Elephant Auto Insurance Review: Available in Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia

Watch out Geico, there’s another Brit on the American insurance block. Yes, the Geico Gecko is from England.

We’re talking about Elephant Insurance, which is currently invading our shores from afar. Well, not that far, just England…

They claim to be one of the fastest growing multi-car insurers in the United States, so let’s learn more about them.

By that, they mean insuring more than one car in a household, which is pretty common.

Can you save a “ton” on auto insurance with Elephant?

As their name implies, you can save a lot of money with Elephant Insurance, whose parent company is Admiral Group plc out of the UK. However, you still need to shop around to ensure they offer the best price/service

As always, TTAI did the digging for you to get the skinny for our readers. Here’s what we found out about Elephant Insurance Services LLC.

First off, we like their tagline. Save a ton, elephants, get it? Makes sense.

More importantly, we’ll point out that Elephant Insurance is a subsidiary of Admiral Group plc, which is the third largest auto insurer in the United Kingdom, and has moved across the pond only recently to try their hand at U.S. auto insurance.

They’ve been doing auto insurance for 20+ years and have doled out nearly two million policies worldwide.

Now let’s talk about Elephant Insurance, which is a direct-marketing insurer located near Richmond, VA. That means they do not use insurance agents to sell their product; rather, they cut out the middleman and offer their product directly to the end user.

A common misconception is that insurance sold via an insurance agent is more expensive, which is certainly not the case…just a marketing technique!

Not having the personal touch of an agent is something many consumers don’t like. After all, talking to someone in a cubicle “somewhere” may not be your idea of great customer service if something goes wrong.

Nonetheless, Elephant’s website points out that they have over two million insurance customers worldwide, so they’re not the smallest company out there…but certainly also not the largest, despite what their name implies. Two million customers is a drop in the bucket in the insurance world.

They currently offer their auto insurance coverage (and more) in the states of Illinois, Indiana, Texas, Maryland and Virginia…you may have seen some of their recent television commercials if you reside in any of those states.

It’s unclear if they’ll be expanding to other states any time soon because their launch seemed to coincide with the financial crisis that took place several years ago.

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What types of insurance does Elephant offer?

• Auto insurance
• Homeowners insurance
• Condo insurance
• Renters insurance
• Motorcycle insurance
• ATV insurance
• Collector Car insurance
• Life insurance
• Umbrella insurance

When it comes to car insurance, Elephant Insurance offers a non-standard auto insurance product.

They will likely be most competitive on state minimum car insurance coverage, although they offer higher liability limits and physical damage coverage as well.

They also offer collector car, ATV, homeowners, condo and renters insurance, though this coverage is provided by other insurance companies, and not underwritten by Elephant.

Similar to other auto insurance companies in the U.S., Elephant acts as an insurance broker to sell multiple lines of insurance through other different companies.

Basically, they receive a commission for selling you the other company’s insurance policy. This is similar to how Progressive and Geico offer insurance policies other than just car insurance.

[See: Geico Home Insurance for more on that.]

Where do Elephant Insurance policies actually come from?

While they write some of their own insurance policies, such as the auto insurance, many of the other types of insurance policies they offer come from other  companies, like Homesite or Dairyland.

Here’s the breakdown of which company will actually issue your policy and pay your insurance claims if you purchase a policy for anything other than auto insurance from Elephant:

If obtain coverage through Elephant for a motorcycle or ATV, Dairyland will be your insurance provider. They are currently A+ rated for financial strength by A.M. Best.

If it’s a collector auto insurance policy, American Modern will be your actual insurance company. For the record, American Modern is a great company with an outstanding reputation and financial rating.

When it comes to property insurance, including homeowners, condo and renters policies, Homesite would be your actual insurance company. Homesite is also a large, reputable insurer.

You will see the disclaimer for this on their website if you read the fine print. We’ve done that work for you – simply substitute American Modern for Homesite depending on which insurer you actually buy your policy from:

Homesite renters insurance policies offered through Elephant Insurance are provided by Homesite Insurance Group. Homesite is a business associate that is not affiliated with Elephant and is solely responsible for these insurance policies.

Elephant assumes no responsibility for the content or operation of the Homesite Insurance group web site. Information provided to Homesite is subject to its terms of use and privacy policy.”

Elephant also offers life insurance, though it’s unclear if it’s sold in-house or via a third-party. It also appears that they only offer term life insurance, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, just limited options.

Tip: If you don’t live in the states where Elephant Insurance does business, you will be directed to out-of-state providers via providers that have nothing to do with this company.

What kinds of auto insurance coverage does Elephant Insurance offer?

If you buy auto insurance with Elephant, you can get the standard coverages offered by most auto insurance providers, including liability coverage (bodily injury and property damage liability), collision coverage, and comprehensive coverage.

You can also add personal injury protection and uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage, which are required in some states.

In addition, Elephant Insurance offers roadside assistance, GAP insurance, rental reimbursement coverage, and non-owner car insurance for those who don’t own a car but borrow one sometimes.

The roadside assistance coverage provides towing, battery jumping, flat tire replacement, fuel delivery, and lockout services.

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What discounts does Elephant Insurance offer?

Elephant Insurance offers a variety of common insurance discounts, including:

• Good student discount – most insurers find that students with good grades tend to be more responsible (i.e. file less claims) and discount accordingly.
• Safe driver discount – you may receive a discount if you have a clean MVR and C.L.U.E. report for the past three years. As with any auto insurer, it pays to have a clean driving record.
• Multi-car discount – insuring more than one car means a higher overall insurance premium and usually means a discount as well, up to 20% off.
• Online Quote discount – A 15% discount on your car insurance simply for getting your quote online.
• Paperless Account – they save money by not using the paper and paying postage and pass the savings onto you.
• Pay In Full – almost every insurance company prefers to get all of the money up front and will discount your policy as a result…Elephant sees it the same way. The good news is they accept credit card for payment.
• Driving History – you may receive a discount if you have a clean MVR and C.L.U.E. report for the past three years.

The discounts available may vary by state.

There is nothing earth shattering about their discount offerings, but they are certainly worth a mention for those of you who are discount hounds. Especially since Elephant says you can save a “trunkload!”

You may also be able to save money by bundling your Elephant auto insurance with a homeowners, renters, or life insurance policy.

Elephant Insurance Diminishing Deductible

If you look up the word vanishing in a thesaurus, you might see the word diminishing listed, which means it’s very similar to programs offered by other insurers. It’s basically an incentive to avoid filing an insurance claim

It sounds an awful lot like the Vanishing Deductible from Nationwide, and basically operates the same way.

However, Elephant takes $100 off your deductible on day 1, so if you choose a $500 deductible, it would automatically fall to $400. Then it falls another $100 each year you drive accident-free until it’s at zero.

Additionally, Elephant offers a “no-reset guarantee,” meaning your collision deductible won’t reset back to $500 if/when you have an accident, unlike the other guys.

So it looks like you get to keep all the savings you may have accrued over the years, even if you get into one fender bender. Of course, if you get in a second one you probably won’t be so lucky.

What’s the bottom line?

In closing, Elephant would be more than happy to provide you with a free online auto insurance quote in less than 10 minutes. It may actually only take six minutes, they claim.

Of course, we’re not aware of a single insurer in the United States that doesn’t offer free fast quotes, but hey, it might be worth a shot to see if you can save some cash on your auto insurance coverage.

Just be sure to get multiple online quotes or visit a local independent insurance agent to ensure you’re not leaving money on the table by switching to Elephant.

The more quotes you receive, the better your chances of finding the lowest rate, so shop away.

Read more: 10 ways to lower your car insurance premium.

(photo: http2007)

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