Showing posts with label insurance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label insurance. Show all posts
Saturday, August 22, 2026
Wednesday, February 25, 2026
Under Florida law, vehicle owners must surrender the title of any car, truck, or SUV deemed a total loss within 72 hours.
"If you're dealing with an older car that's been in a minor crash, try to get an independent adjuster or auto body shop to assess the damage," said Michael Delong of the Consumer Federation of America. "Insurance companies often direct customers to their own preferred shops, which may be biased. Don't just take the insurance company's word for it."
Why is this an issue?
"A State Farm representative said that they sent our Lexus to the body shop and that the body mechanic himself was the one who determined it was a total loss. (Later) A State Farm supervisor confirmed that the agent who told us that was the party who determined it was a total loss."
The agent informed the couple that the repairs would exceed the car's value, estimating costs at over $12,000
Three months after the crash, State Farm finally agreed to an independent inspection, Haddon said. The new estimate came in at under $7,000.
So, State Farm lied. Imagine that, a for profit insurance company has employees that lie
Saturday, November 01, 2025
In a news release on Thursday, State Farm said its latest rate cut would bring down premiums for its customers by an average of 10%.
The rates would take effect on Jan. 2 for new policies and March 14 for renewal policies.
Florida law requires auto insurers to return excess profits if their underwriting gains exceed anticipated underwriting profit, plus 5% of earned premium, over three years.
The company announced the latest round of cuts a week after Gov. Ron DeSantis convened a news conference
Tuesday, June 03, 2025
Wednesday, May 07, 2025
California state's former insurance commissioner Ricardo Lara's taxpayer-funded travel across the world been the focus of an investigation to determine if they had a business purpose of the 'mission critical' trips
"If the insurance commissioner's office isn't able to provide answers as to the government purpose of this travel, I think it's absolutely appropriate for us to move forward requesting an audit so we can get answers for the taxpayers. Again this is about transparency -- it's about good government. It's something that Californians absolutely deserve," Assm. Wallis said.
ABC7 reported earlier this week that Commissioner Lara made at least 46 trips across the country and all over the world since 2019, from the U.K. to Singapore to Glasgow, and Dubai. Receipts show at least 11 fully taxpayer funded 'work-related' excursions to places like Bogota, Paris, and a $14,000 'mission-critical' request to go to Chile.
Many trips that caused him to miss a slew of key insurance hearings since 2019.
That was March 29th, 2025
Yesterday's new was:
Records justifying CA insurance commissioner's taxpayer-funded travel missing
Monday, March 17, 2025
Friday, March 14, 2025
Wednesday, January 15, 2025
Texas Attorney General filed a lawsuit Monday against Allstate over driver data privacy
Texas has sued insurance provider Allstate, alleging that the firm and its data broker subsidiary used data from apps like GasBuddy, Routely, and Life360 to quietly track drivers and adjust or cancel their policies.
Allstate and its subsidiary Arity did not get consent to collect, use and sell personal driving data from over 45 million consumers nationwide.
Allstate and Arity, a "mobility data and analytics" firm founded by Allstate in 2016, collected "trillions of miles worth of location data" from more than 45 million people, then used that data to adjust rates, according to Texas' lawsuit. This violates Texas' Data Privacy and Security Act, which requires "clear notice and informed consent" on how collected data can be used.
Tuesday, October 29, 2024
Saturday, October 26, 2024
why does car insurance cost so much? Here's one little reason, they are greedy and corrupt, and don't have to admit it, just pay the fine while hiking rates for failure to conduct reasonable investigations or providing adequate explanation for claims denial
State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. has paid back $5.2-million to Montana policyholders after completing a necessary 18,000 claim reviews as part of a settlement with the Montana Commissioner of Securities and Insurance (CSI).
The settlement, which was concluded in February 2024, addresses unfair claim practices discovered in a two-year review of the company's methods by the state regulator. The carrier was penalized $4 million as part of the settlement with the potential deduction of $2 million in lieu of compliance measures.
CSI alleged failure to conduct reasonable investigations or provide adequate explanation for claims denial in some instances.
The company has now made all its necessary updates in policy and training of its staff as of August, thus achieving a $1 million deduction. A follow-up exam to begin in 2025 will determine the fate of the second $1 million suspension according to CSI, contingent on an error rate below 8%.
“State Farm is cooperating with the Montana Commissioner of Securities & Insurance and actively working to resolve the issues identified in the market conduct examination report.”
The review covers accidents that occurred between November 2018 and April 2022, with State Farm having already paid an additional $1.18 million on 2,436 previously reviewed claims.
Montana Commissioner of Securities and Insurance Troy Downing applauded State Farm for diligently reviewing the claims and working with CSI to make good on the February 2024 consent agreement, ensuring the money is being returned to Montana consumers.
State Farm has the largest market share in Montana's private passenger auto insurance market with 22.63%, while Progressive Insurance Group follows with 19.96%.
The settlement, which was concluded in February 2024, addresses unfair claim practices discovered in a two-year review of the company's methods by the state regulator. The carrier was penalized $4 million as part of the settlement with the potential deduction of $2 million in lieu of compliance measures.
CSI alleged failure to conduct reasonable investigations or provide adequate explanation for claims denial in some instances.
The company has now made all its necessary updates in policy and training of its staff as of August, thus achieving a $1 million deduction. A follow-up exam to begin in 2025 will determine the fate of the second $1 million suspension according to CSI, contingent on an error rate below 8%.
“State Farm is cooperating with the Montana Commissioner of Securities & Insurance and actively working to resolve the issues identified in the market conduct examination report.”
The review covers accidents that occurred between November 2018 and April 2022, with State Farm having already paid an additional $1.18 million on 2,436 previously reviewed claims.
Montana Commissioner of Securities and Insurance Troy Downing applauded State Farm for diligently reviewing the claims and working with CSI to make good on the February 2024 consent agreement, ensuring the money is being returned to Montana consumers.
State Farm has the largest market share in Montana's private passenger auto insurance market with 22.63%, while Progressive Insurance Group follows with 19.96%.
Friday, August 23, 2024
Saturday, August 17, 2024
Friday, July 19, 2024
Monday, May 13, 2024
the Alameda California DA is suing multiple car insurance companies, alleging a conspiracy to create and use software to undervalue “totaled” vehicles and pay customers less than the actual value owed under the policies
The complaint further alleges that the software developers worked with these insurance companies to build the means to lower the reported “actual cash value” of the totaled vehicles and that the modified software is sold exclusively to automobile insurance companies.
After reporting the actual cash value, the insurance companies then allegedly made “lowball” settlement offers to their customers and “refused to negotiate in good faith,” relying on the “independent” software-generated actual cash value, the complaint said.
Once the insured owner accepts the lowball offer, the insurance companies can allegedly resell the same car at auction to minimize its losses further, the complaint said.
The complaint believes the scheme impacts seniors and veterans specifically,
After reporting the actual cash value, the insurance companies then allegedly made “lowball” settlement offers to their customers and “refused to negotiate in good faith,” relying on the “independent” software-generated actual cash value, the complaint said.
Once the insured owner accepts the lowball offer, the insurance companies can allegedly resell the same car at auction to minimize its losses further, the complaint said.
Thursday, April 11, 2024
new cars insurance costs are soaring, jumping 22% since this time last year, according to Reuters. That's the largest insurance cost increase since the 1970s. ( I just learned about this last week)
According to Insurify, insurance costs for new cars skyrocketed 24% in 2023 and, while that rise is projected to slow down in 2024, it's still going to increase by 7% this year.
An even more disturbing figure, per Insurify, is that increases to insurance rates outpaced wages by a staggering 638% last year.
https://www.thedrive.com/news/auto-insurance-costs-skyrocket-just-as-car-prices-start-settling-down
The insurance industry as a whole, which includes the health, property, and auto insurance companies, has reportedly spent $3.6 billion in lobbying since 1998, making the industry the top second spender between 1998 and 2023. The insurance industry was only beat by the pharmaceutical and health products sector which spent $5.9 billion during the same timeframe.
https://www.hemmings.com/stories/why-car-insurance-costs-are-skyrocketing/
I found that my insurance had grown 30% over the past two years from 750 every 6 months for my 2015 Veloster, to 1150. https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2024/03/heres-another-reason-people-say.html
That's 2300 a year for a car that's possibly worth only 7k.
Stupid, right? So, I called up Allstate to ask about lowering my maxed out coverage (100 300 to 50 100) and they stated that the difference would be 90 dollars less for bare bones insurance.
So why bother lowering the coverage when you save no real actual money?
Wednesday, March 13, 2024
If you have a newish GM car, with Onstar, be on notice, it's probably sharing your driving stats with your insurance company, and that might result in your insurance getting more expensive
"Upon consent and enrollment in OnStar Smart Driver, depending on vehicle capability, the vehicle will collect specific driving behavior data, including hard braking events, hard acceleration events, speeds over 80 miles per hour, average speed, late-night driving, when a trip occurs and the number of miles driven."
In recent years, insurance companies have offered incentives to people who install dongles in their cars or download smartphone apps that monitor their driving, including how much they drive, how fast they take corners, how hard they hit the brakes and whether they speed.
Car companies are collecting information directly from internet-connected vehicles for use by the insurance industry.
Modern cars are internet-enabled, allowing access to services like navigation, roadside assistance and car apps that drivers can connect to their vehicles to locate them or unlock them remotely. In recent years, automakers, including G.M., Honda, Kia and Hyundai, have started offering optional features in their connected-car apps that rate people’s driving.
After LexisNexis and Verisk get data from consumers’ cars, they sell information about how people are driving to insurance companies. To access it, the insurance companies must get consent from the drivers — say, when they go out shopping for car insurance and sign off on boilerplate language that gives insurance companies the right to pull third-party reports. (Insurance companies commonly ask for access to a consumer’s credit or risk reports, though they are barred from doing so in California, Massachusetts, Michigan and Hawaii.)
An employee familiar with G.M.’s Smart Driver said the company’s annual revenue from the program is in the low millions of dollars.
An employee familiar with G.M.’s Smart Driver said the company’s annual revenue from the program is in the low millions of dollars.
Last month, Senator Edward Markey of Massachusetts urged the Federal Trade Commission to investigate.
“The ‘internet of things’ is really intruding into the lives of all Americans,” Senator Markey said in an interview. “If there is now a collusion between automakers and insurance companies using data collected from an unknowing car owner that then raises their insurance rates, that’s, from my perspective, a potential per se violation of Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act.”
“The ‘internet of things’ is really intruding into the lives of all Americans,” Senator Markey said in an interview. “If there is now a collusion between automakers and insurance companies using data collected from an unknowing car owner that then raises their insurance rates, that’s, from my perspective, a potential per se violation of Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act.”
Omri Ben-Shahar, a law professor at the University of Chicago, said by “stealth enrollment” in programs with “surprising and potentially injurious” data collection there is no public safety benefit if people don’t know that how they drive will affect how much they pay for insurance.
Thursday, September 28, 2023
What's the right thing to do when you see a kitten or puppy on a road, or a bridge? Does insurance cover the smashed up car of the person that panic stopped to rescue it? Or does car insurance not cover stopping in the lane, where there is no shoulder, and morons driving into it because they don't know how to use their brakes?
Somebody driving across the bridge spotted a flash of orange fur on Tuesday morning, and the animal lover got out to save the 10 week old kitten, according to the Coronado Police Department.
While the fearless animal lover was attempting the rescue, however, their car was hit from behind by a red sedan, that was hit by another car
update Oct 6th, he's been adopted https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/public-safety/story/2023-10-03/kitten-rescued-from-san-diego-coronado-bridge-adopted
Tuesday, September 19, 2023
according to a report by J.D. Power, there has been a staggering increase in car owners without auto insurance.
Premiums have seen an increase in cost in the last two years. In 2022, they had risen 7.9%, and in 2023 they had risen another 5.9%.
States like South Dakota and New Hampshire have seen an increase in rates greater than 80% of uninsured drivers.
With inflation and rising loss ratios, unhappy customers exiting out of their insurance policies was an unavoidable issue facing many auto insurance companies. Many found that the current premiums were not enough to pay for these rising claims costs, with companies spending 12% more on claims than all the money that they collected in premiums in 2022. This was the second year in a row that these companies have had to run at a deficit.
In addition, customers with clean driving records who have not had any accidents will view these increased costs as unfair rate hikes.
Tuesday, August 29, 2023
Farmers Insurance laid off 11% of its workforce
In recent months, Farmers, Allstate and State Farm have pulled back on property insurance in states like Florida and California.
As these regions become increasingly susceptible to natural disasters, from hurricanes to wildfires, in the era of climate change, the insurers have cited the need to reduce risk exposure and operating costs — but critics have accused the companies of exacerbating the cost-of-living crisis.
Monday’s layoff announcement from Farmers follows mass job cuts seen at T-Mobile, Google, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, Disney park employees, newspapers and some higher education jobs.
Wednesday, November 16, 2022
Hagerty actually has "get your cars the hell out of a hurricane path" insurance. But then, rich people (only type of idiot I've heard of that collect these to flip for investment instead of driving them) don't rely on insurance to pay for moving their car collection away from hurricanes
Hagerty's Evacuation Expense Coverage: https://www.hagerty.com/insurance/classic-car-insurance/additional-coverages/evacuation-expense-coverage
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