Auto Insurance Companies Rebating Customers During COVID-19 Pandemic

Major auto insurance companies have recently announced plans to reduce their premiums or rebate money back to the consumer. For example, American Family announced they will rebate approximately $4 million back in the form of

“premium relief” to insurance holders in Utah and are planning to refund $200 million to consumers nation-wide.

Here is the breakdown for the major auto insurance companies in Utah:

Allstate Insurance. Allstate announced they will refund more than $600 million during April and May, accounting for a roughly 15% reduction in auto insurance premiums. Link: https://www.allstate.com/covid.aspx
American Family, as stated above, will be refunding up to $200 million nationally and plans to send out a one-time $50 rebate. Link: https://www.amfam.com/about/coronavirus
Bear River Insurance. To date, no rebates or refunds have been announced. Get with the program, Bear River! Link: https://www.bearrivermutual.com/insurance/auto-insurance/
Farmers Insurance. Farmers says they will be reducing April 2020 premiums by 25 percent. Link: https://www.farmers.com/covid-19-notice/
GEICO. This insurer, notorious for lowballing legitimate auto claims, says they will credit their customers back 15 percent between April 8 and Oct 7, 2020. Link: https://www.farmers.com/covid-19-notice/
Liberty Mutual plans to refund 15 percent of two months of premiums back to their customers. Link: https://www.libertymutual.com/covid-19
Nationwide Insurance plans to offer its customers a “one-time” premium refund of $50 per policy. Link: https://blog.nationwide.com/a-message-from-chief-customer-officer-amy-shore-about-the-coronavirus/
Progressive will give its customers 20% off during April and “may” do the same during May. Link: https://komonews.com/news/coronavirus/insurance-companies-offering-refund-customers-during-covid-19-pandemic
State Farm may be the most generous of all as it announced it will be refunding customers up to $2 billion during “these challenging times.” Link: https://komonews.com/news/coronavirus/insurance-companies-offering-refund-customers-during-covid-19-pandemic
USAA will also be returning a lump sum to its customers and says they will receive a 20% credit on two months of premiums. Link: https://wjla.com/news/nation-world/usaa-to-return-520-million-to-members

Hopefully some of this good will these auto insurance companies are exercising will carry over to their claims department. So far, though, as we are actively negotiating cases through this pandemic, we haven’t seen any big shifts in favor of paying out fair value on auto accident claims. And with the serious drop of car accidents, I think these multi-billion dollar companies can spare more than 15-20% to those that are simply not driving because of shelter-in-place restrictions.

Ron Kramer is an attorney practicing personal injury law in West Jordan and throughout Utah.