, regardless of whether you get in touch with the company online or via telephone. Just log into MyAccount to begin your online auto claim, or call at 1-800-403-1077 to address a claims trained professional. For any non-auto claim, if it is not too much trouble, call 1-800-403-1077, and an expert will be glad to help you.

Direct General does not presently offer online claims revealing, despite the fact that the site expresses that this service will be accessible later on. At the hour of this audit, a complementary claims line is the solitary choice for revealing another claim. The assistance, at 1-877-GO-DIRECT, is not accessible 24 hours, however it is only open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday.

The lack of an after-hours or emergency line for claims is astonishing and strange, even for a small local insurer. The claims process is clearly explained on the website. An agent will be appointed to research and review the harm, and repairs start upon approval. There is a Direct Repair organization of preferred repair shops, however clients can choose their own mechanics shop in the event that they like.

What discounts does Direct General offer?

Direct Auto & Life Insurance (Direct General) has a variety of discounts to help you save up on insurance.

• Affinity Discount: If you or your partner are members of an organization associated with Direct Auto & Life, you may be qualified for savings of up to 5 percent off your auto insurance premium.
• Good Student Discount: You can save up to 10 percent on your car insurance policy if you are a high school, college, or vocational/technical school student and have a “B” average or better grade, are in the top 20% of your class, are an honors student or are on the Dean’s List.
• Low Mileage Discount: Almost 5 percent can be saved on car insurance if you do not drive a lot annually. However, this can change from state to state, the cap to earn this discount is usually in the range of 7,500 miles and 15,000 miles a year.
• Multi-Car Discount: If you have more than one car on your policy, you will most likely get a discount.
• Multi-Product Discount: With Direct Auto Insurance, using more than one of their products or services will get you a discount on your policy of up to 5 percent. For example, bundling car insurance with life insurance.
• Policy Renewal Discount: Policyholders can acquire a discount of up to 20 percent if they show commitment to the provider. In order to get this discount, your policy must be renewed in a matter of 7 to 10 days of the expiration date and should not have had a lapse in coverage for the year before.
• Prior Insurance Coverage Discount: Up to 25 percent can be saved if you switch to Direct General and can prove that you have previously been insured without any lapses.
• Safe Driver Discount: If you make sure to implement safe driving habits and have been accident-free for the last three years, you are eligible for a discount.

Other ways you can get a discount:

• Being a member of a company that is associated with Direct Auto Insurance.
• Coming back to Direct Auto Insurance in a matter of six months after switching to another organization.
• Completing an accident prevention course as someone who is at least 55 years old.
• Owning the home where the insured vehicle is stored.

Direct Auto Insurance Discounts

If you want to save money, you will be interested in the various discounts the company offers:

What more should you know about Direct Auto & Life Insurance?

This supplier has an assortment of adjustable insurance payment alternatives. You can pick your payment date, how regularly you will pay, the amount of your regularly scheduled payment (in light of the amount you need to pay upfront), and how you need to pay. You can pay with money, credit, or debit card, auto-pay with a credit or debit card, electronic check, pay by text with mobile bill pay, or pay at a partner payment area if there are no workplaces in your space. Besides, you are even permitted to pay for your approach with pre-paid debit cards, which is not accessible with numerous other organizations.

They likewise have a Catastrophic Response Team (CAT Team) that reacts to crises brought about by extreme climate conditions. Some extreme weather that the CAT Team normally reacts to are storms, hurricanes, hail, cyclones, tornadoes, and floods. The CAT Team surveys harms and reacts to these extreme climate crisis claims. Direct Auto and Life (Direct General) has 400 organization company storefronts across the south and southeastern parts of the United States.

Pros and Cons of Direct Auto Insurance

How do I get a quote from Direct Auto?

To get a quote from Direct Auto, you can either call us at 1-800- DIRECT (1-800-347-3428), or visit our website and use our online quote tool. Our team of insurance experts will be happy to help you find the right coverage for your needs and budget.

In what states does Direct Auto sell policies?

We sell policies in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. Give us a call at 1-800- DIRECT (1-800-347-3428), or visit

How do you file a claim with Direct Auto?

If you need to file a claim, please call our 24/7 Claims Customer Service line at 1-800-282-1446. Our team of experienced representatives will be happy to help you through the claims process. We’ll work with you every step of the way to make sure you get the coverage you need.

Conclusion

Direct General Insurance is simply liable to be considered as a possibility for non-standard insurance for high-hazard kinds of drivers, and surprisingly, then there might be better choices for specialty personal auto insurance coverage for the high-risk driver. Then there are often questions like ‘Is Direct Auto Insurance legit?’ or ‘Is Direct General Insurance good?’ Well, the complaints against this organization are alarming in both volume and content, and keeping in mind that the company seems to offer a good collision protection program, they do not appear to back it up with regard to claims and customer service.