Arch is an insurance company that claims to be built on innovation. An international provider that is part of Arch Capital Group, the company has nearly 20 years of operating history and strong financial ratings. Arch’s self described differentiators to other competitors in the insurance biz is that their disciplined underwriting approach sets them apart from the rest. The insurance division has operations in North America, Europe and Australia, and provides specialty risk solutions to clients around the world across a range of industries including construction, energy, financial institutions, healthcare, private equity and real estate.
Arch Pros and Cons
Arch boasts a unique underwriting approach and a wide array of coverage options ranging from travel insurance to disability coverage and various plan types in between. But is that enough to make them a prime choice for insurance shoppers?
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
|
|
Arch Commercial Insurance Rating
- Overall rating: [2.2] / 5 stars
- Coverage options: [3] / 5 stars
- Cost: [3] / 5 stars
- Ratings and complaints: [1]/ 5 stars
- Digital experience: [3] / 5 stars
- Customer service: [1] / 5 stars
Arch Coverage Options
Arch offers creative “out of the box” solutions that they say are not readily found elsewhere. Some of their North America coverage options include:
- Accident Insurance: Typically available through employers or affinity groups, accident insurance will help if an individual is injured in an accident while at work. Arch’s accident coverage may include things like medical care, including hospital stays and office visits, dental expenses, surgery, and more, as well as lump sum payments.
- Alternative Markets: Arch Alternative Markets is a dedicated underwriting, claims, finance, actuarial, risk control and premium audit group that specializes in providing captive solutions.
- Casualty: Arch’s National Accounts Casualty provides customized unbundled primary and excess casualty loss sensitive insurance programs.
- Cyber: Arch’s experienced underwriting team takes a forward looking approach to writing network security, privacy and media liability.
- Disability Insurance: Arch offers short term disability insurance and paid family leave in the following states with laws that require employers to offer this coverage.
- Excess & Surplus: ??Offers practical solutions for difficult risks, including those generally avoided by the broader commercial property market.
- Healthcare Liability: Coverage options range from small, single location primary coverage to complex, multi-location organizations that require excess or umbrella coverage.
- Management Liability: Arch divides your options into specialty units including coverage options for: Large Commercial Group, Growth & Middle Market and Financial Services.
- Multinational: Provides statutory federal workers’ compensation benefits to U.S. government contractors who perform work outside the 50 U.S. states.
- Professional Liability: Provides solutions for: accountants, captive agents, lawyers, miscellaneous professionals, public entities, network security, securities broker-dealers and insurance agents.
- Programs: Arch Insurance’s Professional Liability Division aligns with reputable program administrators (PA’s) to write non-medical Professional Liability programs.
- Property: Arch Gateway is a monoline property insurance product designed for middle market clients who desire a 100% solution on an admitted basis.
- Scholastic Insurance: Types of Scholastic Insurance or Study Abroad Insurance include coverage for things like: Accidents and sickness, emergency evacuation or repatriation coverage and emergency medical reunion.
- Surety: Arch’s Surety group can write aggregate programs up to $350 million.
- Travel Insurance: Protects nonrefundable, prepaid travel expenses from unforeseen events and provides emergency medical coverage for travelers when they are away from home.
- Warranty and Lender Solutions: Arch Warranty and Lender Solutions (AWLS) group, located in Kansas City, Missouri, writes three broad categories of products: Lender Collateral Protection Products focusing on the banking and credit union markets, F&I Products focusing on the vehicle market (including dealerships, agents, administrators, and OEMs) and Consumer Warranty Programs including brown & white, consumer electronics, home warranty and mobile coverage.
Arch Insurance Cost
Like many providers, it is difficult to assess what your plan will cost with Arch without considering a few factors. For starters, the kinds of insurance coverage options available will all come with varying degrees of cost. One-time travel coverage will have a different cost compared to ongoing cyber coverage and so on.
Your kind of business and industry will also be a determining factor of price. As will your location, years in business and overall experience level of staff. Different industries and lines of business come with varying degrees of risk and a high liability will typically influence your level of cost.
Arch Ratings and Complaints
For every review to-date that Arch has received on the Better Business Bureau’s website, customers unanimously have rated the provider with an underwhelming one star. In April of 2022, one reviewer had this to say, “Would rate 0 if possible – based on the other reviews here, I am not alone, this company is horrible and predatory.”
A review from winter of 2021 speaks to their difficulties with the company while on maternity leave in particular, “This company was the company my job uses for PFML and Medical Leave. I’ve had to go 3 weeks at a time without any income while on maternity leave because they manually have to issue checks and sometimes the claim supervisor would forget to do.”
And another user from just this past summer warned potential consumers that their claim process is less than desirable, “They make collecting on claims as difficult as they can.”
As far as consumer reviews are concerned, Arch has room for improvement when it comes to their claims and customer service experience.
Arch Insurance Digital Experience
You’ll initially navigate the site by choosing your location. You’ll need to come into the shopping process with at least a baseline understanding of what insurance type you need, because it is broken out by insurance type first. You can also shop by industry type, but that will come below the insurance type section of the page.
You can not receive a quote online, so the digital experience is more so serving those looking for agent contact information. It also acts as a gateway to the claims portal. Overall the site is clean and uncluttered, but could be more user-friendly. As there is no option to live chat if you happen to have questions while you are in the consideration phase of shopping.
Arch Insurance Customer Service
While the company claims to have a customer-focused mindset and a determination to find effective solutions–consumer reviews prove otherwise. All users on TrustPilot, a third party review site, rated Arch insurance with a one star–just as BBB reviewers have.
Described as “pirates” by a user in October of 2020, they had this to say, “Insured our son’s school trip to Spain. Trip was canceled due to Covid. Seven months later this company has not paid out a single claim and is doing everything it can to keep from paying out. Pirates in three piece suits. Avoid at all costs.”
More recent reviews are no more flattering, a user from September 2022 titled their review, “Stay away from them” and further warned, “Not responsive at all. Very poor and pathetic customer service. I keep calling them every day for my motorbike claims and they keep repeating the same thing every time it’s been almost a month now but my claim [is] not going anywhere. No callbacks nor responses to any emails. Attitude is not less than preplanned scamming. Please be aware of such a company.”
Overall, Arch’s customer service seems to be lacking and just plain untrustworthy in the eyes of current customers.
Other Services and Features That Arch Offers
Arch Insurance is a part of the Arch Capital Group which also provides reinsurance and mortgage services.
What Is Arch’s Claims Process?
You can file a claim by visiting Arch’s Claim Portal or by contacting your claim’s office by email or phone. You can find contact information organized by claim type and then contact the email address or phone number listed here.
How to Get Quotes From Arch
You can find agent contact information online once you determine which kind of insurance you would like to purchase. The website lists contacts broken out by executive and corporate business types. You’ll find the agent’s professional email and phone numbers listed right within the site.
Bottom Line: Is Arch a Good Company?
We think that it’s pretty safe to say that the answer here is: No. Arch is not a preferred insurance company due predominantly in part to the ubiquitous negative reviews and one-star satisfaction ratings. As you probably know–since you are here reading this review post–user reviews can be the most useful and revealing information when assessing an insurance company–or any company for that matter!
Since you really don’t know how good or bad an insurance company is until you actually have to use that insurance, reviews of current customers can be extremely valuable. And from what we see today, those reviews are saying: If you are considering going with Arch as your insurance provider, you should keep looking.
Alternatives to Arch Insurance
Luckily there are so many alternatives to Arch Insurance. CoverWallet could be a great provider to start with, especially if you were looking for a coverage type that is a bit more niche. Coverwallet acts as an aggregator, like Kayak for Travel, so you’ll work with a personal agent who can help collect viable options and then assess them with you to find the best fit.
If you are looking for more common insurance types like cyber, liability and worker’s comp coverage, Chubb is a trusted name in insurance and has a 4.5 out of 5 star rating for customer service on AdvisorSmith.
If you started researching Arch and are disappointed that they’re not the best fit, don’t be disheartened. The above recommendations are just two out of many viable and preferred options.
