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

TACOMA, WA — A woman gets a $2,000 increase in her car insurance and does not know why.

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As reported Monday on News Center 7 Daybreak, it happened because of a practice used by insurance companies to add children of driving age to parents’ policies, even if they do not have a driver’s license.

Jesse Jones from our sister KIRO TV in Seattle says consumers better check their insurance premiums before paying them.

Auto insurance is expensive, but what Jennifer Berg saw on her premium was crazy.

“How much did your insurance go up because of that?” he asked her.

“Over $2,000,” answered Berg.

Jones reports it went up that high because her two boys, ages 21 and 17, were added to her policy. But there is a problem.

“One is 21 years old and doesn’t live here. And the other one is 17, does not have a permit, doesn’t want to take driver’s ed, doesn’t want to get a driver’s license until he doesn’t have to take driver’s ed,” she said.

Jones spoke with Michael Marchand, the Deputy Commissioner for the Officer of the Insurance Commissioner.

“So even if you don’t know if a kid has a driver’s license or not, they still get added to the policy?” he asked.

“That’s the default in your contract. It’s actually in the contract. I didn’t know that until I started reading my insurance contract,” Marchand explained. “The way the policy is written, it stipulates that it is inclusive of anyone who is driver-age in the household. It doesn’t mean that they actually have a license. It’s just that they have the ability to drive. Regardless of the policy, it’s just based on their age.”

Jones reports what also has Berg upset is how the insurance companies got the personal information on her kids in the first place.

“In the chat, they said that they run reports through the United States Postal Service and, the Department of Motor Vehicles,” she said. “So, I guess they’re running reports now and then just adding people willy-nilly without even telling you.”

The company places the onus on the consumer to square up any mistakes or pay more than they should.

“It’s frustrating,” said Berg.

Jones reached out to Progressive Insurance, Jennifer’s insurer, who said he could not publicly discuss the details policy.

But added, “I would encourage Ms. Berg to contact us directly to assist with making any changes to her policy or to address any questions or concerns she may have.”

Berg told Jones that she tried that.

“No. No, he refused to take them off. So, I was made to contact you. You posted on Facebook to get advice and feedback,” she said.

When Jones checked Berg’s documents, he saw that the company notified her about the boys. The issue there is that the letter has the same date as the bill.

“You should be getting that with a little more lead time. Any consumer should be getting that with more lead time,” said Marchand.

KIRO TV wrote back to Progressive and asked about lead time and they did not respond.

“You don’t even give the consumer a chance to respond if you’re sending both at the same time. I’d be very curious to hear Progressive’s response to that,” said Marchand.

Jones says the bottom line is that consumers should check their bills and make sure everything lines up because kids are expensive enough to pay for coverage they will not use.

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