Automobile insurance coverage firms have been placing prospects by way of it recently. Ever growing prices of doing enterprise have induced insurance coverage firms to improve charges or outright make it onerous to get coated. Others are taking issues a bit additional to get extra money out of consumers. Take Progressive, who added a driver to a person’s insurance coverage who he says doesn’t exist, which additionally elevated his premium.
CBS Information reported on the unusual scenario involving 31-year-old Ed Fan out of Denver, Colorado. Fan advised CBS he’s single, lives alone and is the one individual that drives his 2019 Jeep Wrangler. But his insurance coverage provider Progressive lately added one other, unknown driver to his coverage, which he says elevated his six-month premium by $312.
“I do not know” who the supposed new driver was, mentioned Fan. “I’m the one driver on my car,” he mentioned.
He repeatedly known as and emailed Progressive, attempting to get them to take away the costs — and the unknown particular person — from his auto insurance coverage coverage.
“It does seem the burden falls on me to show this particular person doesn’t exist and isn’t associated to me or drives my car,” mentioned Fan, who mentioned he was caught off guard by Progressive’s assertions that he needed to pay for an additional licensed driver in his residence, driving his Jeep.
“I didn’t even know they might to that,” he mentioned.
Fan isn’t alone. CBS Information says on-line boards produce other Progressive prospects complaining about the identical factor occurring to them: regardless of being the one driver on their insurance policies, Progressive added a random driver, growing their premium. CBS says one lady wrote that Progressive had added her “ex husband, my brother, my God daughter and son” to her coverage regardless of her not having had contact with any of them for over a 12 months. The corporate added a $1,700 price to her coverage in consequence.
A Reddit publish from 2022 detailed one other Progressive insurance coverage buyer asking for recommendation after the corporate added two drivers to their coverage, one in every of which was 16 and drove up their premium $300. One of many replies from a former USAA insurance coverage agent defined that what’s occurring known as “driver discovery.” From Reddit:
So what Progressive did known as “Driver discovery” Insurance coverage firms examine public information once in a while to see if there are a number of folks (of driving age) at an deal with, and usually they ship you a letter stating that since they found a possible driver at your deal with, they might have so as to add them to your coverage, until you name and clarify why you haven’t added them.
Principally, because the New York state insurance coverage dealer Bruce Swicker defined to CBS, insurance coverage firms are assuming issues till you clarify in any other case. “If they’re within the family, the idea is that sooner or later since they’ve entry to the car that they might very properly drive it.” Individuals transfer or info modifications and lots of usually overlook to replace their insurance coverage. This causes what’s recognized within the business as “premium leakage,” which is seemingly an enormous downside for the business, costing over $10 billion yearly.
As for Fan, it took weeks of forwards and backwards and a grievance filed with Colorado’s insurance coverage regulators, however Progressive lastly eliminated the unknown driver and the premium cost. Fan nonetheless needed to signal a doc saying that he didn’t know the one that they mentioned lived with him. And the corporate wasn’t precisely forthcoming with how they obtained the data on this different “driver.” CBS Information says the corporate didn’t say the place they obtained the information from nor did they deal with different situations of this occurring.
…in an announcement to CBS Information Colorado, Progressive didn’t specify the place their details about a ‘hidden driver’ in Fan’s home got here from or why that identify was added to his coverage. The corporate didn’t deal with different, related complaints CBS Information Colorado shared with the corporate. Ron Davis, with Progressive Insurance coverage’s public relations division, as an alternative reiterated the businesses’ procedures for insurance coverage candidates.
“…We additionally repeatedly evaluation info from third-party sources about people who presumably reside within the family and needs to be added to energetic insurance policies,” wrote Davis. “When info is discovered, we contact the policyholder to confirm the data. Figuring out potential lacking driving-age family members/drivers and dealing with the shopper is essential.”
