Elephant
Not yet rated
- Wide variety of add-ons available, like gap insurance and custom parts coverage.
- Offers perks like accident forgiveness and pet injury coverage to qualifying drivers.
- Offers lots of ways to lower your premiums with discounts.
- Available in only eight states.
- More complaints to state regulators than similar-sized companies.
NerdWallet's take on Elephant auto insurance
Elephant did not receive a star rating in our analysis because there’s no financial strength information available for the insurer. In the areas we did rate, Elephant stood out for its discounts but was hurt by a poor complaint ratio.
Best for: Drivers who want to be able to customize a policy with coverage add-ons.
Not ideal for: Drivers who are turned off by Elephant’s high rate of complaints from policyholders.
Where Elephant auto insurance stands out
Coverage options. Elephant lets drivers personalize their car insurance with optional coverage, including gap insurance, custom parts coverage and legal assistance coverage.
Perks for some drivers. Some drivers may qualify for extra perks because of their driving record or policy. You may qualify for accident forgiveness if you stay accident-free for three years, and having collision insurance gets you pet injury coverage.
Where Elephant auto insurance falls short
High rate of complaints. Elephant receives more complaints than expected for its size. Due to this, Elephant’s customer experience rating is lower than some other insurers’.
Doesn’t offer its own home or renters insurance. Elephant works with Lemonade to offer home and renters insurance. If you need multiple types of insurance and it’s important to you that all of the coverage comes from the same company, you might want to consider another insurer.
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Elephant car insurance discounts
Depending on your location and coverage type, you may be able to save on your auto insurance costs by:
Insuring more than one vehicle with Elephant.
Getting a quote online.
Bundling your auto insurance with a home, condo, renters or life insurance policy.
Owning a home.
Avoiding an at-fault accident for at least five years.
Paying your policy’s premium all at once.
Being a student with a “B” or better grade-point average, or having one on your policy.
Having a student on your policy who is away at school and keeps their car at home.
Buying an auto policy at least five days before your previous one expires.
Taking a defensive driving course, if you’re at least 55 or 60 years old (varies by state).
Referring a new customer to Elephant.
Working from home.
Receiving your documents electronically.
Using e-signature to sign your paperwork.
Signing up for automatic payments
Owning a car with safety equipment.
You may also be able to lower your insurance costs by raising your car insurance deductible, the amount of a future claim that you pay. Don’t raise your deductible to something you can’t afford. Choosing a deductible of, let’s say, $2,000 rather than $500 could lead to cheaper insurance costs, but you’d need to be prepared to cover much more of a future claim.
The cheapest car insurance that you can get is a policy that has only the car insurance your state requires. We recommend getting more coverage if you can afford it. A “minimum coverage” policy like this could leave you without enough insurance to cover a serious accident.
Elephant car insurance coverage
Elephant’s full coverage car insurance includes the standard car insurance types offered by most insurers:
- Liability insurance
Liability car insurance pays for others’ injuries or property damage you cause in a car accident, up to your auto policy limits. There are two types:
Bodily injury liability covers others’ medical expenses after an accident where you are at fault.
Property damage liability covers the repair costs to other vehicles, fences, mailboxes or buildings from an accident.
Is it required? Yes. Every state, except for Virginia and remote parts of Alaska, requires drivers to have a minimum amount of liability car insurance in order to drive legally.
- Personal injury protection
Also known as "no-fault insurance," PIP covers your own injuries and medical expenses after a crash, regardless of who's at fault, up to your policy limits. Depending on your state, PIP could also help pay for:
Lost wages if you're unable to work due to your injuries from a car accident.
Services you can't perform because of an accident, such as house cleaning or child care.
Funeral costs if an injury from an accident leads to death.
A small death benefit as a cash payout.
Is it required? Personal injury protection is required in the following states: Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Oregon and Utah.
- Medical payments coverage
Medical payments coverage, or MedPay, helps pay for your medical expenses or funeral costs after a car accident, no matter who's at fault, up to your policy limits. It also pays for medical bills if you or one of your family members is hit by a car while on foot, riding a bike or traveling as a passenger in someone else’s car.
Is it required? MedPay is required in Maine and New Hampshire, and can be purchased as an optional add-on in most other states. In a few states, MedPay can't be purchased because personal injury protection is required.
- Uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage
Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage pays out if you're in an accident where the at-fault driver has no liability car insurance, or not enough to cover your injuries or property damage. It can also be used to pay for your passengers’ and household family members’ injuries.
Is it required? Uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage is required in Washington, D.C., and the following states: Connecticut, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
- Collision insurance
Collision insurance reimburses you to fix or replace your car if you crash into another car or object. It can also pay for hit-and-runs, rollovers and damage caused by uninsured or underinsured drivers.
Collision insurance becomes less useful the older your car is. That's because it reimburses you for repairs only up to the actual cash value of your car, minus your deductible.
Is it required? Collision insurance isn't mandatory in any state, but most lenders require it if you finance or lease your car. And when you buy collision insurance, you'll likely have to also get comprehensive insurance, which pays for damage to your car from non-traffic-related causes.
- Comprehensive insurance
Comprehensive insurance reimburses you to fix or replace your car after non-traffic-related causes, such as:
Weather events, like hail, floods or tornadoes.
Falling objects, such as tree limbs.
Fire or explosions.
Hitting an animal.
Car theft and broken windows.
Earthquakes.
Vandalism or civil disobedience, such as a riot.
Comprehensive insurance becomes less useful the older your car is. That's because it reimburses you for repairs only up to the actual cash value of your car, minus your deductible.
Is it required? Comprehensive insurance isn't mandatory in any state, but most lenders require it if you finance or lease your car. And when you buy comprehensive insurance, you'll likely have to also get collision insurance, which pays for damage to your car from traffic-related causes.
Optional coverage
Elephant also offers the following optional types of car insurance:
Roadside assistance. If you experience car trouble and your vehicle breaks down, Elephant will help provide services like towing, a battery jump-start, tire change, fuel delivery, lockout service and more.
Who needs it? Roadside assistance may help give you a sense of reassurance that you won’t be unexpectedly stranded after a breakdown. It could be valuable if you don’t already get similar coverage from a credit card or a membership like AAA.
Rental reimbursement. This coverage helps pay for a rental car if you can’t drive your vehicle due to a covered loss.
Who might need it? You may need rental reimbursement coverage if you depend on your car to get to work or school every day. If having another way to get around isn’t important, you might be able to skip adding it to your policy.
Loan/lease insurance. This coverage, which is sometimes called gap insurance, helps pay the difference (up to 25%) between your car’s value at the time it’s totaled and your loan amount.
Who might need it? You’ll need gap insurance if the terms of your lease or auto loan require it. If you have a choice, gap insurance may still be worth having. It could help you, especially if you’re paying off a long-term loan.
Legal assistance coverage. Starting at $6 per month, policyholders can add this coverage, which pays for legal fees associated with one minor traffic violation annually. You also receive a 25% discount on other legal services needed for estate planning, family law and more.
Who might need it? This coverage could be a nice add-on if you expect to purchase a property, prepare a will or consult with a lawyer about another legal matter.
Diminishing deductible. Every term that you remain accident-free, your collision deductible will go down by $100 or $50 depending on the length of the term. After an accident, your deductible won’t reset. It will continue to shrink after remaining frozen for one term.
Who might need it? Adding diminishing deductible could be a good way to lower your out-of-pocket share of a future claim. Be aware that Elephant’s diminishing deductible coverage requires your collision deductible to be at least $500, and you must add this option to every vehicle on your policy that has collision coverage — not just one.
Custom parts and equipment coverage. This covers permanent enhancements to your car, such as window tinting and custom paint jobs. Elephant automatically includes a limited amount of coverage if you have collision and comprehensive insurance, and you can raise that limit for a fee.
Who might need it? You might need to add more custom parts and equipment coverage to your car insurance if the value of your vehicle’s modifications is greater than the default coverage that Elephant provides.
In addition, Elephant customers may receive free perks, including:
Accident forgiveness. If all drivers on your policy remain accident-free for three years, you’ll automatically earn accident forgiveness. This means that an at-fault accident won’t increase your premium. For an extra cost, you can get accident forgiveness immediately.
Pet injury coverage. This is automatically added to your policy if you have collision coverage. It will pay up to $1,000 for vet bills and other related costs if your pet gets injured in a car accident while riding with you.
Repairs guaranteed for life, if you take your car to certain repair shops recommended by Elephant.
Once you understand the types of coverage that you want or need to have, we recommend comparing car insurance quotes before you buy a policy. You’ll see which insurers have the best rates regardless of the amount of coverage you’re looking for.
Is Elephant a good insurance company?
NerdWallet was unable to rate Elephant car insurance because there’s no financial strength information available for the company. According to three years of data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Elephant receives more complaints for its size than expected.
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More information about Elephant auto insurance
Customer service: You can reach Elephant for general customer service questions by emailing customerservice@elephant.com. If you need to file a claim and want to do so over the phone, you can call 844-937-5353.
Website: Elephant’s website lets you view your policy information, print ID cards, file and track claims, pay or view your bill, and set up auto payments. You can also use a chat feature on Elephant’s website to speak with someone from the company.
Mobile app: You can use Elephant’s mobile app to download ID cards, access policy documents, file a claim, manage your policy and request roadside assistance. It’s available on both iOS and Google Play stores.
How we review auto insurance companies
Our editorial team considers these factors when reviewing auto insurance companies:
- Financial strength
We use AM Best ratings to confirm an insurer’s long-term financial stability and ability to pay claims. NerdWallet does not recommend companies with a rating lower than a B.
- Complaints
These ratings are based on complaints to state regulators relative to a company’s size, according to three years’ worth of data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. The best auto insurance companies have fewer than the expected number of complaints.
- Ease of use
This category looks at how easily consumers can interact with an insurer through its mobile app and website. This includes how much coverage information is offered online, whether a user can start and track a claim online and get a quote and mobile app scores based on the Apple and Google Play store ratings.
- Discounts
We look at the kind of discounts a company offers and the total number of discounts available.
Read our full auto insurance methodology.
We nerd out on car insurance
Our goal is to give you what you need to make smart decisions about your car insurance.
Here’s why you can trust NerdWallet:
We do our homework. We regularly evaluate and review many of the insurance companies we write about. And all of our content is fact-checked before publication. This means the star ratings you see on our reviews are accurate and up-to-date.
We analyze the data. We update our average car insurance rates every month. To do that, we analyze more than 500 million rates from across the country. These rates are provided by Quadrant Information Services.
We are unbiased. NerdWallet’s content is never influenced by our business partners and advertisers. Learn more about how we write in our editorial guidelines.
Frequently asked questions
Does Elephant sell auto insurance policies in every state?
Does Elephant sell auto insurance policies in every state?
Elephant sells auto insurance in eight states: Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
How can I file a claim with Elephant?
How can I file a claim with Elephant?
You can track and file your claim on Elephant’s website or by calling 844-937-5353. Glass claims can be filed online or by calling 800-413-8860. You may also call 855-ELEPHANT, the customer service line, to connect with claims.
Is Elephant car insurance a real company?
Is Elephant car insurance a real company?
Yes, Elephant is a real car insurance company. It was founded in 2009 in Virginia. In addition to car insurance, Elephant offers home, renters and other types of coverage through various partnerships.
Methodology
Insurer complaints methodology
NerdWallet examined complaints received by state insurance regulators and reported to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners in 2022-2024. To assess how insurers compare to one another, the NAIC calculates a complaint index each year for each subsidiary, measuring its share of total complaints relative to its size, or share of total premiums in the industry. To evaluate a company’s complaint history, NerdWallet calculated a similar index for each insurer, weighted by market shares of each subsidiary, over the three-year period. NerdWallet conducts its data analysis and reaches conclusions independently and without the endorsement of the NAIC. Ratios are determined separately for auto, home (including renters and condo) and life insurance.
Auto insurance ratings methodology
NerdWallet’s auto insurance ratings reward companies for customer-first features and practices. Ratings are based on weighted averages of scores in several categories, including financial strength, consumer complaints and discounts. Our “ease of use” category looks at factors such as website transparency and how easy it is to file a claim. Using our editorial discretion, we also consider customer satisfaction surveys. These ratings are a guide, but we encourage you to shop around and compare several insurance quotes to find the best rate for you. NerdWallet does not receive compensation for any reviews. Read our editorial guidelines and full ratings methodology for auto insurance.
