Woman issues warning after car insurance company tries to add daughter to policy

XEINA — Kim Thie was shocked when she opened a letter from her car insurance company and saw her premium would be going up.

“It’s between $1,500 and $1,700 every six months, and that just isn’t feasible on our income,” Thie said.

She said her 23-year-old daughter who lives with her just got her license in May and her insurance company just let Thie know they’d be adding her daughter to Kim’s policy.

But her daughter has her own car and her own policy with a different carrier.

Fortunately, Thie was able to catch this before her premium was changed.

>> RELATED: Woman sees car insurance rate increase after company adds people without permission

Thie reached out to News Center 7 after a report our sister station KIRO TV about a woman in a similar situation.

“It got me thinking that I received a letter from my Liberty Mutual a couple of days beforehand,” she said.

The letter let Thie know about the upcoming change if she didn’t take action.

“That’s the default in your contract. It’s actually in the contract,” Michael Marchand, Deputy Commissioner, Washington State Office of the Insurance Commissioner said.

News Center 7 talked to Marchand in our original report.

“The way the policy is written, it stipulates that it is inclusive of anyone who is driver-aged in the household,” Marchand said.

Thie also says she’s upset about how the insurance company told her they got the personal information for her daughter.

“She said that they researched through the Ohio Department of Motor Vehicles, and I’ve seen that she is a licensed driver that lives in my household,” she said.

That’s also a standard practice by insurance companies.

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Thie said to check your bill and make sure everything lines up so you’re not paying for coverage you don’t need.

“People need to know about this,” she said.

News Center 7 reached out to Liberty Mutual who responded “We do not publicly discuss the details of our customers’ policies.”

They said their consumer affairs team would look into Thie’s policy and then contact her directly with any concerns.

As of Aug. 28 Thie said new documents from her insurance company do not have her daughter on her policy.

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