NerdWallet Review: Legit or Just a Lead Generator? (2026)
NerdWallet only offers auto insurance quotes through partner sites.
Secure. Free. Easy-to-use.
Excellent
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Written bySarah Archambault
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Experienced personal finance writer
Background working with banks and insurance companies
Sarah enjoys helping people find smarter ways to spend their money. She covers auto financing, banking, credit cards, credit health, insurance, and personal loans.
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Edited byKatie Powers
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Licensed auto and home insurance agent
4+ years experience in insurance and personal finance editing
NPN: 20564519
Katie uses her knowledge and expertise as a licensed property and casualty agent in Massachusetts to help readers understand the complexities of insurance shopping.
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Reviewed byMark Friedlander
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Corporate communications director for Insurance Information Institute
20+ years in insurance and communications
As Director, Corporate Communications for Triple-I, Mark serves as the non-profit’s national spokesperson, sharing information and education on a wide array of insurance issues.
Updated
Why you can trust Insurify: Comparing accurate insurance quotes should never put you at risk of spam. We earn an agent commission only if you buy a policy based on our quotes. Our editorial team follows a rigorous set of editorial standards and operates independently from our insurance partners. Learn more.
Advertiser Disclosure
At Insurify, our goal is to help customers compare insurance products and find the best policy for them. We strive to provide open, honest, and unbiased information about the insurance products and services we review. Our hard-working team of data analysts, insurance experts, insurance agents, editors and writers, has put in thousands of hours of research to create the content found on our site.
We do receive compensation when a sale or referral occurs from many of the insurance providers and marketing partners on our site. That may impact which products we display and where they appear on our site. But it does not influence our meticulously researched editorial content, what we write about, or any reviews or recommendations we may make. We do not guarantee favorable reviews or any coverage at all in exchange for compensation.
Table of contents
Table of contents
NerdWallet offers consumer finance education on topics like credit cards, personal loans, student loans, banks, and banking. If you sign up for membership, you also get free access to your credit reports, as well as big-picture advice and personalized offers for financial products, like credit cards.
Though NerdWallet offers car insurance quotes, it doesn’t offer real-time quotes.
Quick Facts
You’ll need to provide basic personal information to receive car insurance quotes, including your age, gender, location, and vehicle make, model, and year.
By completing the auto insurance quote form, you agree to share some personal information with NerdWallet, affiliated partners, and unaffiliated third-party companies.
NerdWallet also offers tools and resources for home refinancing, home mortgages, and personal, student, auto, and small-business loans.
NerdWallet at a glance
NerdWallet is a personal finance website that provides various educational editorial content about credit scores, credit cards, identity theft, loans, banking, and investments. Informational articles are available to anyone who visits its site, which has more than 20 million active users each month. NerdWallet CEO Tim Chen states the company’s mission is to “provide clarity for all of life’s financial decisions.”[1]
You can also sign up for a free NerdWallet account to check your credit report and get personalized insights about your finances, spending, and credit utilization (aka Nerd-approved tips). The company also shows you partner offers for the best options in credit cards, loans, and more. If you link your financial institutions and bank accounts to NerdWallet, the credit card and lender offers become more personalized to help you make better financial decisions.
If you’re considering using NerdWallet to get a car insurance quote or want to sign up for a NerdWallet membership, here are a few things to keep in mind.
Pros
NerdWallet offers a vast library of free educational content for non-members.[2]
It’s free to sign up for a NerdWallet membership.
Members can check their credit scores and get personalized financial advice.
Cons
NerdWallet may share your information with third parties when you apply for a quote, which can result in unwanted emails, texts, and calls.
You might not actually receive a car insurance quote, even after completing the online form.
NerdWallet doesn’t offer phone support.
Compare Auto Insurers Online
Insurify partners with top insurance companies to provide real-time quotes
Secure. Free. Easy-to-use.
Based on 7,669+ reviews
4.8/5
How NerdWallet works
NerdWallet offers car insurance quotes to customers who use its platform, but you’ll likely end up on an insurance company’s website to get an actual quote.
To start, you can navigate to NerdWallet’s interactive web form under the insurance tab on its website. The survey is quick and easy to use. You’ll just have to answer a series of questions.
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First, you’ll need to provide your ZIP code and answer whether you currently have car insurance coverage. If the answer is yes, you’ll need to provide the name of your current insurer. NerdWallet also asks you to confirm whether you have a valid driver’s license.
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You’ll then need to answer a few questions about your driving history, including if you’ve had any speeding tickets, at-fault accidents, driving under the influence (DUI) convictions, or driving while intoxicated (DWI) convictions during the last three years. You’ll also need to indicate if you need to file an SR-22 or FR-44 form.
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NerdWallet will also ask you to provide your vehicle’s year, make, and model. It then provides you with the opportunity to add additional vehicles or drivers to your policy, indicating the potential for multi-vehicle and multi-driver discounts.
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The remainder of the survey questions ask for additional personal information and assess whether you will qualify for common car insurance discounts. NerdWallet asks you to provide the following personal information before you can obtain a quote:
Homeownership status
Military status
Marital status
Gender identity
Birth date
Address
First and last name
Email address
Notably, NerdWallet doesn’t ask for your phone number.
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After completing the survey, NerdWallet will direct you to a page with options from appropriate national insurance companies. In this case, NerdWallet selected Progressive and GEICO. The page had an advertiser disclosure. NerdWallet didn’t provide any real-time quotes. Instead, the website requires you to select “See My Rate” for each insurance company.
For Progressive, this led to the insurer’s website, where some information, sourced from NerdWallet, was prefilled. To complete the quote process, you’ll need to enter more information about your vehicle. If you select “See My Rate” for GEICO, your ZIP code will be the only prefilled information transferred over from NerdWallet.
Ultimately, the process from NerdWallet wasn’t successful in finding real-time quotes.
Is NerdWallet legit?
Yes. NerdWallet is a legit insurance marketplace that claims not to sell your personal information. But it may share your information with its third-party partner companies.[3]
NerdWallet offers quote comparison tools for auto, life, and home insurance. But it doesn’t provide real-time car insurance quotes. It directs users to the websites of certain car insurance companies.
NerdWallet reviews: What real customers are saying
NerdWallet has mixed online customer reviews.
On its Better Business Bureau (BBB) profile page, NerdWallet has a rating of 1 out of 5 stars, though the company only has 16 reviews. Of the limited reviews, several cite negative experiences with NerdWallet sending emails despite the user not creating an account.
In some cases, NerdWallet took the time to reply to the complaint and let the person know the company would remove their personal information from contact lists.
NerdWallet has a rating of 3.6 out of 5 stars on Trustpilot, where the company has earned more than 1,500 customer reviews. Many reviewers on Trustpilot cite positive customer service experiences and note useful information, tools, and help from company representatives.
Negative reviews have complained about redirects to other websites, confusing information about personal and auto loans and credit, and unwanted calls and messages from NerdWallet and other companies.
Here are some real reviews from users for you to learn more about how customers feel about NerdWallet.
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Shop for Car Insurance Online
Insurify partners with top insurance companies to provide real-time quotes
Secure. Free. Easy-to-use.
Based on 7,669+ reviews
4.8/5
NerdWallet vs. Insurify
Both NerdWallet and Insurify advertise that they can help you compare car insurance quotes, but they have several key differences.
For example, Insurify is a licensed insurance agency that provides direct quotes. Though NerdWallet is a licensed producer, it’s not a licensed insurance agency.[4]
Both Insurify and NerdWallet don’t sell user information to any third parties, but NerdWallet may share information with partner companies.[5]
The companies have different quote processes as well. NerdWallet’s line of questioning only includes basics like age, gender, location, number of drivers, number of vehicles, and vehicle make, model, and year. Insurify’s quoting tool, on the other hand, is much more comprehensive and helps generate quotes based on the type of coverage you’re looking for and potential available discounts.
Insurify generates real-time quotes with a comparison tool that looks at more than 300 insurance companies, and you have the option to buy a policy or connect with an agent online. NerdWallet’s quote process doesn’t actually generate quotes at the end of it. Instead, it directs users to the websites of insurance companies.
Compare features from NerdWallet and Insurify in the table below.
Feature | NerdWallet | Insurify |
|---|---|---|
| Real-time quotes | No | Yes |
| Sells customer information | No | No |
| Licensed insurance agency | No | Yes |
| Average Trustpilot rating | 3.6 out of 5 stars | 4.7 out of 5 stars |
NerdWallet FAQs
Check out Insurify’s guide to shopping for car insurance to help you compare quotes. And if you’re considering using NerdWallet to get a car insurance quote or signing up for a NerdWallet account, here are answers to some commonly asked questions.
No. NerdWallet claims that it won’t sell your personal information to third-party companies. That said, it can share your personal information with its partner companies. By filling out the NerdWallet car insurance quote request form, you agree to release certain types of personal information to NerdWallet and other third-party companies.
No. NerdWallet won’t provide you with real-time direct quotes for car insurance. Instead, it’ll likely direct you to go through extra steps on the websites of certain car insurance companies.
Yes. NerdWallet’s quote process is straightforward and only takes a few minutes to complete. You can sign up to be a NerdWallet member during the process, but you can also easily sign up for a NerdWallet account directly on its website.
NerdWallet used to ask for your Social Security number as part of the car insurance quote process. It no longer asks users for this information. NerdWallet says it uses industry-standard security controls, including cryptography, to keep your personal information secure.[6]
NerdWallet assures customers it will keep bank information secure. NerdWallet links bank accounts through Plaid and has a partnership with TransUnion, both of which also prioritize security, according to NerdWallet.
Having a NerdWallet account is free, but if you choose to add extra features, you may have to pay a fee.[7] NerdWallet also makes money through compensation from its partners.
The NerdWallet app allows account holders to access many of NerdWallet’s features. You can check your credit score as often as you want and start a dispute if something doesn’t look right. If you’ve connected your financial accounts, you can also use the app to check in on your credit utilization ratio, the details of your net worth, your home value, and your cash flow. You can also use the app to review and apply for recommended products, like credit cards and personal loans.
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Sources
- U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. "Amendment No. 2 to Form S-1: NerdWallet, Inc.."
- NerdWallet. "Insurance."
- NerdWallet. "NerdWallet Privacy Policy."
- NerdWallet. "NerdWallet Insurance Services, Inc. Licenses and Disclosures."
- NerdWallet. "How secure is linking my accounts?."
- NerdWallet. "How NerdWallet protects your data."
- NerdWallet. "How much does a NerdWallet account cost?."
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Sarah Archambault
Sarah Archambault enjoys helping people figure out how to manage their finances and credit. She covers auto financing, banking, credit cards, credit health, insurance, and personal loans. Her work has been featured on Credit Karma, Experian, LendingClub, Sound Dollar and USA Today Blueprint. She also writes for national insurers, banks and financial institutions like Aetna, MassMutual, Stripe, and UnitedHealthcare.
Sarah has been a contributor at Insurify since December 2022.
Licensed auto and home insurance agent
4+ years experience in insurance and personal finance editing
NPN: 20564519
Katie uses her knowledge and expertise as a licensed property and casualty agent in Massachusetts to help readers understand the complexities of insurance shopping.
Featured in
Corporate communications director for Insurance Information Institute
20+ years in insurance and communications
As Director, Corporate Communications for Triple-I, Mark serves as the non-profit’s national spokesperson, sharing information and education on a wide array of insurance issues.