Transamerica Life Insurance Company Review

Transamerica Life Insurance Company at a Glance

Transamerica Pros: More than a century’s worth of experience in the insurance industry. Offers several forms of life insurance, plus retirement solutions, mutual funds, and annuities. High ratings through A.M. Best and the BBB. Good financial strength.

Transamerica Cons: Not BBB accredited. Very high volume of complaints filed against the carrier through the BBB. Large volume of dismal customer feedback. Claims information not available through website. Claims response time frame promise not provided. Official website could use an update. No 24/7 phone claims reporting. Limited coverage options.

What Type of Insurance Does Transamerica Offer?

Transamerica is a specialized insurance company, with a focus on life insurance for individuals and employees. Their product and service offerings include:

Your independent insurance agent can help you find more information about the coverages offered by Transamerica, and help you decide if this insurance company is right for you.

What to Know about Transamerica

Transamerica Life Insurance Company was founded in 1904, giving the carrier more than a century’s worth of experience in the insurance industry. The carrier’s original mission was to make financial services available to everyone in San Francisco, California. Today the insurance company offers coverage across the country and now provides life insurance solutions as well as retirement planning, annuities, employee benefits, and more.

Transamerica’s parent company is the Aegon Group, which is a leading provider of life insurance globally. Aegon currently works with more than 29 million customers across the world. Transamerica’s LinkedIn profile displays that more than 14,000 of the insurance company’s employees can be found on the social media platform. A large network of agents allows Transamerica to deliver coverage to insurance customers in need all over the map.

Thanks to its long-standing history and impressive size, Transamerica has earned a reputation as a stable insurance company with a positive outlook for the future. A.M. Best, the leading global credit rating agency monitoring the insurance industry, gives Transamerica an “A” rating, indicating the carrier is an excellent choice for insurance customers. High ratings from A.M. Best assure customers that Transamerica is capable of offering guaranteed, secure coverage from a financially sound carrier.

Established in 1899, A.M. Best is one of the oldest rating companies in the world. Reviews from A.M. Best indicate an insurance company’s financial strength and creditworthiness, and are based on comprehensive evaluations of the company’s operating performance, business profile, and balance sheet. For customers who aren’t as familiar with insurance companies’ respective reputations, A.M. Best’s ratings system allows them to make an informed decision about who they can trust to meet their needs in the short term, and also who will remain a strong, financially sound company in the long term.

What Discounts Does Transamerica Offer?

While Transamerica does not make information about their discounts readily available, there are several standard discounts commonly offered by many life insurance companies today. These discounts include:

An independent insurance agent can provide more exact discount information and premium quotes for coverage through Transamerica. When it comes to coverage, independent insurance agents work hard to help to get you the most bang out of your buck.

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Transamerica Customer Service

Transamerica does not offer 24/7 phone claims reporting. The carrier provides the following customer service options:

The best way to ensure a smooth customer service experience is to work with an independent insurance agent. Independent insurance agents can help handle claims and other concerns for you, so you can relax and enjoy your coverage.

Transamerica FAQ

What is Transamerica's average claim response time frame?

Transamerica offers claims reporting through a couple of mediums. However, the insurance company does not provide an official claims response time frame promise.

What is Transamerica's customer service availability?

Transamerica allows customers to file claims at restricted hours over the phone or at any time online or through email, fax, or regular mail. Their hotline for customer service inquiries is available at restricted hours, Monday through Friday. The carrier does have a social media presence on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, which makes them more accessible to customers.

What is Transamerica's claims process?

Transamerica does not provide 24/7 claims reporting over the phone. Additionally, the insurance company does not detail their claims process on their official website or social media platforms. If customers have questions about filing or the claims process itself, they can contact the carrier via phone or email, or get in touch with their agent.

Does Transamerica create a user-friendly experience for customers?

Transamerica’s official website is just decent. It’s difficult to find any information about claims, which could be frustrating for many customers. The carrier’s contact page also first encourages a general inquiry form to be filled out, rather than just stating their contact number and availability. Further, the website is simply missing certain details such as a claims process and claims response time frame. The insurance company also does not offer 24/7 claims reporting via phone. Overall, Transamerica falls a bit short in terms of user-friendliness.

Does Transamerica have good life insurance?

Transamerica focuses its efforts on life insurance. Their options for life insurance coverage include:

• Whole life insurance
• Universal life insurance
• Term life insurance
• Index universal life insurance
• Final expense life insurance

Transamerica also offers annuities and other retirement planning options. Your independent insurance agent can help you find out even more about the insurance company’s life insurance coverage and their other products and services offered.

Is Transamerica a good insurance company?

Transamerica has been around for more than a century now. The carrier has been highly rated by both A.M. Best and the BBB, however they have had a huge volume of complaints filed against them through the latter organization in the past three years. The insurance company does not offer 24/7 phone claims reporting. Customer feedback also appears to be largely negative. Overall, we’re hesitant to call Transamerica a good insurance company.

Transamerica Customer Reviews

Consumer Affairs

“My mother died about eight years ago and she had several policies with Transamerica and other companies. This is the only company that would not pay out the money that she paid religiously in an event of her demise. Whatever paperwork I produced it wasn't enough. I am her only heir, only son! It was hard losing my mother and this trash company made it worse. I am going to make it my mission to expose these corporate crooks until either I am paid what's owed or a class action suit. A person would have to be brain dead or ignorant to do business with this shady company.”

Consumer Affairs

“Poor customer service. Getting the run around on surrendering my mother's life policy. Going on month three now. Very disappointed. They lose documents that have been sent by fax with a confirmation of receipt. I have been given varying instructions from different personnel, they make up processes and procedures as they go, depending on how they feel that day. Give them all they ask for and they will find another reason to put you through the run-around.”

Better Business Bureau

“This might be the worst company ever. Their business practices are unethical and totally unacceptable. They will draft a payment right on time and then wait six to nine weeks to reimburse you your money all the while collecting interest on your money. Totally ridiculous, despicable, and unethical. Better Business Bureau should give them an F. NEVER USE THIS UNETHICAL COMPANY!”

Better Business Bureau

“Pure greed. For all their premium paying clients whose term policies eventually expire they provide zero service of any value. After term expired, they switched us over to a new tier with premium 5x of the previous amount. No effort to reach out and propose anything, a new policy, new product, new service, something that would fit us. After 20 years of premium payments - nothing, only going for the least-effort solution: charge more, hope customer won't bother to cancel. They don't even have ability to do paperless statements. All these years they have been mailing paper statements to us. That's wasteful use of our money. When you call them, the phone-based customer service does not know what is on your on-line profile. I had to spell my email address to them, and they still made a mistake and emailed forms to a wrong address. My email address is on my online profile with them, but ‘it's a different department,’ I was told.”

Yelp

“I received the worst customer assistance [. . .] When I asked about withdraw funds two weeks ago they stated they would follow up with me. It’s two weeks later and they are now stating that my funds are on hold because they messed up my paperwork last week. I explained I needed money for hardship. They stated, ‘Oh well our process doesn't allow that.’ How is it possible for them to hold my funds? Plus the attitude from the associate was horrible. I will never use them for retirement again.”

TrustedChoice.com's Final Review

We award Transamerica Life Insurance Company a final rating of 1 out of 5 stars. Even though the insurance company has more than a century’s worth of experience under their belt now, it doesn’t seem to matter based on their feedback. High ratings for financial strength from companies such as A.M. Best and the BBB seem to be their only positive feedback. Transamerica also has had 334 complaints closed through the BBB in the past three years, which is very high, and concerning. Customer feedback is largely negative, to the point that it’s virtually impossible to find a glowing review of the carrier anywhere. More disturbing, however, is that many customers seem to report shady business practices, and experiences of being given “the runaround.” Our main concern with any insurance provider is whether or not they deliver on their coverage and service promises to their customers, and it seems that Transamerica fails to do so. All of this combined with an official website that leaves much to be desired and lack of 24/7 phone claims reporting doesn’t give us many positive things to say about the carrier. So, our recommendation, if you’re in the need for life insurance or retirement solutions, is to work together with your independent insurance agent to survey all your other options for trusted insurance companies, and skip looking into Transamerica altogether.