… he was surprised when his insurance company, Progressive, recently informed him that they were increasing his six month premium by $312 for another driver in his home, who Fan says does not exist.
I know body-shops that refuse to deal with Progressive.
How do you prove something doesn’t exist. I’d get a lawyer.
It is impossible to prove a negative, i.e. to prove that something does not exist. For example, if I asked you to prove that ghosts do not exist, you might ask me if I have ever seen a ghost, heard a ghost talk to me, etc. And the answer would be no. However, that does not actually prove that ghosts do not exist–it just proves that I have never experienced one.
Similarly, it is downright impossible to prove that another person (possibly a roommate or significant other) does not exist, and the burden should never be on the consumer to prove such a thing anyways. After all, an insurance policy names the beneficiaries–in the case of car insurance, it lists the insured drivers, and excluded drivers if any. Therefore, unless this alleged “other person” is named as insured, it is nonsense for Progressive to factor this mystery person into the customer’s rates.
I know…that’s the point.
As a side note, I had Progressive for a number of years, and last year they raised our rates significantly, from about $950 to nearly $1400 every 6 months to insure three old vehicles. I shopped around and found that similar coverage through Amica cost about $900 every 6 months. Needless to say, I dumped Progressive and haven’t looked back. I guess someone (aka the customer) has to pay for all their annoying radio and TV ads, but that someone isn’t me.
… or, file a Complaint with his state’s Commissioner of Insurance. Several years ago, I was really irked by my LTC insurance company’s policy of mailing my bill in December–at the height of Xmas card mailings–and demanding payment in full by January 1st. All that would be necessary for my policy to lapse would be the loss or delay in delivery of the billing notice or my payment check.
So, I filed a Complaint (free–unlike the services of a lawyer) with the Commissioner, and w/in a few weeks I got a phone call from a rep of that insurance company. Suddenly, they had an automatic debit option that would allow me to pay that bill on time, and without any anxiety regarding mail delivery. Naturally, I opted for an automatic debit.
Out of curiosity, I checked the insurance company’s website, and–finally–they had a statement regarding the availability of a direct debit. Isn’t it interesting that they hadn’t given policy holders that option prior to my complaint?
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Shoot now, ask questions later. Glad I don’t have Progressive. Maybe they should change their name to Regressive.
Sounds like a simple problem …
- Contact the Agent/Insurer demanding correction or
- Execute a “No Coverage” on your Policy for the supposed other driver or
- Find another, better, Agent/Insurer
You generally get what you pay for and while “Cutting out the middleman / Agent” will frequently give you some savings, the lack of an agent to fight your battle can cost you in the end.
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I don’t know about the rest of you, but I think the Progressive commercials are downright annoying
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I know their commercials are supposed to be funny, but the commercials just come off as having probably the most ignorant people working for them.
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If someone registered your home as their legal address, perhaps in preparation to become a squatter, then the insurance companies might know about it before you do. The DMV would be reporting this information to the insurance companies.
In Illinois, all people living at the same address must covered.