Unitrin Direct
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Written by
Jeffrey Johnson
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UPDATED: Jun 8, 2021
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Unitrin, Inc. had revenues of $3.1 billion in 2006 and total assets of $9.3 billion at the end of 2006.
Table of Contents
What is the company history?
Company History: Unitrin, Inc. was formed as a holding company in 1990 to acquire the insurance and financial subsidiaries being spun off from Teledyne, Inc. Several subsequent transactions and strategic affiliations (including the acquisition of Kemper Auto and Home in 2002) have resulted in the current configuration of Unitrin. Unitrin operates in 6 segments: Kemper Auto and Home (standard and preferred risk auto and homeowner’s insurance)Unitrin Specialty (non-standard personal and commercial automobile insurance)Unitrin Direct (various private passenger auto insurance claims coverage for a range of preferred, standard and non-standard risks)Unitrin Business Insurance (commercial coverage including commercial auto, general liability, fire, multiperil and worker’s compensation)Life and Health Insurance (sells individual life and health insurance, accident, and medicare supplement plans)Consumer Finance (finances purchases of automobiles, especially used automobiles, through contracts with auto dealers)
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What are the principle sales methods?
Unitrin’s companies have more than than 6 million policyholders and consumer finance customers. The distribution network consists of a nationwide group of more than 17,000 career agents and independent agents and loan representatives. Direct sales to customers via the internet are also conducted by the Unitrin Direct Insurance Companies.
Life Annuity Business: Unitrin’s life and health operations market individual life, health, and accident insurance products through a sales force of 2,400 career agents and 250 exclusive agents.
Auto Business: The Property and Casualty Insurance Group is made up of Kemper Auto and Home, Unitrin Specialty, and Unitrin Business Insurance, which sell personal and commercial insurance through a network of independent agents; and Unitrin Direct, which sells personal auto insurance directly to consumers. Property and casualty operations account for about 63% of Unitrin’s revenues (life and health about 27%, consumer finance 7%, other operations 3%). The Kemper Auto and Home unit sells primarily preferred and standard risk auto and homeowners’ insurance to middle and upper-income individuals and families. Unitrin Specialty covers the nonstandard personal and commercial auto markets. Unitrin Direct covers the spectrum of private auto coverage (from preferred to non-standard).
Homeowners Business: Kemper Corporation is the primary distributor of homeowners’ coverage for Unitrin. Sales are through 3,000 independent agents in 39 states.
Health Business: The Unitrin Life and Health Insurance Group is ranked in the top 100 life insurance companies in the U.S. and offers basic life and health insurance products. The leading company, Reserve National Insurance, distributes its products in 31 states throughout the south, southwest, and midwest.
Special Business: The consumer finance segment makes consumer loans, primarily for automobile purchases through its Fireside Bank.
Free quotes, on-line service, lowest rates we could find.
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Good rates, but after a couple of years with the company, customer service became very poor.
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Very friendly, helpful, informative customer service staff. They never gave me run around, always very straight forward service.
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Unitrin’s large claims group is a disaster. If you have a small car dent, it is handled locally and quickly and you will receive your claim in days. If you have a larger claim such as we had on homeowners insurance, it will take months or years and relenetless haggling to get anything from them. We are going to have to hire a lawyer and sue them just to get settlement on legitimate claim.
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The auto portion of this company is great. But the Homeowners is horrible. I got Homeowners only as an afterthought to the auto policy I purchased. At the time, my homeowners premium was $593 per year. I just got my renewal bill and my premium is now $1356…more than a 100% increase. Nothing has changed; I have made no claims with either auto or home. I called the company and after some bumbling around the best they could tell me is the RATES HAVE GONE UP IN MY AREA? I live in rural Oregon for gosh sakes! Nothing catastrophic has EVER happened here or within 50 miles of my home. I feel I was manipulated to take the homeowners to obtain a better auto rate and then after I was suckered in….they raise the rates more than 100%!!!! Unbelievable!
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difficult customer support
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After 28 years with Unitrin we received a cancelation notice in the mail. Reason – the house is old and is more than 5 miles from local fire department. In that 28 years neither the fire department nor the house has moved.
Unitrin could not care less about its customers.
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Excellent service, excellent prices, excellent company. I have recommended them to EVERYONE I know!!!
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I cancelled Unitrin Direct because in spite of low rates and no tickets or accidents they raised my premium a whopping 14% this year.
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The insurance agents are nice. The rates are super cheap and the reimbursement check was here within a week. I am a very happy customer and recommend them to people all the time.
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Absolutely the best price of any auto insurance
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Good rates but poor customer service make this a frustrating company to deal with.
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Customer service is the worst I have ever had. Individuals assigned to settle property and bodily injury claims are ignorant, uninformed and arrogant. They do not return calls and actually make fun of the individuals who are paying their salaries. They attempt to berate their clients and browbeat then into accepting lesser values for their automobiles and actually try tell their clients that they do not have rental insurance coverage, etc.
Absolutely the most unprofessional insurance company with whom I have ever dealt. I ended up having to obtain the services of an attorney because after being out of work for over three months as a result of an uninsured motorist’s claim, no one from Unitrin would return my calls or answer questions related to lost wages, etc.
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An A.I.G. customer slammed into me at a traffic light, and admitted he was staring at a pretty girl on a bicycle. Of course he received a ticket. His insurance contacted me and stated no problem, take the car to our shop and we will assume all repairs. Then to my surprise A.I.G. called me and stated my car had to much damage, and it must have been previously existing! I told the representative that is impossible I had just purchased the car a month prior, and to look at all the damage to the vehicles front end that had hit me. These people are crazy, and will not step up to take care of their responsibility. I called my insurance and the representative informed me this is not professional, and to let them take care of the problem. So far my insurance is doing what A.I.G. should have from the beginning. I will keep you posted as this unfolds, and I have already filed a complaint with the Insurance Commission. Why are companies like A.I.G. allowed to do business? Why aren’t the people we pay to represent us putting a stop to these bad businesses?
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NOOO NOOO NOO!
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I have been waiting a week for someone to contact me concerning a claim . Finally they did and said the check had been mailed, but due to an oversite in my policy it may be denied. I have never been tokd I have to list everyone over age 15 that lives with me, on my policy. I am so upset, my car is totaled and low I may be respomsible to pay off a brand new car – just because i let my daughter drive to the store and she slid off the road and hit a tree. This is so very wrong on Unitrin’s part to do this to me – or anyone. I have never had insurance where you couldn’t just call and talk to someone and get things taken care of. I will be changong insurance immediately.
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I have been with this Unitrin Direct insurance for these 6 months, and I got an online quote. Yesterday, I got a mail from them asking me for renewal with a $25 extra. I called the customer service (it was nice talking to them) and they told me that I was given $25 from them before, because of the online quote. Now, because there’s no more quote, I asked them to cut that $25 dollars for the next 6 months. They didn’t want to do.
I’ll have 1 month to search for another insurance company, and hopefully I’ll find somebody with the same premium coverage, but less amount of money. If I won’t I’ll need to stick with these guys.
Yet, I don’t have any clue why they are so cheap… in giving me that $25. Just wondering? They’ll miss their morning tea for 5 days. So.. what?
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DONT GET UNITRIN….ITS A CHOICE!!!!!
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6 days after filing a claim,,,,still no contact from an appraiser.
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Great company
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The most dishonest company I ever dealt with. Stay away!!!
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Had Unitrin for 9 years, nerver had a claim accident or ticket. Made a claim for vandleism, someone keyed my car and their claim guy was awful, very unprofessional, was unwilling or unable to answer my questions about the claims process of course their estimate was way less that the local body shop.
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Had to take them to suit to get our money to fix the house
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they cancelled my policy because one of there agents accidently cancelled my easypay and they never got a payment by the time i called after realizing the money never came out of my bank account they said to just mail a check they got the check 24 hours late and cancelled me then told me it couldnt be re-instated because its illegal in nys for a car to be titled to 1 person and registered to another, why would the dmv title it to me but register it to my boyfriend if its illegal??? this is by far the worst co. ever!!!!
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They do not call you back. They cause more stress in and already stressfull situation.
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This company never accept their mistake and made a customer fool. Be carefull about your account when you make a payment.
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I will only high light my biggest complaint (there is a long list of issues I had with them). First I was given a quote over the phone and never told that after so many months my rate would increase dramatically becuase “the special we were running is over.”
Then they were supposed to notify me in advance when they took out a payment. Well they never did and it was returned. It took them forever to contact me about this. By that time my account was in “cancellation status.” So they wanted the past due amount and the next three months up front. Are you kidding? You people screwed it up. I am now on the search for new car insurance since I have had nothing but problems from them.
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It took weeks for anyone to get back to me on the claim. I filed with Unitrin the day of the accident and had a neck injury. I was told to go to the hospital, but Unitrin could not at that time tell me if I was covered for the medical bills. Here I am over a year later and still nothing. I never heard back on my medical claim or auto damage claim. An employee even admitted to me that they were ashamed to work for the company but needed a job! I cancelled my insurance 3 weeks into having it. No wonder why it is over a year later and no one wants to do anything. Horrible, horrible company.
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Lured by low rates, then rates raised 10-20% every six months. Reason “the rates have gone up in your State”. Beginning to believe it is a scam.
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I never really liked having to pay for insurance, and always figured that the companies would always shortchange and scam me.
I totalled out a vehicle (hit a deer) after driving it for about 10,000 miles over 6 months. The settlement check I received (including the $500 deductible taken out) was actually ony $1000 under what I paid for the vehicle. I was very impressed. I also got a rental car and all of that while I waited for their decision.
Finally, I got quotes from a couple of other companies including geico.com, and Unitrin was at least $100 less over 6 months.
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I have never worked with such an unprofessional company in my life. Just today I was hung up on
I was told they would not pay my personal injury claim bills (auto accident not my fault). I was told I had to do what ever they asked of me. I was told they will not process my claim unless I sign a blanket release.I need surgery and ongoing care for a brain injury I recieved in the accident.They are rude,sarcastic and manipulative avoid kemper Unitrin at all cost.
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The customer service reps have been very helpful. However, the adjusters handling the the accident claims have been AWFUL!
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If there is damage to your windshield and they are willing to pay to replace it they will never pay to have an OEM windshield installed. They go with the lowest bidder.
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It took over 4 months to settle a claim and as far as talking to my adjuster, out of 20+ phone calles, he returned 1, and that was only after I threatened to have an attorney look into things to a supervisor at Unitrin.
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Unprofessional, no communication, contracts with crazy appraisal companies who solicit you when they come t take an estimate- HORRIBLE experience.
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Unitrin bated me in with a low rate.Got me to cancel my old policy. And then cancelled
my policy based on a couple maintenance items.Leaving me less than 20 days to find another company.Their salesperson verbally
quoted me 3 different quotes after activating
my policy and billing my mortgage company.
This was one of the worst experiances I have ever had with a company.
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all they care about is $ customer service does not exist.
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They were very responsive to my claim. They were very specific about what to expect, when they would contact me, etc. They emailed me and would respond very quickly if I emailed or called them. Great customer service. The prices are unbeatable…
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lacks customer service, they never contact you with a status, you must call them 5 times a day to find out when you will be getting your car fixed. other companies provide you with a temp car while your car is in the shop, this company does not..
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They have no one that can answer any questions regarding any issues outside of regular weekday business hours. If you have an accident on Friday night, there is no one that can/will give you answers until Monday morning at 9:00 AM. They will not guarantee towing or rental car reimbursement and just tell you to wait to Monday, even if they can verify that you have those items covered in your policy. Apparently things change to often that they would rather have their customer service representatives give no information than wrong information. “Please wait until Monday when someone from claims can speak to you.” — the only line that they are trained to use.
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When my car was totaled they gave me 3500 for my audiA4 which was worth at least 7000
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I was rear ended by another driver. That is right REAR ENDED! Adjuster came out to process my claim. Claim was submitted and received by Unitrin. It has been almost a year and no check. I called and wrote an email, but no response! They never returned my calls so I just gave up. Spend the money to get a more well-known car insurance company. It will be worth it in the long run.
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It has been over a month since my car was totaledThey never answer the phone,emails strangely fail intermittently.It takes two or three days to get a response of any kind.They claimed delay based on incorrect vin and model which they screwed up.I was given a quote on a lesser model.I still do not have an offer for my actual vehicle which they still question even though I went to the dealer and they brought correct info up easily.I have now been pawned off on another rep who does not return calls either.The offer I received was 4000 grand less than the car is worth.They do not use any standard guide in assesing value.Their dispute resolution system is ill defined and arduos.This is the company from hell.I can not say one good thing about them.They define all that is bad about a bad company.Service is not in a unitrin training manuel.
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I filed a claim on my roof for hail damage. Although it did hail earlier in the year, the weather service does not show it on their site. Most insurance companies will deny any claim without documented proof of the hail (must be over a certain size to register with the weather service), but Kemper paid the claim anyways without argument. I filed the claim and had it settled within a week. I did no really like the independent adjuster as he was a bit gruff and estimated a couple hundred lower than what it really takes to get a quality roofer, but the company did a great job and were quick. I have also had no complaints about thier rates except that they up my price on homeowners insurance every year since my house is now a year older which makes no sense to me. Definitely recomend.
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Tow Service is awesome and speedy.
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Our company would not back us- their customer and paid out to the other insurance without looking at the police report.
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They treated me with disrespect and were not customer friendly. They low balled me on my claim.
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Avoid Unitrin Insurance like the Plague! Horrible customer service – Every time I have called to speak to someone regarding my policy they have been unhelpful, rude, and extremely unpleasant in general. Also they are dishonest They increase policy premiums and add additional fees and charges WITHOUT NOTIFYING the client! My insurance cost basically doubled for no apparent reason upon renewal, and I was billed before I ever received any sort of notice or correspondence regarding this absurd increase. I am cancelling my policy immediately!!!
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they do not like to pay claims
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Investigation stops repairs on my vehicle so i am paying out of my own pocket. Planning on sueing if they do not reimburse in full
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Had water damage due to a pipe connection coming apart. Put in a claim for $20,000 and they refused to pay it giving me $3,000. Took two weeks for them to send an adjuster then another month to send an investigator. By then all the damaged items had been thrown away per their directions in a taped conversation with them. Claims rep never calls you back even after leaving dozens of calls on their voice mail, e-mail goes unanswered. In all a horrible, stressful ordeal. They will no loner be my insurance carrier as I am looking else where even if the rate is higher.
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they do not return phone calls try to low ball you finially had to get a attorney
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I was given horrible advice from the people that handled my claim at Unitrin. They cost me thousands of dollars and took forever to finish handling my claim. They never sent anyone out to see or meet me in person. Even the auto body shop that I deal with, and trust, told me that they have never dealt with such a poorly run insurance company, and are planning to refuse repair jobs that involve Unitrin insurance.
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$4500.00/month for a 6 month policy in Michigan is absolutely ridicoulous!!!
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Slowest response time of any insurance company.
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raised homeowners policy 100 percent never made a claim homeowners or auto over 25 years
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They demanded that I submit to a second interrogation about a home robbery. I have paperwork on ALL missing items however after 2 months they continue to stall and I was treated nothing short of a climinal during the statement. My agent was present and he said in all his years in the insurance he had NEVER encountered such an event meant to discredit my claim and me personally.
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The Claims Representatives do not contact you in a timely manner. The claims represenative did not clearly explain what documents are required. Claims representative did not act as if my loss was important. The claim representative was more concerned with her personal needs outside the office. When I asked to speak to another claims representative to review my claim it was refused. I just wanted to a claims representative to review my claim to see if the documents I sent were received and if any further information was needed. All my requests were denied and I ws given the run around. I am completely disstsified and I have already made plans to take my business elsewhere.
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I was a Unitrin customer and got rear ended as I was pushing my car out of the road. The other driver was insured by Unitrin also so they said the accident was my fault because I did not have my emergency signals on. My vehicle was broke down Even though it was daybreak the other driver was going sixty when he hit me. I was thrown 120 feet and seriously injured. They did not even pay all my medical bills. A surprise for me when the bills showed up on my credit report a year after the two year claims period. A piece of advice get insured with another company otherwise you will regret it.
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Worst experience of my life. My car was totaled the Total Loss adjuster is supposed to call us in 24-48 hours with the valuation of the car but they never got back to me even after I left several voicemails. Instead I had to deal with some immature kid with a GED who has neither experience nor etiquette. Perhaps the roll-up of these auto insurance companies resulted in some of the best employees being hired away by better insurance companies.
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They are not helpfullAT ALL
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Kemper/Unitrin is the worse excuse for a customer oriented company in the world. They don’t give a rip. Car was totalled in an electrical fire. Not one time have I had the adjuster call me…I’ve had to chase her down every week. I am now to daily calls. Today 5 messages then presto she answered her phone. Told me she wanted to know why we let our policy go…I got the bill today for next month’s payment and it shows my payment from last month received and cleared. What’s up with that? I know what’s up they don’t want to pay up so they are dragging it out….that’s what I get for going with the low-price ins. IF I can ever get out of this I’m running as fast as I can and I will gladly pay more.
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Cancelled my auto insurance after 1 month for NO reason at all. Sent me to collections who notified me that they supposedly sent me a notification in the mail that I never received. Found out I was an uninsured driver through DMV. They are horrible and unethical in their business practices. Anyone considering using them should RUN
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Do not use unum as your health insurance. It’s a waste of money. They’re not good at all. To save their own money better of.
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