Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Planet Entrepreneur
Online Auto Insurance News summarizes some of this month's most significant car insurance news items.
Dueling vehicle theft rankings, a proposed Massachusetts credit score ban, the expansion of usage-based car insurance discounts and lower than expected claims from Hurricane Irene. The following summary sheet wraps up a few of the most notable auto insurance news developments covered this month at News.OnlineAutoInsurance.com :
- Vehicle theft rankings were released by both the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) and the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI). The NICB said the most frequently stolen vehicle in America was the ’94 Honda Accord, while the HLDI reported it was the Cadillac Escalade. The reason for the difference is the NICB statistics were based on police reports, while the HLDI stats are based on claims filings under a type of coverage usually purchased only for newer vehicles.
- A group of Massachusetts agents proposed a ballot initiative that would ban the use of credit scores in determining premiums. There is already a regulatory ban on using credit information in rating policies in the state, but the initiative would turn the ban into law and make it much more difficult to erase. The agents association said a poll it commissioned showed majority support for such a ban.
- State Farm announced its plans to integrate a new monitoring device, called In-Drive, into its Drive Safe & Save Plan. Currently, participants in the plan get discounts only for having low mileage. But use of the In-Drive device would give the insurer access to driving data and consumers access to discounts for displaying safe driving habits. The program will be available only in Illinois in 2011 but will be expanded in 2012.
- Though Hurricane Irene did wreak serious havoc on parts of the East Coast, it is expected to cause much less damage than was initially forecast. State Farm reported having more than 4,400 auto claims spread out over 12 states and D.C. as of noon on Tuesday.
- A group of about 1,200 Allstate agents voted to affiliate with a union. The executive director of the group says the insurer has been treating its agents as employees rather than independent contractors, which is their official status.
- Average policy prices saw no change between June and July, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Source: http://www.bls.gov/cpi/
- Progressive expanded its Snapshot program to two new states—New Mexico and North Dakota—and updated from MyRate to Snapshot in Alabama.
0 comments:
Post a Comment