AAA vs The General (2026)

Image source: Pexels

AAA is a membership organization made up of regional clubs, and each one underwrites and prices its own policies. The General is a nonstandard specialist that will quote almost anyone for a price. Choosing between the two usually comes down to price, coverage, and service. If you have a DUI, several violations, a suspended license, or need an SR-22, it becomes a question of who will cover you. That’s why, in addition to comparing different rates, it’s helpful to understand how AAA and The General approach high-risk drivers and what that could mean for your coverage and premiums.

The General Is Not National General

The names are similar, but The General and National General are two separate businesses with different owners. The General is a nonstandard auto insurer that has operated since 1963 and sells coverage directly to consumers. Sentry Insurance acquired The General from American Family Insurance in a transaction valued at approximately $1.7 billion, first announced in September 2024. The deal closed January 1, 2025, when The General’s employees officially joined Sentry’s workforce, and Sentry has reported the business as part of its operations since. One concrete sign of how that acquisition has gone: AM Best upgraded The General’s Financial Strength Rating to A+ (Superior) from A (Excellent) on February 20, 2025, citing the combined group’s balance-sheet strength. That’s worth knowing on its own, and it’s relevant lower down when we compare ratings directly.

National General, meanwhile, is owned by Allstate. Allstate completed its acquisition of National General Holdings Corp. on January 4, 2021, strengthening its position in the independent-agent market.

Both companies operate in specialty and nonstandard insurance, and both have “General” in their names. However, the confusion usually sets in due to the fact that The General was owned by American Family Insurance from 2012 until the very end of 2024, and a lot of published material — including some AI-generated reviews — still credits American Family Insurance as the owner. That information is outdated, as Sentry now owns The General.

If you’re researching a policy, check the actual underwriting company listed on the policy documents rather than relying on the brand name alone. The General’s current materials identify its products as being underwritten by a member of the Sentry Insurance Group.

AAA Is Not One Insurance Company

AAA presents another complication: there isn’t one national AAA auto insurance company with one set of rates. Instead, AAA is a federation of regional clubs and insurance organizations. Three clubs write most of the insurance:

• CSAA Insurance Group: CSAA is the largest of the three. Its own press materials describe coverage in “23 states and the District of Columbia,” while its more granular club-and-county breakdown lists outright coverage in Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Montana, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Wyoming, plus partial coverage in California, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia — 24 states by that count. Even AAA’s own materials don’t fully agree on the number; the kind of split territory that shows insurance is carved up by club, not by state line.
• The Auto Club Group: The Auto Club Group is the second-largest club, with more than 13 million members across 14 U.S. states and two U.S. territories (Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands), including Florida, Michigan, and most of Illinois.
• Automobile Club of Southern California: Underwrites through the Interinsurance Exchange of the Automobile Club, a reciprocal club rather than a standard insurer, authorized in California since 1912.

According to this structure, each organization can have its own underwriting rules and pricing. In other words, there is no single “nationwide AAA rate.”

It also helps to separate AAA membership from AAA insurance. Roadside assistance is a membership benefit, and you do not necessarily need AAA auto insurance to become a member. AAA confirms that membership and insurance are separate products, so when comparing prices, remember to account for the cost of membership as well as the insurance premium.

Which brings up the thing most comparisons skip: what roadside assistance actually gets you, side by side. AAA membership covers three tiers — Classic, Plus, and Premier — with towing, jump-starts, flat-tire help, lockout service, fuel delivery, and winching, and the benefit follows the person rather than the car, so it applies whether you’re driving your own vehicle, a friend’s, or a rental. The General doesn’t build roadside assistance into its policies the same way; it offers optional Towing and Labor coverage in select states (comprehensive and collision coverage is a prerequisite to add it), plus an optional plan administered by a third party, Nation Safe Drivers. If roadside coverage matters to you independent of insurance rate, that’s a real structural difference, not just a pricing one.

Financial Strength and Reviews: What the Ratings Actually Say

Rate comparisons only tell part of the story — the other question is whether the company can pay a claim and how customers say the experience actually goes. AM Best, the rating agency insurers themselves take most seriously, currently rates The General at A+ (Superior), upgraded from A (Excellent) in February 2025 following the Sentry acquisition. CSAA Insurance Group — the largest of the three AAA underwriters above — carries an A (Excellent) rating from AM Best, reaffirmed in July 2025, a rating the company says it has held for more than 90 years. Because AAA is a federation, that specific rating applies to CSAA’s book of business, not necessarily to every AAA regional club; check your own club’s rating at AMBest.com before assuming it matches.

On customer experience, J.D. Power’s 2026 U.S. Auto Insurance Study (fielded April 2025–April 2026, released June 9, 2026) — which measures overall satisfaction with pricing, service, and problem resolution, not claims specifically — named two AAA-affiliated insurers as regional winners: CSAA Insurance Group topped the Southwest region for a third consecutive year (score 653), and The Auto Club Group topped Texas (673). Neither The General nor its parent, Permanent General Assurance, appears anywhere in that study’s regional rankings. Nonstandard insurers are commonly excluded from mainstream satisfaction benchmarks like this one, which is itself informative about how the two are positioned.

On the complaint side, The General’s three-year NAIC complaint index runs well above the industry benchmark of roughly 1.0 — a pattern consistent with a book of business made up of higher-risk drivers, who file more complex and more contested claims, but worth knowing going in. You can look up complaint history for any insurer, including your specific AAA club, at the NAIC’s Consumer Insurance Search.

The High-Risk Decision

For a driver with a clean record, both AAA and The General may be worth quoting. For a high-risk driver, availability can become the deciding factor.

The key is simple: AAA may offer a competitive quote, but The General is specifically positioned around drivers who have difficulty obtaining standard coverage.

SR-22 Filings

An SR-22 is not a type of insurance. It is a certificate your insurance company files with the state to show that you carry the required liability coverage. It can be required after certain serious driving offenses, such as a DUI, driving uninsured, or a license suspension.

The General explicitly provides SR-22 filings in most states. It says most drivers need the filing for at least three years, although the exact requirement depends on state law and the underlying offense.

The company does not publish a universal SR-22 filing fee. Instead, it says a filing fee or premium surcharge may apply and that the cost is included in the quote. The larger increase in your premium typically comes from the violation that caused the SR-22 requirement, rather than from the certificate itself.

AAA’s position is less straightforward because SR-22 availability depends on the regional club serving your state. If you need an SR-22, ask the AAA in your area before assuming it can provide the filing.

What Happens After a DUI

According to NerdWallet’s September 2026 filings, a 35-year-old with full coverage and a clean record pays around $4,631 a year with The General. Add a DUI, and that climbs to about $5,279 a year, roughly $440 a month. The national average with a DUI, by comparison, sits at $4,433 a year as of this piece’s publication date. That puts The General about 19% above the national average after a DUI.

The number shouldn’t be treated as a universal quote. Your age, location, vehicle, coverage limits, credit history, where permitted, and driving record can all change the price. But it demonstrates the basic trade-off: a nonstandard insurer may be willing to take a risk that a standard insurer will not, but that flexibility can come with a higher premium.

AAA may be cheaper if its regional club accepts you. A serious violation could also result in a decline instead of a high quote. That’s why comparing actual quotes is more useful than assuming one company will always be cheaper.

The Discount Matrix

Discounts are another area where comparisons can become misleading. The General identifies several discount opportunities, including multi-vehicle, safety features, prior insurance, good student status, defensive driving, safe driving, homeownership, and paying in full. However, it does not publish one universal percentage for these discounts and says eligibility varies by state.

AAA is harder to categorize because its clubs publish their own discounts. Some published AAA material also combines insurance discounts with broader membership perks, such as discounts on hotels, restaurants, attractions, and other purchases. Those benefits can have real value, but they are not the same thing as a discount on your auto insurance premium.

There is also an unusual AAA feature in California: the Auto Club’s policyholder Savings Dividend. The club says qualifying California auto policyholders who have completed their annual policy term have received an average of $232 per year over the last three years, although the dividend is discretionary rather than guaranteed.

The lesson is to compare the actual premium after discounts rather than counting how many discounts each brand advertises.

Why There’s No Single AAA Price

The biggest reason you may see wildly different AAA insurance prices online is that different AAA clubs can produce very different rates.

Insure.com reports an average annual full-coverage premium of $2,223 for the Auto Club group, based on a 40-year-old driver with good credit and a clean record. The same comparison lists $2,917 for Auto Club Enterprises — the Automobile Club of Southern California’s insurance arm, named in the federation table above — and $3,010 for CSAA Insurance Group. The profiles use 100/300/100 liability limits with $500 comprehensive and collision deductibles.

That’s roughly a 35% spread between the lowest and highest of those three AAA organizations. That is why saying “AAA costs $X per year” can be misleading. The club serving your location matters.

The General’s $4,631 clean-record figure from NerdWallet should also not be directly subtracted from those AAA numbers. The General figure comes from a different publisher and a 35-year-old driver profile, while the AAA figures above use a 40-year-old profile. The numbers are useful for illustrating how pricing varies, but they are not an apples-to-apples quote comparison.

AAA vs. The General: Which Should You Choose?

For high-risk drivers, The General is more likely to be the practical starting point, particularly if you need an SR-22 or have a driving history that makes standard insurers difficult to access. Its specialty is nonstandard auto coverage, and it explicitly offers SR-22 filings in most states.

AAA may be the better value if your regional club accepts your driving history and gives you a competitive quote. Its membership can also provide roadside assistance and other benefits that may be useful beyond the insurance policy itself.

The best choice, though, is the one that gives you the right coverage at a price you can afford. Don’t assume that a recognizable brand will be the cheapest or that a high-risk specialist will automatically be expensive. If you’re ready to see what you may qualify for, compare car insurance rates before choosing a policy.

FAQs About AAA and The General