By Lyle Adriano, INSURANCE BUSINESS AMERICA
August 11, 2022
https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com/us/news/breaking-news/csaa-faces-l…
A lawsuit filed in Alameda County Superior Court claims that CSAA – California’s seventh-largest auto insurance company – overcharged customers during the COVID-19 pandemic by at least $150 million.
By Renée Kiriluk-Hill, BESTWIRE
August 10. 2022
https://news.ambest.com/NewsContent.aspx?&refnum=243607
California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara is pumping the brakes on private passenger auto rate hike requests from carriers, including Geico, which he said overcharged policyholders during COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns, according to spokesperson Gabriel Sanchez.
Los Angeles, CA – Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara should reject GEICO’s proposed $268 million auto insurance rate hike and its job- and education-based discriminatory rating system, wrote Consumer Watchdog in a petition filed with the California Department of Insurance (CDI) yesterday.
By Lurah Lowery, REPAIRER DRIVEN NEWS
August 4, 2022
https://www.repairerdrivennews.com/2022/08/04/as-auto-insurance-rates-i…
There have been recent legislative and nonprofit actions announced in California and Illinois regarding high auto insurance rates as news of June rate increases by GEICO and State Farm are just a couple of many that don’t seem to be going away any time soon.
By Carolyn Said, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
August 2, 2022
GEICO, the nation's second-largest auto insurer, is limiting its physical presence in California and eliminating telephone sales of new policies here.
Los Angeles, CA – Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara should reject the Interinsurance Exchange of the Automobile Club’s (“Auto Club”) proposed $202 million auto insurance rate hike and its job- and education-based discriminatory rating system under which working-class Californians pay up to 9% higher premiums, wrote Consumer Watchdog in a petition filed with the California Department of Insurance (CDI) today.
By Marisa Endicott, SANTA ROSA PRESS DEMOCRAT
July 24, 2022
https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/your-job-and-education-could…
I went online last week to get a car insurance quote from Mercury Insurance. I went through the process twice, once listing my occupation as engineer.
By Steve Tengler, FORBES
May 17, 2022
https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevetengler/2022/05/17/privacy-battle-ove…
So goes California, and so typically goes the country. And the North American automotive industry along with it.
That's possibly the case with California and its battle over data.
A new report details the privacy problems posed for consumers from connected cars and points to new rules to be developed in California as a potential model across the country, if the rules can wit
Case Update: Allstate Price Optimization
Allstate Faces a California Hearing in May on an Estimated $1 Billion in Auto Insurance Overcharges
By Bob Egelko, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
February 9, 2022
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/State-Farm-doesn-t-have-to-…
State Farm Insurance will not have to refund $100 million to homeowners after the state Supreme Court denied appeals Wednesday by California's insurance commissioner and a consumer organization, which both contended the customers had been overcharged.
By Lyle Adriano, INSURANCE BUSINESS MAGAZINE
February 3, 2022
https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com/us/news/breaking-news/allstate-fin…
Allstate Insurance’s results for Q4 2021 marked the second straight quarter that the insurer missed estimates – as record inflation drives up the costs of both insuring and repairing vehicles.
Los Angeles, CA – Consumer Watchdog joined 39 other public interest organizations in comments calling on the Federal Insurance Office to spotlight how the insurance industry contributes to climate change by insuring fossil fuel projects. A 2019 petition on this topic to California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara was denied.
By Don Thompson, ASSOCIATED PRESS
November 3, 2021
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Consumer advocates said Tuesday that they will ask the California Supreme Court to overturn an appeals court ruling they said undermines the state's ability to order billions of dollars in insurance company refunds.
By Frank Klimko, BESTWEEK
November 3, 2021
A California appeals court ruled in favor of State Farm General Insurance Co., rejecting the authority of the state insurance commissioner in ordering the carrier to reduce dwelling insurance rates by 7% that could have meant refunds of $100 million.
By Bob Egelko, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
November 3, 2021
A state appeals court says California's insurance commissioner wrongly ordered State Farm to cut homeowners' rates by 7% in 2016 and should not have told the company to pay $100 million in refunds to its policyholders.
San Diego, CA – The Insurance Commissioner cannot force insurance companies to repay consumers when they charge excessive rates, the state Court of Appeal in San Diego ruled late Friday afternoon.
By Staff Reporters, REPAIR DRIVEN NEWS
September 6, 2021
https://www.repairerdrivennews.com/2021/09/06/auto-insurers-scored-wind…
Consumer groups analyzing insurers’ underwriting performance from 2020 have concluded that auto insurers reaped billions of dollars in excess profits due to reduced accidents during the lockdowns, and say consumers are still owed billions in additional refunds.
Los Angeles, CA -- While the vast majority of Californians drove far less last year, most California insurance companies continued to charge pre-pandemic auto insurance rates, reaping a windfall of about $5.5 billion, according to an analysis by Consumer Watchdog. Newly published 2020 data show that accident claims plummeted as cars idled in driveways, but insurance companies failed to reduce rates accordingly.
Sacramento, CA – Insurance companies’ illegal use of job and education level to price auto insurance discriminates against lower income drivers and communities of color and must end, Consumer Watchdog will testify at a California Department of Insurance workshop this afternoon.
Sacramento, CA -- Draft regulations released by the Department of Insurance Thursday move California one step closer to stopping auto insurance discrimination that has allowed insurers to overcharge lower income and minority drivers for decades, said Consumer Watchdog. The rules follow a petition submitted by Consumer Watchdog and ten civil rights and community groups to ban the use of job and education level in auto insurance rating.
By Daniel Wilson, LAW360
February 5, 2021
A pair of veterans have hit USAA with a putative class action in California federal court alleging the insurer, which only insures military members, veterans and their families, discriminates against enlisted service members by charging them higher rates than officers.
Los Angeles, CA -- Consumer Watchdog has asked the Insurance Commissioner to block proposed hikes in the price of auto insurance sold to low income motorists in a number of California counties.
Los Angeles, CA – Consumer Watchdog today called on Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara to suspend all increases in auto insurance rates through September 1, or the termination of shelter-in-place restrictions, whichever comes later.
Los Angeles, CA – Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara should reject Farmers Insurance Group’s proposed 6.5–6.9% auto insurance rate increases and its 3-tiered rating system based on occupation under which first responders and essential workers on the front lines of the battle against COVID-19 pay higher rates, wrote Consumer Watchdog in a letter to the Commissioner today. Farmers’ request comes as a deadly pandemic sweeps California, for which virtually every California business has been ordered to close and residents ordered to stay home.
Sacramento, CA -- The American Property Casualty Insurance Association (APCIA) has launched a deceptive website, at www.protectourdiscounts.org, and advertising campaign to protect insurers’ ability to continue overcharging lower income and minority drivers for their auto insurance.
In comments submitted on proposed regulations Consumer Watchdog said rule could ban discrimination based on drivers’ occupation and education level; called for key amendments to ensure discrimination based on race and socioeconomic status ends.
Los Angeles, CA – Consumer Watchdog said in a letter today that Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara should reject a proposed 5% auto insurance rate increase by Mercury Insurance Company that discriminates against lower income, less-educated drivers. |
Safe, loyal drivers aren't always rewarded with cheaper rates.
By Kayda Norman, NERDWALLET
January 21, 2010
https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/insurance/price-optimization/
You expect your car insurance rates to increase after you buy a new vehicle, cause a crash or add a young driver to your policy. But some insurers jack up prices based on seemingly unrelated data — like your magazine subscriptions or what groceries you buy.
Los Angeles, CA – “A year ago, Consumer Watchdog and organizations representing consumers, low-income workers and communities of color petitioned Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara to ban the use of occupation and education to set auto insurance premiums. These unfair surcharges on lower-income and less-educated drivers drive up the cost of insurance for people who can least afford it.
Los Angeles, CA – The nonprofit group Consumer Watchdog has issued a report, with the help of car industry technologists, that finds all the top 2020 cars have Internet connections to safety critical systems that leave them vulnerable to fleet wide hacks.
The group and experts warn that a fleet wide hack at rush-hour could result in a 9-11 scale catastrophe with approximately 3,000 deaths.
Los Angeles, CA -- Farmers Insurance systematically overcharged its most loyal, longtime California customers from 2008 to 2018, according to evidence uncovered as part of an investigation ordered by the California Insurance Commissioner. Now, with a public hearing scheduled for June and facing millions of dollars in civil damages and penalties, Farmers and its affiliate, Mid-Century Insurance, are urging a Los Angeles Superior Court to stop the agency’s investigation.
Statement of Consumer Watchdog: “Thirty days ago, Consumer Watchdog and ten other organizations petitioned Insurance Commissioner Riccardo Lara to stop insurance companies’ discrimination against low-income drivers and communities of color based on their education or occupation.
Los Angeles, CA – Community organizations representing consumers, low-income workers and communities of color petitioned Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara today to ban the use of occupation and education to set auto insurance premiums. Many California auto insurance companies charge lower-income and less-educated drivers up to 15% more in order to give discounts to doctors, lawyers, other well-paying professions, and drivers with college degrees. The surcharge is illegal under California’s insurance reform law, Proposition 103.
Los Angeles, CA – California auto insurers may no longer charge drivers more based on their gender under new rules just issued by the California Department of Insurance.
The rules bring auto insurance prices into line with the provisions of voter-approved Proposition 103 that prohibit unfair and discriminatory pricing and require rates to be based primarily on a person’s driving record and experience, not personal characteristics.
Los Angeles, CA– Today the Consumer Federation of America reports that Proposition 103, the insurance reform law passed by California voters on November 8, 1988, has saved drivers $154 billion on their auto insurance.
SACRAMENTO, CA – Consumer Watchdog urged Assembly member Autumn Burke (D-Los Angeles) to withdraw legislation backed by State Farm Insurance because it “will irreparably harm policyholders who seek to repair their vehicles financially and, potentially, cost many consumers their safety, and even their lives.”
Santa Monica, CA -- Acting in response to an investigative report by journalists at ProPublica, the California Department of Insurance has ordered two insurance companies – Nationwide and USAA – to not charge motorists in minority neighborhoods more than motorists with similar risk profiles who live in predominantly white neighborhoods. California voters banned zip code-based insurance pricing when they passed Proposition 103 to prevent auto insurers from discriminating against minority drivers.