DTRIC Insurance Review & Complaints: Auto, Home, Umbrella & Commercial Insurance (2023)

DTRIC Insurance Company is a Hawaiian property and casualty company providing both personal and business insurance products to residents of the islands. The company was established in the early 90s to write car insurance and has since grown to offer other products.

About DTRIC

DTRIC was founded in 1992 to provide auto insurance policies to the state’s largest public employee union in the wake of non-renewal by the previous insurance company. They quickly expanded into commercial insurance products, particularly worker’s compensation.

Today DTRIC offers personal affordable auto and homeowners insurance to individuals along with a selection of business insurance aimed at specific industries. They operate solely in Hawaii and are one of the top auto insurance providers in the state.

DTRIC is a subsidiary of Japanese company Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance Company, which is in turn owned by the insurance holding company MS&AD Insurance Holdings. Policies are sold by local agents.

DTRIC Products

On the personal lines side, DTRIC writes home and auto, as well as umbrella. Their commercial lines coverage includes auto and business insurance policies.

Auto Insurance

DTRIC’s auto insurance program offers all of the basics of coverage along with common add-on options. Among the trendier features, they offer is Deductible Wipeout, which is known as a disappearing deductible elsewhere and allows the collision deductible to be waived after a claim-free period.

Like many companies, DTRIC offers a usage-based insurance program called Akamai Rater. The program uses a plug-in device that records driving habits. There’s a 10% discount for enrolling in the program and the company advertises up to 40% off after the 90-day period in which the device gathers driving information.

Although the 40% sounds great, in our experience drivers never see anywhere near the top-end promises made by companies. In general, these programs result in a discount of 10-15% on average. Unlike some companies, however, Akamai Rater does not have any risk of rate increases as a result of recording driving habits.

The site advertises free roadside assistance, but it is not actually free as far as we can tell – it is an optional endorsement on your policy which means it will likely have an additional premium. The company refers to it as free due to the fact that you pay nothing at the time of service.

There are some discounts available with the auto policy, including up to 25% off for maintaining continuous coverage. Other common discounts include safe drivers and multiple cars.

The company offers a range of payment options, which includes payroll deduction for members of the Hawaii Government Employees Association and United Public Workers.

Home Insurance

DTRIC writes a basic homeowners insurance policy that includes coverage for the structure, personal property, and liability. They also include equipment breakdown coverage at no additional charge, a benefit that is usually an additional cost with most insurance companies. Hurricane insurance can be added to the policy for an additional fee.

There are several common discounts offered, including an auto/home bundling discount and loss-free discount.

In addition to traditional homeowners, DTRIC also offers renters insurance to protect personal property for renters.

Umbrella Insurance

DTRIC writes personal umbrella insurance for up to $2 million. There is a requirement that the insured must have their auto insurance with DTRIC, but homeowners insurance is not required to be with the same company.

Commercial Insurance

DTRIC offers a full range of business insurance products that can be purchased individually or combined in a commercial package.

Commercial products include:

• Commercial Auto
• Commercial Property
• Commercial General Liability
• Inland Marine
• Data Compromise and Cyber Liability
• Commercial Crime
• Worker’s Compensation

The company specializes in the retail, restaurants, hospitality, and lodging industries.

Rates

We quoted a basic policy for a 30-year-old single male driver with a clean record, driving a 2010 Honda Accord LX sedan. We ran our quote with liability limits of 100/300/100 and $500 deductibles and declined any additional coverage. Our quote was for Oahu county as a sample location.

The quote came back at $75.17 a month, or $902 annually.

Since we do not usually quote in Hawaii, we are unable to compare this rate to other companies but have provided it as a sample. We did find the quoting process to be straightforward and easy to navigate.

Rates

We quoted a basic policy for a 30-year-old single male driver with a clean record, driving a 2010 Honda Accord LX sedan. We ran our quote with liability limits of 100/300/100 and $500 deductibles, and declined any additional coverage. Our quote was for Oahu county as a sample location.

The quote came back at $75.17 a month, or $902 annually.

Since we do not usually quote in Hawaii, we are unable to compare this rate to other companies but have provided it as a sample. We did find the quoting process to be straightforward and easy to navigate.

Claims

DTRIC has 24/7 claims reporting hotline that can be called toll-free. They also offer online claims reporting via a form on the company website. Online claims reporting is only available for auto, home, and worker’s compensation claims.

Car insurance claims can be handled through the company’s preferred repair network. Repairs done through a network facility come with a guarantee. Customers are free to choose any shop that they prefer, in or out of network.

The website includes a claims knowledge center where the customer can get step-by-step information on the claims process and get any questions answered. Although relatively basic, it should provide helpful information for most customers and guidance through the process.

Ratings and Customer Reviews

DTRIC has been Better Business Bureau (BBB) accredited since 1996 and has an A+ rating currently. There are only three complaints on file in the past three years. There have not been any reviews left of the company on the BBB page.

On Yelp there are 27 reviews of DTRIC. The overall star rating is 2.5 stars, which indicates a mix of positive and negative reviews. The negative review cites a poor customer service experience, as well as rate increases and claims problems. The positive reviews seem to state the opposite – there are several that describe a good claims experience.

The Hawaii Department of Insurance reported 16 complaints against DTRIC for 2017, resulting in a 0.704 complaint ratio per 1,000 autos insured. That places the company at the third-highest complaint ratio of the 11 top auto insurers on the complaint comparison list. The number of complaints, however, is still not high enough to raise concerns.

The Bottom Line

DTRIC has a good auto insurance program as far as we can tell, although there is not a lot of detail available. The complaint volume is on the low side, although there are definitely companies that are performing better in terms of customer satisfaction. DTRIC will likely be a good choice for those that want to work with a local company and qualify for several insurance discounts, particularly their employee group affinity discounts.