The Nerd Score for Clearcover
Clearcover is the only carrier we score that currently holds no independent financial-strength rating of any kind — Demotech withdrew its Financial Stability Rating on 9 April 2026, and Clearcover's own help centre says it has never had an AM Best rating. Set against that: a genuinely cheap book of rates in the one state whose regulator publishes company-by-company premiums, and one of the best-rated apps in the category.
Most reviews of a small insurtech carrier are written out of the company’s own marketing, because there is nothing else to write them out of. Clearcover is the rare case where there is: a state regulator publishes its actual filed rates, another publishes its complaint history year by year, a third fined it after auditing its claims files, and a rating agency dropped it. This review is built out of those four documents.
How we scored Clearcover
One number. Four pillars. Published math.
We don't hide the methodology behind a "proprietary algorithm." Every weight is public, every input is sourced, and we re-score the whole field each quarter as new data lands.
- Price (30%) — 7.5. Maryland is the one Clearcover state whose regulator publishes filed annual premiums company by company. The Maryland Insurance Administration’s rate comparison guide, rates effective 1 August 2026, prints 22 driver scenarios across three regions and dozens of ZIP codes. We parsed all 638 scenario-and-ZIP cells in it. Clearcover is below the market median in 68.8% of them, with a median quote of $3,223 against a $3,650 market median. But it is also in the most expensive quartile in 19.7% of cells, and the per-scenario median ratio ranges from 0.52× the market median to 1.89×. Real savings, wildly profile-dependent — which is why this pillar is 7.5 and not 9.
- Claims (35%) — 3.5. Three independent regulator signals, all negative. The Texas Department of Insurance fined Clearcover $80,000 in January 2026 after a targeted market conduct examination of its auto claims. Missouri’s complaint index for Clearcover’s auto book has risen every year since 2022 and hit 186 for 2025, where 100 is the expected level. And Clearcover has no active financial-strength rating after Demotech’s withdrawal. No J.D. Power ranking exists to weigh against any of it — Clearcover is too small to be surveyed.
- Coverage (20%) — 6.0. Clearcover’s own published state coverage summary shows a competent standard auto lineup plus two nice extras: an OEM-parts endorsement for vehicles nine years or newer, and period-1 rideshare cover. Against that, medical payments caps at $10,000, there is no gap coverage, no accident forgiveness and no new-car replacement on the list, and delivery driving is explicitly not covered.
- Digital (15%) — 9.3. The Clearcover Car Insurance app rates 4.7 out of 5 from 17,076 ratings on the Apple App Store and 4.6 out of 5 from 5,655 ratings on Google Play, both checked on 26 August 2026. Unlike Lemonade, whose two store ratings sit a full point apart, Clearcover’s agree. The pillar is the mean of the two, doubled onto our 0–10 scale.
That is a Nerd Score of 61 — computed from the weights above, never hand-set. For context, the national auto carriers we score run from 69 to 87, and Lemonade, the other app-first carrier in our data set, sits at 69.
The rating that was withdrawn
This is the fact that reorders everything else, and almost no review of Clearcover has caught up with it.
Demotech withdrew Clearcover’s Financial Stability Rating on 9 April 2026. Demotech’s own company record for Clearcover Insurance Company now reads “FSR withdrawn 4/9/2026.” Before that, Clearcover held an FSR of A (Exceptional), affirmed by Demotech on 17 May 2021, a level Demotech describes as insurers with “exceptional financial stability related to maintaining positive surplus as regards policyholders, liquidity of invested assets, an acceptable level of financial leverage.”
Demotech was Clearcover’s only rating, because Clearcover has never had the other one. From Clearcover’s own help centre:
Currently, Clearcover does not have an AM Best rating. We are rated by Demotech, which is another trusted name in the insurance industry.
That article was last updated in April 2024, and its second sentence is no longer true. As of this writing Clearcover’s own customer-facing help page still tells prospective buyers it is rated by Demotech, four months after Demotech stopped rating it. We are not reading motive into that — help centres go stale — but a shopper who follows Clearcover’s own link to check its financial stability will not find what the page promises.
The practical consequence: Clearcover currently carries no active independent financial-strength rating from any agency. Every other carrier in our data set has one. This is not a prediction that Clearcover will fail; small carriers drop and regain ratings for reasons that have nothing to do with solvency, and Clearcover has not published a reason. It is a statement that the usual outside check on whether an insurer can pay a large claim is, for now, unavailable.
What the Texas regulator found in the claims files
On 5 January 2026 the Texas Commissioner of Insurance entered Consent Order No. 2026-9711 against Clearcover Insurance Company. Clearcover agreed to pay an administrative penalty of $80,000. The order follows a targeted market conduct examination of Clearcover’s private-passenger auto business for calendar year 2022, and it is a rare public look inside an insurtech’s actual claim files.
The findings, quoting the order’s own sampling percentages:
- Clearcover failed to notify the insured in writing of an initial settlement offer within 10 days in 20% (20 of 100) of paid claims reviewed, and 28% (7 of 25) of total-loss payments.
- It failed to send written notice of settlement within 30 days in 16% (16 of 100) of paid claims and 28% (7 of 25) of total-loss payments.
- It failed to provide, or timely provide, the statutory Notice of Rights Regarding Repair of Motor Vehicle in 32% (32 of 100) of paid claims.
- It failed to adopt and implement reasonable standards for the prompt investigation of a claim in 14% (7 of 50) of denied or closed claims.
- It used an unlicensed adjuster in 4% (2 of 50) of denied or closed claims.
- Separately, it failed to issue or retain proof of issuing the Texas Liability Insurance Card in 86% (86 of 100) of policies reviewed.
Two pieces of context the order itself supplies, and which matter. First, Clearcover told examiners that the claim files reviewed were handled by an outside adjusting firm, The Littleton Group Western Division, whose contract Clearcover terminated in May 2022 and which surrendered its Texas adjuster licence and third-party administrator authority effective 28 February 2025. Second, Clearcover gave TDI a corrective action plan on 23 September 2024 and says it has implemented it.
So this is a four-year-old book of business handled by a vendor Clearcover has since fired. That is a genuine mitigation and we are giving it weight. It is also the only independent audit of Clearcover’s claims handling that exists in public, and the complaint trend since then has not improved.
The complaint trend
Missouri publishes a per-company complaint index where 100 is the number of complaints expected for a company that size. Clearcover’s private-passenger-auto index there has gone one direction every year since it began writing meaningful volume.
Clearcover’s auto complaint index, where 100 = expected
Indiana’s regulator publishes the same kind of number on a 1.0 baseline, and puts Clearcover at 4.02 for 2024 and 11.03 for 2025. We are reporting those with a warning attached: they rest on one and two complaints respectively against a book of roughly $4–5 million in premium, and an index built on two complaints swings enormously. Missouri’s series — 8 complaints in 2025, and four consecutive years of movement in the same direction — is the more trustworthy read.
Earlier versions of this review cited a national NAIC complaint index of “about 4.4.” We could not verify that figure against any primary source and have removed it. What we can verify is above, and it points the same way without the false precision.
Price: the one number a regulator will confirm
Almost every “Clearcover is cheap” claim in circulation traces back to Clearcover. Its own homepage says customers “saved up to $1,200/yr” — a self-reported survey of new policyholders taken between November 2021 and March 2022, which is now more than four years stale and, as an “up to” figure, describes the best outcome rather than the typical one.
Maryland is the useful exception. Its insurance regulator makes every admitted auto insurer file rates for 22 standardised driver scenarios and publishes them. Reading Clearcover’s column against the whole market:
- Clearcover’s median annual premium across the guide is $3,223; the market median is $3,650.
- Clearcover is cheaper than the market median in 439 of 638 comparisons (68.8%) and in the cheapest quartile in 32.9%.
- It is in the most expensive quartile in 19.7% of them.
- The spread by scenario is enormous. For a 19-year-old single male renting an apartment, Clearcover’s median is 48% below the market median. For a 40-year-old male homeowner driving 25,000 miles a year, it is 89% above.
That last line is the honest summary of Clearcover’s pricing: it is not uniformly cheap, it is selectively cheap. Its rating algorithm loves some profiles and actively repels others. If you are one of the profiles it likes, the savings are real and a regulator will vouch for them. If you are not, you will not find out from a review — you will find out from the quote.
One caveat we are stating rather than burying: $3,223 is a Maryland figure, not a national average. Maryland is an expensive auto state, and the other carriers in our data set carry national averages. Compare Clearcover’s number to the $3,650 Maryland market median beside it, not to a national figure elsewhere on this site.
Who actually insures you
Worth knowing before you buy, and it is in Clearcover’s own website footer. Policies are underwritten by Clearcover Insurance Company (NAIC #16524) and Clearcover Inter-Insurance Exchange (NAIC #17733). But:
- In Texas, policies “may be offered and administered by Clearcover General Agency” and are underwritten by Old American County Mutual Fire Insurance Company (NAIC #29378) — a different company entirely.
- In California, they are offered by Clearcover Insurance Agency and underwritten by Response Indemnity Company of California (NAIC #10970).
If you are in Texas or California, the financial-strength question above attaches to a different balance sheet than the one Demotech dropped. That cuts both ways, and it is worth checking whose name is on your declarations page.
Coverage: what is on the list, and what is not
Clearcover publishes per-state coverage summaries. Its Georgia summary, updated December 2025, is the most complete public inventory of what a Clearcover policy actually contains:
On the list: bodily-injury and property-damage liability (up to $500k/$500k), collision and comprehensive with deductibles from $50 to $2,500, glass repair typically with no deductible if it can be repaired, medical payments from $1,000 to $10,000, uninsured and underinsured motorist bodily injury and property damage, added-on (stacked) UM, Alternate Transportation — a daily cash stipend from $30/day with a $900 cap up to $50/day with a $1,500 cap, usable on a rental, rideshare, public transport or a carpool — roadside assistance delivered through HONK’s 24/7 network, an OEM-parts endorsement for vehicles nine years or newer, business use, and rideshare cover for period 1 only.
Not on the list: gap insurance, accident forgiveness, new-car replacement, or coverage for delivery driving. Clearcover’s underwriting notes are explicit that it “does NOT offer coverage for delivery of goods” — so UberEats and DoorDash drivers are out, even though Uber and Lyft period-1 driving is in.
Two structural notes. All policies run six months; Clearcover’s help centre says flatly that it does not offer 12-month terms. And Clearcover does not run a discount menu — its help centre says it built safe-driving, vehicle-safety, paperless and pay-upfront savings into base pricing instead, so there is nothing to hunt for and nothing to stack.
The app is the product, and it is good
The digital experience is where Clearcover clearly earns its score. Both app stores agree, which is unusual: 4.7 from 17,076 Apple ratings, 4.6 from 5,655 on Google Play. Vehicle-level coverage — adding comprehensive or collision, changing deductibles, alternate transportation, roadside — is editable in the app. Cancellation is self-service 24/7 through in-app chat. Claims are filed by photographing the damage and answering prompts, and Clearcover’s own claims page says the simplest ones are eligible for same-day processing and that “Most claims are paid in under a week.”
The limits are worth knowing too. Policy-level coverages — bodily injury, property damage, medical payments, PIP, UM/UIM — cannot be changed in the app and require a Customer Advocate. The claims phone line, 855-444-1875, is business hours only. And the widely repeated idea that Clearcover is an agent-free, app-only carrier is not right: it runs an agent portal and an agent hub, and the Texas order records that in that state its auto product “is primarily marketed through independent agents.”
Advantages and disadvantages
What Clearcover does well
- Verifiable price advantage for the right profile. Under the market median in 69% of Maryland’s official comparisons, and up to 48% under it for some drivers.
- A genuinely good app, rated 4.6–4.7 across both stores, with real self-service depth.
- Fast simple claims, by its own account: same-day eligibility on the simplest, most paid inside a week.
- OEM parts on vehicles nine years or newer — an endorsement several larger carriers do not offer.
- Alternate Transportation as a cash stipend rather than a rental-only benefit, which is more useful if you would rather take rideshares.
Where Clearcover falls short
- No independent financial-strength rating at all, since Demotech’s withdrawal on 9 April 2026.
- An $80,000 Texas penalty in January 2026 for claims-handling violations found across its 2022 auto files.
- A complaint index rising four years running in Missouri, to 186 against an expected 100.
- Thin coverage shelf — no gap, no accident forgiveness, no new-car replacement, medical payments capped at $10,000.
- Erratic pricing. In the most expensive quartile in one Maryland comparison in five.
- Business-hours-only claims phone, on top of an app-first service model.
The bottom line
Clearcover at 61 is a carrier we would tell a specific person to quote and tell most people to skip. If its algorithm likes your profile, the discount is large and a state regulator will confirm it, and the app is better than what most national carriers ship. That is a real product for someone who reshops every six months and treats insurance as a commodity.
The reason it does not score higher is that the things insurance is for are exactly where the outside record is weakest. A carrier with no financial-strength rating, a regulator’s penalty on its claims practices and a complaint index climbing four years in a row is asking you to take the claims side on faith. On a cheap six-month policy for a well-maintained older car, that trade is defensible. On a financed vehicle, a long commute or anything where a disputed total loss would hurt, it is much harder.
Quote it against two or three alternatives before deciding. Our independent ranking of the big-four auto insurers and best car insurance for 2026 cover the established field, is gap insurance worth it matters more than usual here because Clearcover does not sell it, and what an insurance binder is is worth reading before you assume you are covered the moment you buy. More auto guides live in our auto insurance hub.
Frequently asked
Is Clearcover a legit car insurance company?
Yes. Clearcover Insurance Company is a licensed property and casualty insurer, NAIC #16524, domiciled in Illinois and headquartered at 33 W. Monroe Street in Chicago. Licensed is not the same as financially rated, though. Demotech withdrew Clearcover’s Financial Stability Rating on 9 April 2026, and Clearcover’s own help centre states that it does not have an AM Best rating — so as of August 2026 it carries no active independent financial-strength rating.
Does Clearcover have an AM Best rating?
No. Clearcover’s own help-centre article on the subject says plainly: “Currently, Clearcover does not have an AM Best rating. We are rated by Demotech, which is another trusted name in the insurance industry.” That article was last updated in April 2024 and is now out of date on its second half — Demotech’s company record for Clearcover shows the Financial Stability Rating was withdrawn on 9 April 2026.
What states does Clearcover operate in?
Clearcover’s help-centre list of states open for new business, last updated 25 March 2026, names 18: Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia. Clearcover’s own sources disagree with each other — an older help-centre article and the licence list in the website footer still name Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and the footer does not yet list Florida — so check the quote flow for your state rather than any published list.
How fast are Clearcover claims?
Clearcover says on its own claims page that “Most claims are paid in under a week” and that “The simplest claims are eligible for same day processing.” Its marketing cites a record payment issued seven minutes after a claim was filed, on 28 January 2021. That is a best case, not a typical one: in January 2026 the Texas Department of Insurance fined Clearcover $80,000 after finding, among other things, that it failed to notify insureds of a settlement offer within the statutory 10 days in 20% of the paid claims examiners sampled.
Is Clearcover good or bad based on customer complaints?
Regulator data shows complaints rising. Missouri’s Department of Commerce and Insurance, where 100 is the expected complaint level for a company that size, records a private-passenger-auto complaint index for Clearcover of 62 for 2022, 122 for 2023, 157 for 2024 and 186 for 2025. Indiana’s auto complaint index put Clearcover at 4.02 for 2024 and 11.03 for 2025 against a 1.0 baseline, though those readings rest on one and two complaints respectively and should be treated as noisy. Clearcover is too small to be ranked in J.D. Power’s auto-claims studies.
Does Clearcover have accident forgiveness?
Not in any coverage document we could find. Clearcover’s published state coverage summary lists liability, collision, comprehensive, medical payments, uninsured and underinsured motorist, alternate transportation, roadside assistance, an OEM-parts endorsement, business use and period-1 rideshare cover. There is no accident-forgiveness endorsement on that list, and Clearcover’s help centre says a claim can raise your rate at renewal.
Does Clearcover sell only through its app?
No, and this is a common misconception. Clearcover runs an agent portal and an agent hub, and the Texas Department of Insurance’s January 2026 order records that “Clearcover’s private passenger automobile product is primarily marketed through independent agents” in that state. Servicing is app-first — policy documents, payments, claims filing and cancellation all run through the app — but distribution is not app-only.
Who actually underwrites a Clearcover policy?
It depends on your state. Clearcover’s own website footer says policies are underwritten by Clearcover Insurance Company (NAIC #16524) and Clearcover Inter-Insurance Exchange (NAIC #17733). In Texas, policies “may be offered and administered by Clearcover General Agency” but are underwritten by Old American County Mutual Fire Insurance Company (NAIC #29378). In California they are offered by Clearcover Insurance Agency and underwritten by Response Indemnity Company of California (NAIC #10970).
How we sourced this
- Price — Maryland Insurance Administration, “Auto Insurance: A Comparison Guide to Rates”, rates effective 1 August 2026. We extracted every insurer’s premium for all 22 scenarios across the guide’s three regions and ZIP columns — 638 cells in which Clearcover appears — and computed the market median per cell. Clearcover median $3,223, market median $3,650, below median in 439 of 638 cells (68.8%), cheapest quartile 32.9%, priciest quartile 19.7%, per-scenario median ratio range 0.52×–1.89×.
- Claims practices — Texas Commissioner of Insurance, Consent Order No. 2026-9711, 5 January 2026: $80,000 administrative penalty; all sampling percentages, the Littleton Group facts and the corrective-action-plan date are quoted from that order.
- Complaints — Missouri Department of Commerce and Insurance company record for Clearcover Insurance Company (index 62/122/157/186 for 2022–2025, on 1/4/6/8 complaints), with the index defined on Missouri’s Consumer Complaint Index page as 100 = the normally expected number. Indiana Department of Insurance 2024 and 2025 Auto Complaint Index reports: 4.02 on one complaint, 11.03 on two.
- Financial strength — Demotech, Inc. company record for Clearcover Insurance Company: “FSR withdrawn 4/9/2026.” The prior rating and its wording come from Demotech’s own affirmation release of 17 May 2021. The absence of an AM Best rating is Clearcover’s own statement, in its help-centre article on the subject.
- Coverage, policy term, discounts, roadside and servicing — Clearcover’s help centre: Georgia State Coverage Summary, Policy Term, Policy Discounts, What does Roadside Assistance cover?, Edit Coverages in the Clearcover Mobile App, Contacting your Claims Representative and States Where You Can Get a Clearcover Policy.
- Corporate facts and underwriting entities — Clearcover’s press page (founded 2016 by Kyle Nakatsuji and Derek Brigham, Chicago) and the licence and underwriting disclosures in the footer of clearcover.com. Domicile, NAIC number and Missouri admission date from the Missouri record above.
- Digital experience — Clearcover Car Insurance on the Apple App Store (4.7/5, 17,076 ratings, via Apple’s own app-lookup data) and on Google Play (4.6/5, 5,655 ratings), both checked 26 August 2026.
What we could not source, and therefore did not print: a national NAIC complaint index for Clearcover — the widely repeated “about 4.4” appears in no primary document we could reach, and is gone from this review; a national average annual premium, because no regulator publishes one per company and Clearcover does not disclose one; an AM Best rating status confirmed by AM Best itself, whose rating detail sits behind a member login, so we rely on Clearcover’s own statement that it has none; and any cancellation fee, which earlier versions of this review mentioned and which appears in none of Clearcover’s published cancellation or fee documents.
Figures are regulator filings and study results as of their publication dates; your own rate, eligibility and experience will vary by state and profile. Nothing here is personalized insurance advice — see our full disclaimer.
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