West Bend Mutual Insurance Review & Complaints: Auto, Home & Business Insurance (2023)

West Bend Mutual Insurance is a Wisconsin-based personal and business insurance company. They provide a range of basic and specialty insurance across the Midwest.

What is West Bend Mutual?

The West Bend Mutual Insurance Company of Wisconsin was founded in 1894 in its namesake town of West Bend. The company has since expanded beyond the state of Wisconsin and serves customers and communities in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, and Ohio as well.

West Bend offers broad insurance coverage options, with policies including auto insurance, home insurance, and specialty. They also write business insurance and bonds. They sell products through independent agents throughout the states they serve.

Founded as a mutual company, West Bend today still operates that way and headquarters is still located in its home state.

What West Bend products are available?

All of the West Bend Mutual Insurance Company’s products are divided into personal and commercial lines. They have both basic policies as well as some specialty options to choose from.

Personal Insurance

West Bend’s personal lines insurance options include auto, home, and specialty coverage as well.

Home and Highway

West Bend offers what they call their Home and Highway policy, which is a combined auto and home policy in one. As far as we can tell, there is no option to purchase auto insurance or home insurance individually.

The Home and Highway policy can be issued with a homeowner’s, condo owners, or renters policy, and can include standard auto insurance as well as classic cars, but you must purchase one of each policy type. All of the same coverage that is typically offered on an auto policy is included: liability, comprehensive, collision, and options like the company’s Travel Net roadside assistance.

Homeowner’s coverage also includes all of the standard coverage as well as many optional endorsements, provided you shell out a few extra bucks each month. The residential policies include guaranteed replacement cost, extra jewelry coverage, pet accident coverage. Several bundled endorsements are also available to enhance the coverage.

Protector Plus adds sump pump/sewer backup, open perils coverage for personal property, mortgage extra expense on total losses, and identity theft protection.

Protector Grand also adds sports equipment coverage, travel deductible waiver, freezer, and refrigerator power loss, and golf cart coverage.

The policy is issued with one premium and one deductible. There are a variety of discounts available, although since it is a single policy there is no auto/home discount offered. Other choices like good student, good driver, and safety features are all offered.

Other Personal Insurance

West Bend also offers specialty vehicle insurance such as RVs, watercraft, and motorcycles.

Their personal umbrella insurance is available for purchase to provide additional liability coverage above the limits of the home and highway policy.

Business Insurance

West Bend writes package business insurance policies for a long list of business profiles. Coverage includes business property, general liability, specialty liability, worker’s compensation, and more.

Business policies are customized to meet the needs of each type of business, based on the business details and risks of that industry.

Surety bonds are also available for a wide variety of business coverage needs, from contractors to notaries. Obtaining a business insurance quote for coverage can provide you with more in-depth details on what’s covered and how your policy would work.

Are the rates competitive?

West Bend does not offer online quoting, which is normal for a smaller, regional company and especially for one that is agent-driven. Also, for commercial lines, it seems standard that talking to someone about your business details is a required part of the application process.

Since they offer the combined home and auto policy, quotes will need to be compared to the total cost of an auto and home policy elsewhere. We do not normally expect this type of company to compete with much larger, direct-buy insurance companies, but this type of combined policy is difficult to estimate.

What is the claims process?

West Bend has a toll-free 24/7 claims line that can be used for any type of insurance claim. Called DirectConnect, this line will direct the caller to the correct customer service area to get any claim handled. They promise that some claims can be settled and paid in 24 hours. This is an unusually fast claim response time frame, and likely refers to very simple auto claims such as glass or towing.

Clear Vision is the company’s glass only service that handles claims for auto glass repair quickly. This is a common service offered by many insurance companies.

The company also offers a claim assistance app; while claims cannot be filed that way, you can follow the progress of the claim and use the app to upload pictures and check on policy information, repair status, and other details throughout the claims process.

The Silver Lining Repair program is West Bend’s preferred repair network, with a team of repair centers all across North America. This network offers direct connection with and guaranteed work from included providers, but customers are not required to use these providers.

What do ratings and consumer reviews say?

The West Bend Mutual Insurance Company has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau (BBB), and there are 16 total customer complaints on file in the past three years. Five of those were closed in the past 12 months. For the size of the company, the complaint volume is low.

With 86 reviews on Google, the company has an overall 3.5-star rating. Many customers have left a positive review, citing a great customer service experience. A look at the negative reviews shows that a lot of them are written by drivers involved in an accident with a West Bend insured, and not a review from actual customers of the insurer. Overall, the image of this company is very positive.

What’s the bottom line?

Is West Bend insurance good? West Bend is a good choice for anyone who likes the idea of a single policy for both auto and home and also prefers to work with an agent. While we don’t have rate information, they have a very good reputation and some comprehensive products, so the impression is of a company that offers good value to their customers.