03.16.26 Best Auto Insurers / Discounters Go Wide

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Clark Howard Podcast

Episode Title: Best Auto Insurers / Discounters Go Wide
Date: March 16, 2026
Host: Clark Howard

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Episode Overview

This episode of The Clark Howard Podcast focuses on two core topics:

• The best auto insurance companies for consumers in 2026, emphasizing quality, price, and why the most widely advertised insurers may not be the best options.
• Changes in American consumer behavior in response to inflation, highlighting new strategies for stretching dollars, including shopping at discount and used stores.

The episode features listeners’ questions about vehicle purchases, solar scams, teaching financial responsibility to kids, life insurance coverage, and where to keep savings in a high-rate environment.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Best Auto Insurers: Looking Beyond the Ads

[00:36 – 06:47]

• Auto Insurance Rate Trends

  • Rates have finally "kind of capped out" and are even going down in some states as insurers swing from unprofitable to "wildly profitable" (01:20).
  • Insurers are now competing for business again after years of just pushing up rates.
  • Clark: “Most people by inertia never shop this around. But that changed over the last few years.” (02:30)

• Clark’s ‘Team Clark’ Auto Insurer Rankings

  • Clark and his team compiled data from sources like J.D. Power and Consumer Reports to create the “Team Clark Score.”
  • Top Insurers in 2026:
    • Erie Insurance (#1) — “regional insurer that gets the highest overall composite score.” (03:00)
    • NJM (#2)
    • USAA (#3) — still rated high even with more recent customer complaints.
    • Amica Mutual (#4)
    • Auto-Owners Insurance
    • CSAA Insurance Group (AAA in some markets)
  • Notably, these are mostly regional or specialty insurers, not the big advertisers.
  • “Not a single company on [body shop] list was a big, well-known advertising behemoth. Not one.” (06:35)

• Buyer Tips

  • Don’t just buy what’s marketed—“be a buyer, not be sold.”
  • Research, check ratings, and ask industry professionals (like body shops) for their recommendations.

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2. Listener Q&A: Cars, Solar, Family Finance, and More

[06:47 – 29:00]

Car Buying in a High Mileage Scenario

Q: Buy new or used for 10,000+ miles/year?

• “Used to be that I talked about the advantage of buying one and two-year-old used cars… no longer a deal generally compared to a new one.”
• Now, only significantly older cars offer a material depreciation advantage—but with more risk.
• “If you’re asking me brand new or one-year-old, I go brand new.” (07:09)
• Passenger cars offer better value than SUVs.

F-150 Lightning: Buy Now or Pass?

• Ford’s discontinuing the F-150 Lightning, but service and battery warranties are long.
• Discontinued models (“orphan cars”) drop in resale value—look for deals on new or used.
• “The biggest beef that buyers have had with it is that the range you actually get out of it is not close to what the stated range was that they thought it was going to be.” (09:45)
• No major worries about replacement parts for the near future; worry more about actual driving range and charging for longer trips.

Solar Leasing Headache: Caught in the Fine Print

• Listener stuck with a costly solar lease from the now-defunct ADT Solar division.
• “You are as stuck as stuck could be in that contract.” (11:43)
• Takeaway: Always own your solar system, never lease; leasing contracts often lead to non-economic outcomes and lack flexibility if companies dissolve.
• "A lot of these companies were better at selling things to people ... than they were at running solar businesses." (13:24)

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3. American Consumers: Discounters Go Wide

[16:53 – 21:33]

• ‘No Buy January’ and Consumer Adaptations

  • An increasing number of Americans now participate in “no buy” months and shift buying habits due to inflation.
  • Shoppers are “modifying where they buy, how they buy, when they buy.” (16:58)

• The Evolution of Dollar Tree and Discount Retail

  • Dollar Tree (now with items priced up to $7) and Five Below have expanded product ranges, store sizes, and moved into more affluent markets.
  • Clark: “Their sales have gone up quite a bit… their actual shopper base has grown.” (18:40)
  • Stores now attract customers from higher-income areas by offering broad selections and better shopping experiences.

• Growth of Used Stores

  • Explosion in the popularity and utility of used stores (especially for clothing), enabling consumers to stretch every dollar further.

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4. Family Money Values: Teaching Kids

[21:33 – 24:46]

• How to Teach Children Sacrifice and Delayed Gratification
  • Clark shares personal experience: “The oldest is much more careful with every dollar and lives an extremely frugal lifestyle… our son isn't there at all.”
  • Money values are taught through ongoing, age-appropriate conversations—not lectures or guilt trips.
  • Favorite teaching moment: Clark shows kids images of a fancy and a basic lifestyle, then asks which family is the millionaire—kids always pick fancy, but “it's never what you have in possessions, it's what you don’t spend that matters.” (23:29)

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5. Insurance & Banking Advice

[24:46 – 29:00]

Life Insurance Review

• Listener’s annual renewable term policy (ART) will get expensive with age.
• ART is for short-term needs—“more like a straight up curve after age 50.”
• For longer-term coverage, replace ART with a “level term insurance policy… till you’re both in your 60s.” (26:12)
• Amount needed: “10 times your annual income.” (27:28)

Where to Park Your Cash: Navy Federal & USAA

• Both offer better loan rates, but aren’t good for savings accounts.
• Clark: “Their big business is offering rates on loans… on the savings side, neither is anything special.” (28:09)
• Recommendation: Use high-yield online banks or trusted discount brokers for savings, keep credit unions/banks for transaction and lending needs.

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Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• On advertising and quality:
  “Not a single company on [the body shop] list was a big, well-known advertising behemoth. Not one.” — Clark Howard (06:35)
• On solar leasing contracts:
  “You are as stuck as stuck could be in that contract.” — Clark Howard (11:43)
• On lifestyle and wealth:
  “It's never what you have in possessions, it's what you don’t spend that matters.” — Clark Howard (23:29)
• On life insurance:
  “ART is really more designed for a very short-term window, not a long term… you each need a policy on yourself, 10 times your annual income.” — Clark Howard (25:46, 27:28)
• On savings at credit unions:
  “On the savings side, neither is anything special.” — Clark Howard (28:09)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Insurance Rankings & Analysis — 00:36 – 06:47
• Car Buying Q&A — 06:47 – 08:31
• EVs & F-150 Lightning Q&A — 08:31 – 10:30
• Solar Contract Pitfalls — 10:30 – 14:14
• Discounters & Shifting Consumer Behavior — 16:53 – 21:33
• Teaching Kids Financial Values — 21:33 – 24:46
• Life Insurance Evaluation — 24:46 – 27:41
• Credit Union vs. Bank Savings Accounts — 27:41 – 29:00

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Final Takeaways

• Shop around for auto insurance— don’t rely on big names or advertising; use aggregated data from trusted sources and consider regional insurers.
• Buy, don’t lease, solar panels to avoid being locked into unfavorable contracts.
• Adapt shopping strategies: Use discounters, expand to affluent chains, or buy used to beat inflation.
• Educate kids about money through ongoing discussion and lived example—not material displays.
• Review and switch life insurance policies as life circumstances change; buy enough term insurance at the right time.
• For savings, go online—credit unions like Navy Federal are borrower-friendly but not always saver-friendly.

For more resources and tips, visit clark.com.

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Transcript

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[Clark Howard]

I'm so glad you're with us here on the Clark Howard Show. You know, our mission is to serve you with advice and information that empowers you so you make better financial decisions in your life. I hope you had a great weekend. I certainly did a lot of driving this weekend. Well, actually my car did and it made me think about car insurance and how many questions and comments I've been getting about the rising rates insurers are charging. So what companies are actually the best? You see all the ads and are those ads crazy bad? I'll tell you what I mean by that. Second and later, one way Americans are saving big bucks is through no spending trends and even switching retailers. I'm going to give you the lowdown on that in the second half of this podcast. So finally, finally good news on the auto insurance front. In most of America, not only have rates kind of capped out, but in a lot of states rates at renewal should be going down because insurers, as I shared with you, I think about six weeks ago, auto insurers have gone from being extremely unprofitable to, with all the rate increases pushed through in recent years, wildly profitable. So now insurers have switched to another thing and that's competing for your business in ways they have not in recent years. They were willing to see a customer flee just to be able to charge people much more money. And make no mistake about it, most people by inertia never shop this around. But that changed over the last few years. People got shaken out of their inertia by the big increases that they got hit with and did shop and many did switch. But now that rates have leveled out, maybe starting to go down, that sense of urgency is gone. And it shouldn't be. Because there are two things you got to know about auto insurance. There are good insurers and there's the price. Now we have put in some work trying to compile a list and Came up with our own scoring system, taking data that's been published by different organizations like J.D. power and Consumer Reports and based on compiling their research, come up with a list that we call the Team Clark score. And with rates, the best insurers in the country. And let me tell you what's funny. Most of the insurers on our list are not household names. For example, regional insurer that gets the highest overall composite score. And if you're a Consumer Report subscriber, go look at their list of the best auto insurers. It'd be a really good idea. United Consumer Reports subscriber. You've got our compilation of data we came up with. But Erie Insurance rated number one overall in terms of insurer quality. Njm, another regional insurer, second place, third and fourth. Based on us compiling data from various sources, USAA came in third. Amica Mutual came in fourth. I want to say something about usa. We've had a lot of complaints about usaa. A lot of people who feel that USAA is not who they used to be. I had someone on somebody's on airplanes. Am I always on airplanes? Maybe so. Person next to me was bending my ear as military retiree, just going on and on about whatever happened to usaa. Well, they may not be what they used to be, but the data shows overall they still are a quality insurer. And I'll just name a couple others. Auto Owners Insurance and CSAA Insurance Group, which in some markets it's a AAA insurer, but that varies by market. And so you've got five insurers, six actually, that are at the top of the heap and they all in some way or some kind of specialty insurer. And really USAA is the only one that devotes a lot of energy to advertising. On the other hand, you've got insurers that all they do is try to come up with these pithy ads so that you'll think that the only insurers out there are the ones that run these TV ads non stop. But the reality is a lot of people are sold products instead of buying products or services. You want to be a buyer of product or service, not be sold a product or service. So it requires a little more work digging out what are the diamonds in the rough you don't know about. And that's why we did our list based on data others had compiled and Then others like J.D. power, Consumer Reports and yet others we've talked about. There's one we talked about before that was a compilation of who body shops know are the best insurers to deal with if you are in a wreck. Good stuff to know. There's a fact on that list from the body shops, not a single company on there was a big, well known advertising behemoth. Not one.

[Caller/Listener]

All right, you ready for some questions?

[Clark Howard]

I sure am.

[Caller/Listener]

This is from Paul in Ohio. I'll be returning to the office soon and will add 10,000 miles per year to my driving for the next five years.

[Clark Howard]

Oh, I bet you're looking forward to that. Not at all.

[Caller/Listener]

Should I buy a one year old car or a new car? I'd rather buy new and have the resources. But would it be better to put those 50,000 miles on a used car?

[Clark Howard]

Paul, what a great question. Okay, so it used to be that I talked about the advantage of buying one and two year old used cars because of particularities that are pretty involved, they're no longer a deal generally compared to a new one, you have to go significantly older in a vehicle and more miles before you've got a real benefit from the depreciation curve. In a vehicle that will potentially have more ongoing maintenance problems and repairs but will cost you effectively much less to own and operate. You got to look now four years out, even as far as five years out. So if you're asking me brand new one year old, I go brand new. And I want to say it till I'm blue in the face. Passenger cars cost a fraction often what any kind of SUV kind of thing is. So if you want to get reliable transportation that's affordable, like we've got a list on clark.com of 10 affordable vehicles under 30 grand and almost none of them are SUVs. They're passenger cars.

[Caller/Listener]

Okay. Justin in Virginia says I plan to buy a new vehicle this summer. I test drove an F150 Lightning and really liked it. Now that Ford has announced they are stopping production of it. If I decided to go with it, what concerns would I have with it? I'm particularly thinking about replacement parts.

[Clark Howard]

I'm not especially worried about replacement parts on the F150 Lightning. The warranty on it, on the key expensive component, the batteries is really long and unless you buy a used one that has a lot of miles on it. And you said you plan to buy a new vehicle. The real opportunity with the F150 Lightning, with it being a discontinued model, they have dropped as used trucks like a rock. And gosh, there's some truck commercial that says like a rock. Anyway, I don't know which brand. So the point is that if you're interested in F150 Lightning. Look at used versus new. With it being discontinued now, you also do have a possibility that any they become what's known as an orphan car. Now this is a discontinued model. You may find a screaming deal on a new one. And if you do ignore my advice, if you buy new, you're obviously going to have the full warranty on it, not just what remains of the warranty on the battery System and the F150 Lightning. The biggest beef that buyers have had with it is that the range you actually get out of it is not close to what the stated range was that they thought it was going to be. And if you're going to tow the range reduces a lot. So if this is a run around town suburban, go close by to a lake or a mountain or something like that, great. But if it's for long road trips, the charging cycles may drive you nuts.

[Caller/Listener]

Michael in Ohio says I thought I was letting the sun lower my bill. Instead it burned my budget. Almost two years ago I installed solar panels on my home through a company

[Clark Howard]

at the Go ahead.

[Caller/Listener]

You want to name this one because

[Clark Howard]

this has been such a public story,

[Caller/Listener]

ADT Solar at the time it made financial sense and temporarily lowered our electric costs. After 15 months, our monthly payment suddenly increased by over $200. When I contacted customer service they were dismissive and said the increase was quote in the contract sending me a highlighted clause showing a scheduled rate hike. I fully acknowledge that the language was buried in the fine print and ultimately it's my responsibility for not catching it. That said, we were never clearly told, verbally or otherwise that a significant rate increase was coming and had we known, we absolutely would not have agreed to the installation. Today we're paying more than we ever did through a basic electric bill. To make matters worse, ADT has since shut down its solar division, leaving us locked into a long term contract with no clear path out. Do we have any real options in this situation or are we simply stuck paying the now overpriced rate for the next 20 plus years? Thanks for helping shine a light on fine print solar traps, Michael.

[Clark Howard]

I mean it's why I have never liked any kind of solar leasing at all. I like if you're going to go solar, you own the thing. Because how many different times over the years have we heard horror stories from people? And when ADT decided to get out of the solar business two years ago, we took a lot of questions from people at that point and we didn't know how it was going to play out. But what is clear is that because the panels are there and as best I understand it, they have contracted for even though they're out of the business and wash their hands of it. ADT is contracted for continual servicing of the customers. You were as stuck as stuck could be in that contract. In your case, it's the double whammy. The company that sold you the system no longer is in the solar business. ADT is out of it and they're like, yeah, go have a nice life. And you got caught in this contract clause that made the panels in your life completely non economic. This is like another example of why I like you to own it. So we have solar on a home that we put in 15 years ago and the company that installed ours went bust. We owned our system so we were able to find another company to take over servicing it and when it needs repairs, repairing it and they've been great. So we got lucky in an unlucky situation. But the worst is when you're handcuffed into one of these contracts, one of these leases. And a lot of these companies were better at selling things to people, selling them into contracts than they were at running solar businesses. Unfortunately, you are stuck unless and until the services required by the contract or failed to be delivered to you. See, I'm using passive words and some lawyer comes along and is able to successfully help people break these contracts. Until that point, you got to pay it. Coming up ahead, I want to talk about how Americans are changing, how they stretch their dollars and its ways that you might normally not think about.

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[Clark Howard]

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[Don McDonald]

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Talking Real Money is an educational podcast, hosts or affiliated with a registered investment advisor. For disclosures, visit talkingrealmoney.com this message is

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[Clark Howard]

[e-mail] so two months ago we were in what's become a more recent annual tradition. No, By January this year, I think the cumulative effects of inflation, the number of people who participated in whole or in part and no, by January that didn't mean you don't buy groceries, but who didn't buy stuff was significantly higher as people are like, enough, enough. I don't have to have another whatever it is, fill in the blank. That's a more extreme kind of thing that people did, but also after the ravages of inflation over the last seven years and inflation unfortunately escalated again in the most recent report. We've got, we've got ways to go getting it really under control. People are modifying where they buy, how they buy, when they do buy. And now is a time for a confession. For me, I was wrong as wrong could be about the changes at $25 tree. Their signs say Dollar Tree but it's $25 tree now. I was really upset that they broke the buck but then I mean they were feeling the same inflation pressures as everybody else and they did something else too. You go in Dollar Tree now following in the footsteps of Five Below and the price is not the price anymore. As a longtime $25 tree shopper and before that Dollar Tree I would have my little basket and you could put in whatever you wanted and you just multiplied it out by one. You knew if you got 15 items you were paying 15 bucks. Now 15 items at Dollar Tree potentially could be 105 bucks because now items are priced $25 to $7 in the store although greetings cards often will be 50 cents. What happened from this is the nature of Dollar Tree and its shoppers changed radically. And now Dollar Tree that used to be in sad looking shopping centers and often not in more affluent parts of town is now a sought after tenant by a lot of landlords and their big push has been into affluent areas and their sales from going to the price band instead of a fixed price their sales have gone up quite a bit. Not just because things cost more. I mean their, their actual shopper base has grown and on top of that, I mean it's awesome, they're doing so much better as a result. I mean it's just, it's a win all the way around because it gives people a good alternative with a wide market basket what you can buy. And I walked the force of. Recently I'd read a story about this. It was the New York Post about the change in strategy of where Dollar Trees are locating. So I go on Google Maps and I have it tell me where Dollar Trees are and I find this, this area I know is very wealthy and there's this Dollar Tree people are raving about and it's bigger than normal and how clean it is and all that. And so I drive to this fancy Dollar Tree and it was fantastic. It really was great. And I noticed that people were a lot of people were using shopping carts instead of the little handheld thing because they were buying so much stuff. So they understood the marketplace much better than I did. Five below did as well. And people are able, with overwhelmingly private label able to buy things they need. And at Dollar Tree you can buy things you didn't really need but you wanted but you can buy them cheaper buying their private labels and it's working for them and it's working for you and me. The other thing I would be remiss if I didn't talk about how much used stores have grown in popularity and how many things you can buy used now from clothing across product lines at used stores and how much that will help you stretch every dollar.

[Caller/Listener]

Krista okay, Canton, Ohio son in this question. My wife and I are both schoolteachers and have worked our way up financially over the many years, but our kids have only known the comfortable stage. How can we teach them sacrifice and delay gratification so they don't expect to afford our lifestyle early in their own careers?

[Clark Howard]

Affluenza Affluenza is tough because you can be in a family where, like in my case, I have three kids. They're pretty far apart in age. And when our first child came along, she grew up at a time that I didn't have the resources that I had later. So the kids grew up in very different circumstances and to this day, the oldest is much more careful with every dollar and lives an extremely frugal lifestyle. Our middle child has now become more frugal over time. Our son isn't there at all. Maybe he will grow into being more frugal. It is a hard thing. And so when you've got more there, it's hard to really get across to your kids, hey, you know, when you're launched in life, you're not going to be making this kind of money. You're not going to be able to buy these kind of things, afford these experiences and all the rest. So how do you do it? It's an ongoing, not guilt trip, not a commandment. It's ongoing conversations with your kids, age appropriate, from I'd say elementary school on up, where you talk about the basics of money with them, talk about the value of saving and investing versus spending. My favorite example is when I used to talk years ago when I talked to school groups behind me. I had two video screens and one showed like a cartoon of a family situation with a big house, a boat, fancy cars, fancy luggage to take a trip. And the other was people living in a more basic house and having basic cars and not the boat and all that. And so I'd ask the kids, and I would do this up through middle school, I'd say, okay, so which family is the millionaire family? And the kids almost 100% every time, every time I ever presented this would say the picture of the big house, the fancy cars, the boat, the luggage, all that. And then that was the punchline where I was able to say, nope, it's never what you have in possessions is what you don't spend that matters. And so you communicate that over time. And it doesn't mean deprivation, it means careful. And I talked recently on the podcast about how there are more and more wealthy families that are taking on too much debt and pricing their lives for perfection. Instead of using the opportunity, they're making more money to build more financial security.

[Caller/Listener]

Okay, Chelsea in Minnesota says I'm now a 10 year listener of your show. Thanks for all the financial advice you've given me as I drive around town and cook dinner every day.

[Clark Howard]

Thank you.

[Caller/Listener]

20 years ago, a financial advisor friend signed my husband and I each up for a $400,000 80 year term life insurance. We thought that the amount would cover us for a decade or more if one of us died. Now we're in our 40s, make more than double what we made in our 20s, and have several kids. The youngest is five. We are both in good health, but have a same aged friend die of a stroke recently. Sorry about that. If one of us died unexpectedly, would that $400,000 life insurance policy still be enough? Considering the mortgage has less than $100,000 to go, the kids are all in school, and Social Security survivor benefits could help out. On the flip side, when the kids are all gone and the house is paid off, decrease or eliminate life insurance coverage as the monthly premiums are projected to go way up after 50.

[Clark Howard]

Oh, now I understand. What?

[Caller/Listener]

When should you reevaluate your life insurance coverage?

[Clark Howard]

All right, so Chelsea, I get what you were saying now. So you bought something long ago from this friend that was very common years ago called art. Annual renewable term. And every year you reset the premium based on your increased mortality risk that steadily goes up more like a straight up curve after age 50. So art is really more designed for a very short term window, not a long term. You're both in good health, right? So what I want you to do is I want you to can the policy maybe. Or if you want to keep it in for a few more years, that would be fine too. While the kids are all in school. And then when they're out, then you don't renew that annual renewable term and replace it with a level term insurance policy. And you pick the term. I recommend that it be till you're Both in your 60s. You can buy level term for 15, 20, 30 years. You buy a policy and we have a guide to buying level term [e-mail] you buy it from a financially strong company. These policies have no games, no gimmicks. You just buy it pays nothing. Except if somebody Dies. Now, how do you decide how much to own? So you did this years ago. You ended up with this $400,000 policy. You each need a policy on yourself. You each buy a level term insurance policy, buy it for 10 times your annual income. That would be a good number to buy. You don't worry so much about what the outstanding debt is with the mortgage and all that. What you want is you want replacement of income and you'll be stunned with good health. How crazy cheap buying big numbers of level term insurance will be.

[Caller/Listener]

Doreen in North Carolina says, I've been listening to you for years and when you spoke about Navy Federal Credit Union and usaa, I decided to become a member based on your recommendation. You've always spoken very highly of both institutions. That said, I'm struggling with the savings and money market. From what I can see, there's no better than, and in some cases the same as the large banks you often advise people to avoid. If I'm a member of Navy Federal and the savings rates are relatively low, can you help me understand why you continue to recommend them?

[Clark Howard]

Okay, what a great question, Doreen. Let me explain credit unions, which Navy Federal is. USAA is a federal savings bank, but is there for the benefit of the members. They are both what's known as borrower friendly credit unions more than saver friendly credit unions. Their big business is offering rates on loans, vehicle loans, mortgages, home equity lines of credit, interest rates on credit cards that are vastly better than you're going to get it from a typical bank. On the other hand, on the savings side, neither is anything special. And if you're sitting with a pile of cash, you want that in a high yield savings account with an online bank or you want to place the money if you're doing CDs through a discount broker like Schwab, Vanguard or Fidelity, if you have accounts with any of them. The overall experience with Navy Federal and USAA serving a closed market of people related to the military or people who are relatives of somebody in the military has over the years provided a good environment for people. And so they are good places to have your money because in the case of Navy Federal, it's a co op. USAA Federal Savings bank, not exactly a co op, but generally considered to be customer friendly, more so than traditional financial institutions. So I hope that explains where my head is on that. And I want to thank you so much for joining us today. We're going to be back at your service on Wednesday and know that every day, every night, all week long, we serve you every way we can to empower you with knowledge so you can save more, spend less and avoid getting ripped off.