Pandemic Driving Is Still Down, but Will Insurers Grant More Relief?

In the spring, Progressive said it had given customers premium credits of 20 percent for April and May, a payout totaling about $1 billion. Asked about a possible second refund, a company spokesman, Ronald F. Davis, said in an email that Progressive had lowered auto rates in more than 40 states from April through December and would “continue to monitor our driving and claims data to determine where additional actions are warranted.”

Insurers over all have returned about $14 billion to auto customers because people are driving less, said James Lynch, chief actuary and senior vice president of research and education at the Insurance Information Institute, an industry group. The industry has been flexible about working with strapped customers on payments during the pandemic, he said, and has contributed $280 million to charitable endeavors related to the coronavirus.

The insurance industry has had a challenging year in other ways, Mr. Lynch said, with significant claims related to hurricanes and wildfires. Yet, he said, “the industry has done as much to help people out as anyone.”

Robert Passmore, a claims expert at the American Property Casualty Insurance Association, said in an email that insurers had been responding to the change in driving patterns. An industry auto premium index was down 7 percent in October and 6 percent in November, reflecting “decreases in response to the falloff in claim frequency,” he said.

That means that “in general, personal auto rates are lower than they were a year ago,” Mr. Passmore added.

Insurance relief offered in the spring typically “shaved” 15 to 25 percent off customers’ premium payments for one or more months, according to a report in October from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, a group of state regulators.

But a report published by U.S. PIRG’s Education Fund affiliate, examining relief given by the 10 top insurers in each state, found that most hadn’t given customers more than half of one month’s premium. “Over all, they were pretty stingy,” Ms. Murray said.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/01/your-money/covid-driving-car-insurance.html