Around for more than 165 years, Travelers is one of the most recognized names in the commercial property and casualty industry. And there’s good reason for that, considering that the company is the second-largest writer of commercial insurance lines in the U.S. and, as of 2020, the top writer of workers compensation. With a variety of products, Travelers offers industry-specific coverage for businesses ranging from agribusiness and equipment dealers to museums and food services. However, despite its prominence, Travelers doesn’t provide the option of online quotes for business insurance – so you’ll have to contact an independent agent to find out how much insurance with Travelers would cost.
Travelers Pros and Cons
Here’s a look at the pros and cons of doing business with Travelers:
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AdvisorSmith Rating For Travelers
- Overall rating: [3.8] / 5 stars
- Coverage options: [4.5] / 5 stars
- Cost: [3] / 5 stars
- Ratings and complaints: [3.5] / 5 stars
- Digital experience: [4] / 5 stars
- Customer service: [3] / 5 stars
Travelers Commercial Insurance Coverage Options
Travelers’ business insurance products are sold through independent agents across the country. Here’s a look at some of the policies that are available with Travelers:
Commercial Auto & Trucking: Liability and physical damage coverage for vehicles used for business purposes.
Equipment Breakdown: Provides coverage for equipment losses, which could be caused by an electrical power surge, vibration, inadequate maintenance, or user error.
Management & Professional Liability: This coverage protects companies from the risks that come with doing business, including clients who claim an error caused them financial hardship or employees who claim they received unfair treatment.
Cyber Liability: Cyber liability insurance provides essential coverage to help protect businesses from data breaches and other cybersecurity issues.
Commercial Property: Coverage that protects a business’s physical assets (including equipment, furniture, inventory, etc.) from unexpected events.
Workers Compensation: Workers compensation protects employers and employees after a work-related injury or illness.
General Liability: A key policy for most businesses, general liability insurance protects companies against claims of bodily injury or property damage as well as libel and slander.
Business Owner’s Policy: A bundled package of commercial property and liability insurance.
Surety Bonds: Surety bonds provide a guarantee that contractual obligations will be met, giving one party confidence and a financial safety net in hiring another party.
Environmental Liability: Provides businesses with coverage for pollution liability incidents that a general liability policy may not cover.
Commercial Umbrella: This policy comes into action when losses exceed what primary insurance policies can cover.
Global Insurance: In a nutshell, this insurance policy protects U.S. companies that do business in other countries.
Inland Marine: This is insurance for a business’s property that’s transported on land.
Ocean Marine: This policy helps safeguard goods when in transit domestically or internationally with marine shipping vessels.
Employment Practices Liability: Protects a business from liability risks if an employee alleges unlawful employment practices.
Business Income and Extra Expense Insurance: When a business has to shut down temporarily due to a covered loss, this policy helps replace income and cover expenses.
Travelers Cost
Travelers doesn’t provide information about the average cost of its commercial insurance products. However, addressing the question of how much business insurance costs, the company indicates that the price of insurance policies depends on several factors, including the types of insurance required and selected coverage limits, which are determined by a business’ unique attributes.
Travelers Ratings and Complaints
Regarding Travelers’ reviews, the company has average ratings from many review sites. Though it’s worth noting that the majority of reviews are for home and auto insurance products.
However, the customer reviews on some notable sites are less than favorable. For example, with the Better Business Bureau, Travelers scores only 1.11 out of 5 for customer reviews. One reviewer on the BBB site wrote: “Absolutely horrible interactions with this company for workers comp coverage on a small business plan. They will cancel your plan right in the middle of making agreed upon payments and send the correspondence to the incorrect address even though they were informed on more than one occasion of the address change.”
But, despite the poor customer reviews, the Better Business Bureau gives Travelers an A rating, though the company is not BBB accredited.
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) keeps track of complaints from policyholders about insurance companies. The median complaint score on the complaint index is always 1.0. Anything over 1.0 on the complaint index indicates more complaints than what’s expected in the industry. Travelers’ complaint index score was 0.11 for 2021, which is far and above better than the industry average.
Travelers also fares well with official rating agencies. From AM Best, the company’s most recent rating is “A++” (Superior), and it has a Standard & Poor’s rating of AA.
Travelers Digital Experience
Travelers offers a decent digital experience, which is user-friendly and easy to navigate. Plus, the company has an extensive archive of resources that would benefit any business.
However, it would be nice to see a live chat option on the website. (There apparently is a live chat on the website for policyholders, MyTravelers, but having one on the main site would help address questions from those searching for insurance policies.) And while Travelers does get points for having an app, it’s only listed under personal insurance portions of the website, so it appears that this may not be available for business insurance policyholders.
Travelers Customer Service
We’re a bit torn on this one. On the one hand, Travelers does provide information on how to contact them about specific concerns. There’s a number to call for billing questions, another for reporting a claim or checking a claim’s status, one for questions and concerns about service, and another for their premium audit. However, each number has different hours of availability. Billing support is available from 8 am-8 pm ET Monday – Friday (though you can make a payment by phone 24/7), claims professionals can help check the status of a claim from 8 am-5 pm Monday to Friday, and support for premium audit is available from 8 am-7 pm Monday to Friday. And if you have questions about insurance policies, Travelers encourages you to contact your agent directly.
It’s worth noting, though, that customer support is available 24/7 for reporting a claim and questions or concerns regarding service received from Travelers.
All in all, it’s a bit confusing.
Other Services and Features that Travelers Offers
Travelers gets some bonus points for its risk management features that far exceed what many insurers offer. For starters, the Risk Control section on the MyTravelers portal offers plenty of risk management solutions for business owners. This section lets customers review over 1,000 risk management tools and resources, register for training, and conduct self-assessments on business risk factors.
Travelers also offers on-site risk solutions for businesses, including consultations with specialists that can help manage specific exposures. And, proving that it really goes above and beyond with risk management, the company also has its own industrial hygiene laboratory where it can test samples from customers’ facilities to assess exposures.
What is Travelers’ Claim Process?
We’ll give credit where credit is due, and that’s definitely the case with Travelers’ claim process. On the company’s website, the ‘Claim Center’ is easy to find (big kudos for that) and gives policyholders everything they need to know about filing a claim with Travelers. In addition to being able to file a claim online, policyholders can also find resources explaining the company’s claim process, including guides for navigating the workers comp claim process. Policyholders can also easily check the status of a claim at any time. And for those who would prefer to speak with someone about a claim, Travelers has claims customer support available 24/7.
How to Get Quotes from Travelers
We thought the answer to this one would be easy. Because surely a company as big as Travelers would have online quotes. We were wrong. Well, partially wrong. Travelers does offer online quotes for home and auto insurance products. But business insurance products? Not so much.
Customers must search for and then contact an agent to get a quote for business insurance policies with Travelers.
Bottom Line: Is Travelers a Good Company?
There’s no question that Travelers is an insurer worth considering for businesses looking for comprehensive coverage. After all, there’s a reason that Travelers is the second-largest writer of commercial insurance lines in the U.S.
The company’s impressive library of risk management resources is a definite benefit for business owners. And Traveler’s strong financial ratings mean policyholders can have peace of mind about the company’s stability and ability to pay out claims.
But if you’d prefer getting quotes online and not having to find an agent, then Travelers may not be the best option for your business insurance needs.
Alternatives to Travelers Commercial Insurance
Even if you think Travelers is the right insurance provider for you and your business, it’s always best to shop around and compare pricing and coverage options.
Chubb is a direct competitor to Travelers and the largest writer of commercial insurance lines in the U.S. That may sound like Chubb isn’t an option for small businesses, but Chubb happens to have a division strictly focused on small business insurance. Chubb’s small business insurance platform makes it easy to get a quote online and even has an interactive guide to help select the right policy. Plus, Chubb scored 4 out of 5 stars on AdvisorSmith.
Another potential alternative with a recognizable name is Allstate, which also scored 4 out of 5 stars on our scale. Allstate offers a wide range of insurance products and services to accommodate the needs of businesses of all sizes. They also offer discounts and bonuses to businesses that purchase multiple insurance policies from the company. And Allstate ranked fairly well with J.D. Power’s customer satisfaction survey, scoring 848 on a 1,000-point scale.