Is Progressive The Worst Insurance Company for Maryland Drivers?

Is Progressive the Worst Insurance Company in Maryland?

I get asked one question more than almost any other: “Is this insurance company any good?” People want a straight answer, and honestly, it’s a hard one to give, it’s subjective, and I’m not in the business of handing out plaques to insurers who buy ad space. But from one very specific vantage point, the one where I’m advocating for injured clients trying to get fairly compensated, I can tell you this: if I made a list of the worst insurance companies to be covered by in the state of Maryland, Progressive would be at or near the top. And it’s gotten worse over the years, not better.

I could spend a month breaking down every way Progressive has earned that spot. For today, here’s a quick look at three patterns we keep running into.

Nickel-and-Diming the Smaller Cases

For years, Progressive’s playbook on relatively minor accidents has been to lowball. If it’s a soft tissue injury case, no broken bones, no surgery, no permanent disfigurement, they’ll try to settle it for as little as possible. To be clear, those smaller cases are still very much part of what my office handles. We’ve settled cases worth a few thousand dollars and cases worth multiple millions, and the size of the case shouldn’t determine whether you get help navigating it.

When Progressive Stalls on the Serious Cases Too

What’s changed recently is how Progressive handles the bigger, near-catastrophic claims. It used to be that if a case warranted the policy limits, Progressive would offer them and move on. That’s not happening the way it used to.

A few months ago, I resolved a case for a client with multiple broken bones and lacerations requiring stitches. Fracture cases like this don’t rack up huge medical bills the way surgery or ongoing physical therapy does, in fact, aggressive physical therapy is often the worst thing you can do with a fresh fracture. You go to an orthopedist, get casted or wrapped, and get monitored. So my client’s bills came in around $15,000 to $20,000. Progressive’s opening offer to resolve the case? $50,000 to $60,000.

That offer wasn’t close. Taken to trial, this case was worth $200,000 to $300,000 easily, and digging further into it, I wouldn’t have been surprised to see a verdict around half a million dollars. But as I talk about often, winning a verdict and collecting on it are two different things, collection stops where the insurance policy’s limits stop. We did the asset checks. There wasn’t more money to go after. So a bigger verdict wouldn’t have meant more money for my client; it just would have cost time.

We pushed. We filed the lawsuit, fronting the extra cost that comes out of a client’s eventual settlement. We hired a process server and got Progressive’s driver served immediately. That’s when I got the call: Progressive was ready to offer the full policy limits. We didn’t have much choice but to accept, since there were no other assets to pursue. But that meant an extra month of unnecessary stress for my client, and the case still resolved for less than half of what it was actually worth, simply because that’s all the coverage available was.

The Hidden “Guest Personal Injury Protection” Waiver

This is the one that bothers me most, and it’s something I’m seeing specifically on Progressive policies in Maryland. It’s called “Guest Personal Injury Protection,” and it is one of the most deceptively named coverages I’ve come across on a declarations page.

Here’s how it looks at first glance: a line item labeled “Guest Personal Injury Protection,” a $2,500 limit, and a $47 premium next to it. Anyone scanning their policy would reasonably assume: I have PIP coverage. I’m paying for it right there.

Except that’s not what it does. “Guest PIP” isn’t protection for you, it’s a waiver. If you have this coverage, it means you (the named insured) and any household family members age 16 or older have waived your own PIP coverage. What Progressive will pay, up to that $2,500 limit, is PIP benefits to a passenger riding in your car who did not waive PIP on their own separate policy. It does not pay out for you. It does not pay out for your spouse, your teenage driver, or anyone else in your household 16 or up.

So if you’re in a wreck and you assumed you had PIP because you’re paying $47 a year for something labeled “Personal Injury Protection,” you may find out at the worst possible moment that you have zero PIP coverage for yourself or your family. This is exactly the kind of thing I look for when someone sends me their policy for a free review, and it’s exactly the kind of thing that’s easy to miss unless you know to look for it.

Progressive also has a pattern of denying coverage on claims where their policyholder is the at-fault driver, denials that often aren’t valid and require us to file suit before they’ll pay what’s actually owed. That’s a topic for its own episode, but it’s part of the same picture: dealing with Progressive tends to mean more friction, more delay, and more heartache for the person who’s already hurt.

The 2026 Edition of Your Insurance Policy Sucks Is Almost Here

My book, Your Insurance Policy Sucks, is in its final round of editing, and we’re targeting a release in mid-October to early November 2026. This edition includes a brand-new chapter: “Your Insurance Policy Sucks. Why You’ll Eventually Regret It, How to Fix It Before It’s Too Late.” If you request a free policy review before the book comes out, you’ll get a copy mailed to you at no cost the moment it’s released, I cover the cost of the book and the postage. You just have to be insured here in Maryland.

Get a Free Auto Insurance Policy Review

You don’t have to guess whether your policy has a waiver like the one above buried in it. Send me your policy at marylandinsurancebook.com and I’ll personally review it, no sales pitch, just a second set of eyes looking specifically for the traps insurance companies build into these policies. It’s a free service I’ve offered for years and will keep offering.

Coming Up on the Podcast

In an upcoming episode, we’ll dig deeper into the coverage denials we see from Progressive and other insurers when it comes to claims against their policyholders, why so many of those denials don’t hold up, and what it actually takes to get them reversed.

Contact Our Personal Injury Lawyers Today

If you’re insured by Progressive, or you’ve been hurt by a driver who is, it’s worth having someone in your corner who knows where these companies cut corners. Contact Bowers Law today, a consultation is free, with no obligation.