Merchants Insurance aims to protect customers at a very affordable price not-withstanding the increasing incidence of natural, man-made calamities, or any possible scenarios which can lead to severe financial strain or loss of the customers’ shop.
In merchants Insurance, accidental benefits and liability towards third parties are covered for their clients.
Are you indecisive about being insured by Merchants Insurance Company? Or you need more information about them, their policies and coverage? If so, read our guide to know more about merchants’ groups of insurance and compare it with other insurance agencies and their policies.
WHAT IS MERCHANTS INSURANCE?
The Merchants Insurance Company was established in 1918 and within this period, it has received more than a century worth of experience in the insurance industry.
It is a regional property and casualty company with its headquarter in Buffalo, New York.
It provides its clients with personal property, commercial and casualty property throughout the region of North East and North Central United States.
The Merchants Mutual Insurance is made up of three companies; Merchants Mutual Insurance Company, Merchants Preferred Insurance Company, and Merchants National Insurance Company.
The Merchants National started business in 2009 while the Merchants Preferred started business in 2007 in order to rebuild and expand their preferred-risk business after the sale of any subsidiary.
Merchants Insurance works with over 300 insurance professionals throughout its operating territories, and more than 1000 independent insurance agents.
They offer insurance services in locations like Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Michigan, Vermont, Pennsylvania and New York.
Their insurance services targets providing satisfaction to their clients.
TYPES OF INSURANCE OFFERED BY MERCHANTS INSURANCE
Merchants Insurance Company offers a wide range of insurance options for individuals and businesses.
Their services and products include:
- Personal Umbrella Insurance
- Personal Auto Insurance
- Offices Insurance
- Commercial Umbrella Insurance
- Restaurant/Food Service Insurance
- Workers’ Compensation Insurance
- Service/Retail/Wholesale Business Insurance
- Homeowners Insurance
- Golf Insurance
- Contractors Insurance
- Business Auto Insurance
- Building Owners Insurance
With the help of an independent insurance agent, you can explore more coverage options from Merchants Insurance Company and find the coverage that best suits you.
WHAT STATES DOES MERCHANTS INSURANCE WRITE IN?
Merchants Insurance Company has regional offices in locations like
- Hauppauge,
- New York;
- Mount Laurel,
- New Jersey;
- Buffalo,
- New York and
- Manchester,
- New Hampshire.
They offer coverage in over eight states, including Massachusetts, Ohio, New York, New Hampshire, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Vermont.
IS MERCHANTS INSURANCE A PERSONAL OR BUSINESS INSURANCE?
Merchants Insurance is a company that offers both personal and business insurance to its clients. It offers a wide range of insurance products to provide its clients with safety and peace of mind for their business needs.
The insurance products include auto repair and collision shops; food service operations; building owners; retail and service businesses; artisan contractors; business auto coverage; offices; and small wholesalers.
Also, they offer a variety of insurance options in New York to aid clients with protection and certainty for their individual needs.
These insurance for personal needs include home, personal automobiles, and liability insurance with their personal umbrella coverage.
MERCHANTS INSURANCE COVERS
Below is the list of coverages offered by Merchants Insurance Company:
Fire
They cover loss or damages made to buildings and contents as a result of fire, lightning, riot, cyclone, flood, strike, storm, etc.
Forgery of Cheque
When a loss occurs due to forgery or material alteration of cheques, drafts or any form of negotiable instruments issued by the clients or in their favour, the loss would be covered as well.
Personal Accident
Merchants insurance covers bodily injuries that came about because of accidents resulting in permanent total disability or death.
It also provides for carriages in the occurrence of dead bodies and ambulance charges up to Rs 2000.
Public Liability
The public liability cover provides for liabilities that are legal on behalf of the proposer for death that are accidental or bodily injuries to third party excluding resident employee or domestic staff and also accidental damage to any third party property.
Burglary
It covers damages or loss caused by burglary or an attempt of burglary to materials and contents in the client’s shop.
Money (Safe and Transit)
Loss of money as a result of cash burglary in a safe place or in transit from the client’s shop to bank/ATM stand and bank to shop is also covered.
The premium here is calculated from per sending limit as indicated by the insured.
Glass Breakage
This covers loss or damages done to any fixed plain glass by accident, visible and external means.
Neon Sign
Neon signs displayed at the client’s shop premises that can get damaged due to fire, riot, flood or accident, are covered by merchant insurance company.
Employer’s Liability
They also cover legal liability to the client’s employees if the client is an employer.
Fidelity
Financial losses due to dishonest acts or fraud of salaried employees are also covered.
Other coverages include medical expenses to insured, marine transit of goods and tenants legal liability.
MERCHANTS INSURANCE COMPANY DISCOUNTS
At Merchants Insurance Company, there are enough competitive discounts for you mostly on their auto insurance. The discounts involve:
- The Paid-in-full discount: This discount is offered to auto insurance customers who normally pay their entire year’s premium up front, rather than paying in monthly increments.
- Multi-car discount: This is mainly for auto insurance customers who insure two or more vehicles through the Merchants Insurance Company.
- Good student discount: This type of insurance discount is mainly for auto insurance with students on their policy that usually maintain a good grade average, commonly “B” or higher.
- Bundling discount: This auto insurance discount is for auto insurance customers who purchase multiple types of coverage like the auto insurance and homeowners insurance.
To find more information about the discounts offered by Merchants Mutual Insurance and other forms of merchant group of insurance, simply get an agent to put you through and assist you.
This will help you save up money and make the right choice that best suits you.
HOW IS THE BILLING DONE AT MERCHANTS?
At Merchants Insurance group, they offer you with personalized options to manage your bills properly and accept payments from:
- Traditional Bank Or Credit Union Checks
- Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT)
- Electronic Checks (eCheck)
- MIGPay
- Online Credit Card Payment
- Merchants’ Pay-As-You-Go Workers’ Compensation Payment Program
They also have merchants mobile for mobile device payments. If you want your payments to be quicker, you can simply contact them on 1-800-462-8182.
With the help of the Merchants Insurance Company’s automated integrated voice response (IVR) system which is available 24/7, you can make your payments over the phone with less or no stress.
MERCHANTS INSURANCE CLAIMS
With Merchants Mutual Insurance or any other type of insurance, processing a claim can be as quickly as possible.
This has been one of their goals, to make it easier for you to be able to process your Merchants Insurance claims and get your life back to normal in cases of loss or damage of the insured property.
Ways To Report Merchants Insurance Claims Online
To report a claim online, follow the procedures below:
- First, sign in to your policyholder account by clicking here
- Once you are in, look for the quick link on the page and click on the “report a claim”
- If you are not registered for the merchants policyholder account, click here to register now!
You can log in on “my merchants” policyholder password protected website using your provided merchants user ID and password.
If you have not registered with merchants insurance before, then you can go to the login area in the upper right corner of the page.
Select the “policyholders”, and click on “sign up now!” to begin.
Another page will appear where you will have to complete a few simple steps in order to get your user ID and your password. After these steps, you will receive a confirmation email.
Click on the email to confirm your account and you are good to go.
ADVANTAGES OF MERCHANTS INSURANCE COMPANY
This group of insurance company have had a long standing carrier with over a century’s worth of experience in the field. They have the following merits:
- Availability of mobile app and online reporting of Merchants Insurance claims
- Many types of coverage for businesses and individuals
- High ratings from the best insurance accredited rating organizations like BBB and A.M. Best.
- Stable financial stability
- Good customer review and feedback
DISADVANTAGES OF MERCHANTS INSURANCE COMPANY
The demerits of this insurance company include:
- It is not a Better Business Bureau (BBB) accredited business.
- Its coverage are not available nationwide
- The merchants insurance claims processes is not in detail on the official website.
MERCHANTS INSURANCE BEST REVIEWS IN 2023
A.M. Best, one of the leading global credit rating agencies responsible for monitoring the activities of the insurance industry, gives Merchants Insurance group an “A-“rating based on the positive reviews from customers concerning the company.
This indicates that the insurance company is an excellent choice for insurance customers.
Having a high rating from A.M. Best, assures customers that Merchants Insurance Company is capable of providing assured and safe coverage from carriers that are trustworthy and reputable.
Also, Merchants Insurance Company has received an “A+” (excellent) rating from another leading global credit rating agency known as the Better Business Bureau (BBB) which is one of the agencies that works with customers reviews while rating an insurance company.
This agency is capable of influencing the choice of the customers towards Merchants Insurance Company.
Due to the excellent ratings by this insurance company, more customers have come to them.
Other websites like Trusted Choice, Clearsurance, The Balance, Indeed and more have recorded reviews concerning the Merchants Insurance.
Some of these reviews are negative but most of it appears positive.
Conclusion
Merchants insurance company is one of the insurance companies you can consider when searching to insure your life, home, car or properties.
They serve their agents, policyholders and communities with outstanding property and casualty insurance products.
All the companies under this group of insurance are rated “A-“ by A.M. Best company, the leading rating company for the insurance industry.
With this information on Merchants Insurance group, you might want to consider being insured by them.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What is the average claim response time frame for Merchants Insurance Company?
Merchants Insurance Company does not have a specific time frame for claims response on their official website but allows customers to file for claims at any time on their website.
What is the Merchants Insurance claims process?
Merchants insurance company allows its customers to file claims at any time but does not provide information about their claims process on their website.
To know more about the claims process, customers can get in touch with their independent agent, log into their account online or call a carrier.
Is Merchants Insurance a good insurance company?
Merchants Insurance Company has many years of experience and its positive ratings/ reviews reflect that. The company has received an “A” rating from two leading insurance rating agencies (A.M. Best and BBB).
They offer a wide range of coverages and comprehensive packages for commercial customers. Many of their customers have been satisfied with their services.
This said, Merchants Insurance Company can be considered a good, reliable and trustworthy.
What is Merchants Insurance Company’s service availability?
Merchants Insurance Company allows its customers to file claims online, through email or the mobile app at any time of their choice.
The company’s hotlines for customer service inquiries and phone claims reporting occurs on Monday to Friday but at restricted hours.
They also have social media presence on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, which makes them easily accessible to the customers.
Does Merchants Insurance Company have a user-friendly experience for customers?
Merchants Insurance Company has an official website that’s easy to use and navigate.
Customers can easily locate important information on the website but there is no information about claims process or claims response timeframe. Lack of this information could deter some prospective customers.
However, the company provides modern services (such as bill pay, filing claims, contacting an agent and more) for their customers online.
In all, Merchants Insurance Company provides a user-friendly experience for their customers.
REFERENCE
- en.m.wikipedia.org – Ms Insurance Group
- Merchantsgroup.com – Insurance Group
- icicilombard.com – Cover Insurance
- trustedchoice.com – Insurance Group Company Review
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