NerdWallet Car Insurance Review: Consumer Reviews, Quotes (2024)

NerdWallet’s car insurance quote tool doesn’t offer real-time quotes and instead collects your personal information for lead generation.

Sarah Archambault
Sarah Archambault
  • 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.

Featured in

media logomedia logo
Courtney Mikulski
Courtney MikulskiSenior Editor, Auto
  • 3+ years producing insurance and personal finance content

  • Main architect of the Insurify Quality Score

Courtney’s deep personal finance knowledge extends beyond insurance to credit cards, consumer lending, and banking. She thrives on creating actionable content.

Featured in

media logomedia logo
Mark Friedlander
Reviewed byMark Friedlander
Mark Friedlander
Mark FriedlanderDirector, Corporate Communications
  • 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 November 28, 2023

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.

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.

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.

While it offers car insurance quotes, it appears that the service is for lead generation and doesn’t offer real-time quotes.

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.

NerdWallet pros and cons

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 sell your information to 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 offers only car insurance quotes to customers.

Compare Auto Insurers Online

Insurify partners with top insurance companies to provide real-time quotes

Secure. Free. Easy-to-use.
Based on 3,806+ reviews
4.8/5
Shopper Approved
ProgressiveLiberty MutualTravelers

How does NerdWallet work?

NerdWallet partners with Insure.com to provide car insurance quotes to customers who use its platform. To get a car insurance quote, users can navigate to NerdWallet’s interactive web form under the insurance tab on its website. Overall, it’s quick and easy to use, guiding users step by step through a series of questions.

The personal information users must provide to obtain a quote includes:

  • ZIP code

  • Driver’s license status (yes or no)

  • Existing car insurance company

  • Option to add another driver

  • Number of tickets received in the last three years

  • Option to add additional vehicles

  • Marital status

  • Homeownership status

  • Military status

  • Gender identity (with limited options, including female, male, and non-binary, and an explanation that some insurers use gender to calculate rates)

  • Date of birth

  • First and last name

  • Address, phone number, and email

During the quote process, NerdWallet’s platform may offer users the opportunity for a quick quote from one insurance company via a pop-up window. However, this quote option doesn't always appear in final results, which may frustrate users. After hitting submit, you may not receive any car insurance quotes, and the platform might prompt you to start the quote process all over again.

At two points during the quote process, NerdWallet informed me that it was going to share my information with its partner QuinStreet and other third-party affiliates that may text or call me “using an automatic telephone selection or dialing system, or an artificial, pre-recorded voice.” I consented, as it also advertised you can opt out at any time by texting STOP or “following instructions provided in the communication.”

Over the next couple days, I received emails from NerdWallet alluding to my car insurance quote, but they looped me back to the same starting screen. I’ve also been bombarded with spam calls every couple of hours but have yet to receive any texts.

To its credit, signing up for a NerdWallet account is optional on the final quote screen. My next step will be to try to opt out of communication, as I was assured I could do, but I’m concerned this may not be possible after reading some negative NerdWallet reviews from consumers who faced similar challenges.

Learn More: The Best and Worst Car Insurance Comparison Websites

Learn More: The Best and Worst Car Insurance Comparison Websites

NerdWallet reviews: What real customers are saying

NerdWallet only has a 1.6/5 star rating on Trustpilot, where multiple consumers complain about NerdWallet selling their information. At the time of writing, NerdWallet is not currently featured on Shopper Approved.

Unfortunately, the general tone of each customer review isn’t that positive. Many customers complained about receiving excessive amounts of unwanted communication from both NerdWallet and third parties in the form of calls, emails, and texts.

In some cases, such as on BBB, NerdWallet took the time to reply to the complaint and let the person know it would remove their personal information from contact lists. However, on Trustpilot, NerdWallet representatives recommended sending an email to discuss further.

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, NerdWallet’s quote tool runs through a third party, Insure.com. Insurify is a licensed insurance agency and provides direct quotes. And unlike NerdWallet, Insurify doesn’t sell your information to any third party.[3]

NerdWallet’s line of questioning is also limited and 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 didn’t actually generate any quotes at the end of it or in any of the follow-up emails I’ve received in the last couple of days — which was frustrating.

Shop for Car Insurance Online

Insurify partners with top insurance companies to provide real-time quotes

Secure. Free. Easy-to-use.
Based on 3,806+ reviews
4.8/5
Shopper Approved
ProgressiveLiberty MutualTravelers

Is NerdWallet safe to use?

By filling out the NerdWallet car insurance quote request form, you’re agreeing to release certain types of personal information to NerdWallet, plus a NerdWallet partner called QuinStreet, and other unnamed third-party affiliates. While you may receive calls or texts about your car insurance quote request, you can opt out of communication at any time.

While it’s unclear if its privacy and security measures apply to online insurance quotes, NerdWallet allows users to opt out of sharing personal information by completing its privacy web form. The NerdWallet website also confirms that it and its partners use encryption to protect sensitive information you share, but it doesn’t specify if this applies to quotes.[4]

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.

  • Is NerdWallet easy to use?

    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.

  • Is NerdWallet free?

    Having a NerdWallet account is free, but if you choose to add extra features, you may have to pay a fee.[5] NerdWallet also makes money through compensation from its partners.

  • What can you do with the NerdWallet mobile app?

    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.

Sources

  1. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. "Amendment No. 2 to Form S-1: NerdWallet, Inc.."
  2. NerdWallet. "All things money."
  3. NerdWallet. "NerdWallet Privacy Policy."
  4. NerdWallet. "Smarter security features for your smart money moves."
  5. NerdWallet. "How much does a NerdWallet account cost?."
Sarah Archambault
Sarah Archambault

Sarah Archambault enjoys helping people figure out smarter ways to use their money. She covers auto financing, banking, credit cards, credit health, insurance, and personal loans. She’s created and edited content for Credit Karma, Experian and Sound Dollar, along with banks, financial institutions, and insurance companies.

Courtney Mikulski
Edited byCourtney MikulskiSenior Editor, Auto
Courtney Mikulski
Courtney MikulskiSenior Editor, Auto
  • 3+ years producing insurance and personal finance content

  • Main architect of the Insurify Quality Score

Courtney’s deep personal finance knowledge extends beyond insurance to credit cards, consumer lending, and banking. She thrives on creating actionable content.

Featured in

media logomedia logo
Mark Friedlander
Reviewed byMark FriedlanderDirector, Corporate Communications
Mark Friedlander
Mark FriedlanderDirector, Corporate Communications
  • 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.

Compare Car Insurance Quotes Instantly

Secure. Free. Easy-to-use.
Based on 3,806+ reviews
4.8/5
Shopper Approved
ProgressiveLiberty MutualTravelers

Latest Articles

View all