Bristol West Insurance GroupReviews of bristolwest.com

0 Stars - Bristol West Insurance / Global Guard Insurance* I am writing this review to warn others about my highly unsatisfactory experience with this insurance company. Their business practices are deceptive, unethical, and appear to be fraudulent. Upon enrollment, I was quoted one price. However, the initial paperwork I was instructed to sign contained no monetary amounts. I was assured not to worry and that everything would be taken care of. Only after signing was I informed that I had to pay a total of $660 upfront to start the policy - a $400 down payment PLUS my first month's premium of $260. That $400 was split into two separate down payments - one for the agent and one that goes God knows where - which was never disclosed upfront and did not even apply to my policy premium. This is misleading and fraudulent. Furthermore, I was promised a lower monthly premium, which proved to be false. My rate consistently increased throughout the policy term. At the end of my six-month term, I contacted them prior to my renewal date of the 15th to cancel. I requested a one-week extension, from the 15th to the 22nd, because my new policy was set to begin a week later. I was told this would not be an issue and would be prorated. Based on my $262 monthly premium, the prorated amount for one week should have been approximately $62. Once again, I was required to sign documentation without a disclosed amount. It took two days for them to process the extension, and I was subsequently charged $131 for one week of coverage with no valid explanation. On the 14th, I explicitly requested cancellation before the renewal. They refused to process it, stating it was "in process." After escalating to a supervisor, I was given the runaround and told the policy would be canceled on the 21st, backdated to the 15th, and that I would not incur any charges. That assurance was completely false, and I am now being told I owe a balance. I refuse to pay a company that operates in this manner. Their customer service is unprofessional, their billing practices are predatory, and their coverage is inadequate. I strongly advise prospective customers to avoid this company.

The local office agent is great.  When filing a hail damage claim, it was a terrible experience.   They took forever to give us an answer, and I had to reach out to them to get an update on the claim.  Then they did not want to proceed with a claim due to a claim that was done years PRIOR to us having the vehicle.  There was so much hail damage, and they used OLD pictures from a PREVIOUS owner against us.  They did not want to pay or even cared to help look into all the damage that was caused while we, THE CURRENT OWNERS, had it.  It took forever to even get a reply from the adjuster.  He stopped responding to emails.  Then I had to reach out at least THREE times in order to get a supervisor on the phone and he was USELESS.  Did not care at all about the concerns and did NOT want to help in any way.  Just ridiculous.  They can take out my payments each month, never late, but when filing a claim due to HAIL damage which is completely out of our control, and they did not want to help or do anything to look into the issue further.  VERY VERY frustrating.  Looking for a different company and I do NOT recommend this company. Even a 1 star rating is too much for this company.

I’ve been with this company for about three months, and my experience has been extremely disappointing. During my first month, I had serious issues with the pricing. The amount I was being charged increased dramatically, at one point reaching roughly three times what I expected. For the past couple of months, my cost has been around $85 per month. I recently called about lockout assistance and discovered that the service would cost an additional $15 per month. I was also told there was a limit of two uses per billing period. For me, that simply doesn’t provide enough value for the additional monthly charge. Instead, I gave a trusted neighbor a spare key to my vehicle. She is generally home and can help me if I accidentally lock myself out. That solution costs me less and doesn’t come with the restrictions I was offered through this company. Based on my experience, I would not recommend this company. If I had a practical alternative available to me right now, I would switch providers. I would personally be willing to pay substantially more elsewhere rather than continue dealing with the pricing, service limitations, and customer-service experience I’ve encountered here. My experiences with the Battle Creek and Kalamazoo, Michigan offices have also been very poor. I have also been extremely dissatisfied with the company’s telephone customer service. This review reflects my personal experience over approximately three months as a paying customer. I strongly recommend that prospective customers carefully review the pricing, optional-service fees, usage limitations, and terms before signing up.

I am disputing the $244.98 balance on my policy. I requested cancellation through the Bristol West app on September 4, 2026, because I had already obtained replacement insurance. I also sent an email with proof of the new insurance and requested cancellation. I did not request cancellation on September 22. Please review the cancellation request and correct the effective cancellation date and the balance on my account.”

You an idiot if you use Bristol West for insurance! Bristol west sent me to collection on a policy that had been canceled.also ,before that I had my credit card listed for auto pay and had to cancel the card because it was lost..they refused to remove it from my auto pay and they kept charging the card and getting insufficient fund and charging me fees..ridiculous..kept promising me they removed the card..when I would call back they had no record telling them to remove the card. Never did get my money back..or any kind of apology..

This is the worse company there is. What a fraud of a company. They send me an email on June 29th saying make a payment by July 10th. So I do, they cancel my policy the day after I make the payment and call my payment the cancelation fee! WHAT A SCAM! FLAT OUT ROBBED ME!

Do not give this company your bank or debit card information. I cancelled my policy because Bristol West raised my rates by $100 per month with no explanation. Then I was still charged - $488. They said I didn't give 3 business day's notice which was technically correct. However, I don't understand why the default is to auto-renew when I had a question on file about the rate hike and then called to cancel. i received a cancelation confirmation! Then I was told I'd get the money back as a check and it wouldn't be sent for over a week. This is unacceptable. Greedy corporate types taking advantage of the opportunity to hold some dollars for some days. Insurance is the biggest wasteof money of our time. For a family of four, in one year we needed one car towed. That probably would have cost $200. Instead, we paid $4,656.

I was quoted a price for new car insurance yesterday. I agreed to get the policy based upon that price, and said so on the call. This morning, I was told it's over $300 more. Wtf? Not shocking, the cowardly agent is not responding. I called again and left a message on a recorded line that I'm cancelling my car insurance. I tried chatting, emailing, calling, again shocking can't get through to anyone to cancel this fraudulent car insurance policy. To make things worse, they will not let me remove my cc info. The only thing I could do was to cancel the auto-pay to not allow them to charge me again. I finally got through on the life insurance line, don't ask, and he told me that he couldn't cancel it because there was a policy declaration. Yeah, there was one overnight too where you gouged the amount of the policy by over $300. Let me guess, so after a few days, I won't be able to cancel the policy at all ?