Car Insurance Fell 4% Last Year. Consumer Groups Say That Isn't Enough
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How did reduced driving during the pandemic lead to a 4% drop in U.S. car-insurance rates?
Here's your Money Briefing for Friday, February 5th. I'm J.R. Whelan for The Wall Street Journal. We're about a year into many people working from home and our car is parked in the garage most of the time. And that's cut the cost of car insurance in the U.S. by an average of 4%. But some consumer groups are asking for all the miles not driven in 2020, why that 4% figure isn't higher.
Any policyholders paying close attention to those quarterly results probably feel like, geez, why can't I have a little bit more? Why are you keeping so much of this profit to yourself and giving it to your shareholders?
Coming up, our insurance reporter Leslie Sisson will discuss what consumers can do to get a better deal from their car insurance company. That's after the break.
Work-from-home setups and overall safety concerns kept most of us in the house and off the roads in 2020. That's reduced car insurance costs for motorists in the U.S. by an average of 4%. But the insurance companies posting ever-higher profits has left many wondering why more cost benefits aren't being passed on to consumers. To get some answers, we've got Leslie Sism on the line. She covers the insurance business for The Wall Street Journal. Leslie, thanks for taking the time to be with us.
My pleasure.
Why are consumer groups arguing that a 4% average cut isn't enough?
Thank you.
So, you know, last spring, you and I spoke about the optics of the insurance companies raking in huge revenues because of significantly lower driving levels. And that played a role in their decision to send out refunds to policyholders. But what's the situation now? Has it changed at all?
The car insurers are seeing significant reductions in claims. There are many fewer claims coming in for traffic accidents that occur during rush hours. This is because we just aren't having the same kind of rush hours we had pre-pandemic with so many people working from home. So a lot of the claims volume is down. If claims volume is down, the insurers are sending fewer premium dollars back out to consumers to repair their cars. So the insurance companies are posting really great quarterly earnings, and this is good for their shareholders, but any policyholders paying close attention to those quarterly results probably feel like, geez, what? Why can't I have a little bit more? Why are you keeping so much of this profit to yourself and giving it to your shareholders?
Well, let's talk about that. Are consumers asking why haven't rates come down even more?
Two consumer advocacy groups have been very vocal on this subject and have been pushing state insurance departments to be more aggressive on behalf of consumers and to push the insurance companies to offer more of these services. rebate programs like they ran in the spring. That's the Consumer Federation of America and Center for Economic Justice. They, in late December, dispatched their latest communications to state insurance department pushing for additional relief for consumers, saying that what's been done so far by the insurance companies just isn't generous enough.
Okay, so let's get into the ways that consumers can get lower rates. When do the insurance companies typically offer a reduction, and when would consumers see it?
The car insurers have been putting in place these rate reductions, and they are filed through state insurance departments, and a lot of them already are in effect. They take effect as a policyholder renews a policy. or as a new customer buys. So that's the way policyholders will benefit from the insurer's improved performance. These decreases are on top of premium refund, programs that a lot of insurers ran in the spring. In those programs, the car insurers reduced people's monthly premium bills by 15 to 20 percent. Usually they slash the premium for two to three months.
Now, what are you hearing from insurers about the possibility of lower rates or another round of those refund checks going out?
Many insurers are cautious about reducing rates more aggressively than they are. The declines right now, as you noted, are about 4% as a national average.
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