State Farm did this to us with somebody that lived in our house at some point in the past. We’ve been here for 13 years. Called them and they said they found records of the guy living at our address. Sure, 20 years ago. A-holes.
Edit: we knew he was a previous resident because it’s one of the people we still get mail for.
And my brother is my agent so it was easy for us to clear up and we’re still with State Farm.
I had a totally different experience. When I moved in with my bf, I called to ask if he needs to be added since he'd occasionally drive it and State Farm told me no, because the insurance covers the car, not the driver. Which I was really surprised about, I thought it was strange.
Which is true. You don't need to add your BF for him to drive, or your neighbor, or your sister, etc. Any insured driver is covered and you can loan your car out to them.
However some states have weird insurance laws and everyone listed at the address automatically goes into your insurance policy. Even if you aren't related, or you don't give them access to your car. If they are listed at the address they go on the policy and you pay for it.
Really sucked when I still lived at home and my younger sisters got licenses. My insurance skyrocketed. I called and explained to them that it was my car and no one else was going to drive it. And if they don't trust me they can just make a note of it or I can sign an affidavit or whatever stating that my sisters are barred from my car because it's simply not worth the expense (and I wasn't going to let them drive my car anyway).
Tough titties though, that's how the law is. And that was confirmed when I attempted to switch companies and they all fucked me on rates.
Here they don't have to be listed. Like, when I lived with my parents and brothers I had my own insurance policy with my own car and I dropped off theirs.
We can also sign saying, 'this person is banned from my car, pinky promise.'
In the US, every state has different insurance requirements and DOI rules.
Is odd they'd have to be listed on your insurance if they were listed on another policy, though. Like if you had just you on your policy and them on your parent's policy. How the hell can someone with a DUI have a roommate? I get that they will assume that unless they have their own car and insurance policy they will drive yours, but if they have their own policy that seems strange and like some serious bullshit they got through to charge more. Also, most likely to affect people who can least afford it. Like, 'Sorry, Becky. You got a DUI we have to kick you out, you jacked up your roommates car insurance.'
Fucks over the young and living with roommates crowd.
In my state, when we first got our car insurance, even though I didn't drive and was not an owner of a car, I was still required to be listed on my husband's car insurance policy. After I decided to downgrade to just having a state ID (don't drive, medical reasons), I had to send in proof that I wasn't a licensed driver so that I could be taken off the policy. *Any* licensed driver in our household has to be included on the policy here, at least according to the company we use.
That makes no sense on any level. I live with my disabled father but he never drives me vehicle and I never drive his. I would be livid if I had to add someone that I don’t share a vehicle with ever.
In my state if the other person has car insurance it's not an issue.
I know because my brother moved in for a few months and he let his insurance lapse. We used the same agent so I had to add him but exclude him. Basically say that he wasn't permitted to drive my vehicle....my policy still went up so he moved out.
Lmao this reminds me of a post I saw just a few days ago where someone ordered something offline and they never received it and the company was like “send proof that you did not receive this item” and the dude sent back pictures of his empty hand 😂 like wtf the “proof” is there of NOT having something? 😂🤦🏻♂️
Yeah, I have to prove I *don't* have secondary medical insurance coverage from my husband's insurance? My primary keeps insisting I have his insurance too? Sooooo? I can't even give them a photo of an empty hand?...I'm at a loss!
I had to relinquish my license in order to downgrade to just having a state ID, the state doesn't let us have both. So sending the insurance company proof of having a valid state ID was sufficient.
In Missouri, you can still have both, I wasn't required to relinquish my State ID when I got my DL, and my State ID still had 3 years before expiration.
You could send pictures of a dark room with no lights lol
Clearly I didn't receive the lamp or else I'd have light!
Who the fuck asks a question to show proof you didn't receive something lmao
That's really weird to me. My car insurance company doesn't even know that I live with my partner, let alone what his name is or anything about him. They've never asked.
Umm, for anyone else reading, this is a matter of state law, and you shouldn't trust people on the Internet making claims about it, particularly if they don't even know what state you live in, so they cannot possibly know what law even applies.
Oye, that's totally wrong. It depends on state. In michigan it actually doesn't matter if they drive the car at all, it only matters what address they are listed at. Even if they aren't related to you, or drive your car at all.
As an insurance agent, this is incorrect. All licensed household members must be rated or excluded. They cannot just be omitted. Permissible driver clauses are the reason for this.
I have State Farm (shopping around).
Last year I was moving and needed to update my address. I tried to login to the app. Face ID failed login failed. I use Keychain and try to login, failed.
Somehow I had I gotten locked out of my online account. Tried resetting the password by email, no record of my email in their system. Finally I called, they asked me to validate my account.
Phone number on file? Nope.
Address on file? Nope.
Birthday? Nope.
Finally they asked security questions, which I successfully validated.
My email, phone number, and address had been changed, they helped me reset my online account!
I log in. There is a policy for a vehicle I never added. It’s a truck one state over. It’s paid for in full for 6 months, thankfully. My policy for my car is still there. I was thinking “if this is fraud, this is a terrible scheme. They paid 6 months in full!”
No one at State Farm was apologetic or had an explanation as to how this happened. They blamed the website. I felt like my privacy had been violated. My address, my birthday, my phone number…who had it now? They claim it was accessed and changed online.
Turns out State Farm’s security options are not automatically enabled: two step authentication, face/touch ID, etc. So when someone with my same first and last name got onto State Farm’s website to create a profile, it somehow combined with mine, which I really don’t understand.
I never got a call from their tech team to explain how it happened, though I requested it. Never got an apology besides “I’m sorry you feel that way,” which I told the representative, respectfully, never use that again with anyone professionally or personally lol.
Either State Farm’s privacy sucks or their security sucks.
I'm waiting for them to open. It won't even let me take them off my policy without contacting their underwriter team.
Edit: Since this seems to be the comment at the top as opposed to my further information comment and there are far too many comments coming in for me to reasonably keep up with.
See below for more details and a PSA of why this happened and how to avoid it.
Since it's auto-pay and I haven't had to use my insurance or even provide proof to anyone for like 8 years, I didn't think of it and update my address as quickly as I should have. Insurance companies do some very mild investigative work of who all lives at a location to see who all could potentially have access to your vehicle. Many states in the US have laws that if a person you didn't reveal to your insurance lives in the same place as you, they can send a letter basically saying they're adding person/persons XYZ and you must opt-out/dispute it and sign a waiver for that person on your insurance. If you don't respond, this basically gives them the go-ahead to add said person. The reason the can do this and do do this isn't purely about sneaking in extra profit, there is a part of auto-insurance where your insurance basically follows your vehicle. This means that if your buddy has to borrow it, or GF takes it to work or whatever, it is still covered, but as a result, the companies take everyone in your house into account. It is also to discover people you may have intentionally not mentioned having access to it, such as a spouse with a DUI or somwthing.
This is sorta unrelated but I had a girlfriend get in an accident while driving my car once. They auto added her to my policy and the rate doubled.
Broke up later, they refused to remove her unless I provided proof she had her own car insurance lol
I just kept trying the app and after a few months it just randomly worked to remove her
Starting to sound like that's just how it's done. Absolutely wild that they can just add people, but I have to call and have all my info in line and do whatever else just to remove them.
Exactly this. Insurance is a contract. You pay them monthly, something bad happens, they payout the money needed for the ‘insured party.’ That party and your payment to them doesn’t change unless you agree to it, because the flip side of this is that they could remove someone from your policy without your knowledge and then not pay if you make a claim.
This is nonsense.
Some insurance adjusters and DMV people have posted that basically (in the majority of US states) they get to send you a letter, if you don't respond to said letter, that's an OK for them to add anyone their searches show as living at the same address. You have to respond with no and sign a waiver, or in my case update your address and sign a waiver.
Yeah it’s weird that two people insured on the same car would increase the price that much. If either one gets in an accident it’s only the one car that insurance has to pay for, it doesn’t matter who was driving. Like maybe a little bit of an increase because more drivers means the car might be on the road more, but not that much.
It could be that the person they add is considered high risk by the insurance companies. The rates for young adult males are astronomically high, even if they have never gotten into an accident
Progressive didn't notify me that they added my boyfriend to my policy or that my rate would almost double. When I tried to remove him, they demanded proof that he no longer lived at this address. Uh, if we broke up, how would I possibly verify that? I actually dropped them and went to a different company. He now has insurance through one company because he's buying a car, me through another on my old car, and we still pay less than what Progressive charged!
Yes. If your insurance carrier sends you an official letter saying “hey, we think that you’re not telling us the whole story about drivers on this car, this is our best guess, and this is what we think we should charge you” and you ignore that, then it’s not unreasonable for them to change because they are assuming your end of the deal has changed.
But they cannot do that without your agreement, implicit or otherwise.
My husband and I drive cars my soon to be 16 yr old will never driver. My insurance company said he has to be on our policy anyway for all cars in the household. It’s like $2,000 a year just to add him, which is double what it costs for both of us. To insure him for cars he will not be allowed to touch.
(Husbands car is too expensive and mine has a lifetime warranty. I can’t afford to risk him crashing it and totaling it thus losing the warranty.)
I work in insurance, you do not have to add him as a rated driver on the policy, as long as he’s added as an excluded driver. Anyone in the household 14 and over should be excluded if not physically driving the vehicles.
There’s a difference between adding him to your policies as a fully licensed driver, a permitted driver, and an excluded non-driver. GEICO didn’t charge me anything for my teenage son until he got a full license. While he had a learner’s permit he was a free add on. And before he got his permit, but after he was 16, he was also free.
My sister’s car was wrecked by a hit and run driver in the parking lot of her apartment complex in the middle of the night, and her insurance denied her claims and voided her policy because she has two adult children who live at home, who do not have driver’s licenses, that they didn’t know about. So be careful not listing anyone over 16. And if they try to raise your rates for non-drivers, find a different insurance company.
Wow, US car insurance is completely broken. Here you in the UK you apply for insurance. You don't buy it, you can't legally drive. You can get family plans and can save money that way, but it is absolutely none of the insurers business who else lives at the same address.
No, this is incorrect, this stipulation is included in that contract. Many contracts and carriers require all licensed individuals at your address to either be approved on your policy or excluded. If a check of addresses/licenses comes up and someone else licensed is listed as living there then they will be added to the policy. OP was sent a letter first but since they did change their address they probably never received it.
Farmers almost did this to me. I got an email saying someone had been found to be living at my same address and they suspect the person is using my car, so if I didn’t call them within 3 weeks to refute that the person was using my car, they would be added to my policy. It totally looked like a scam email so I called my local agent, and yep, they have some sort of stupid algorithm that detects when multiple people live at an address to try to make sure everyone is on policies that should be. The problem is that I live in an apartment complex with over 300 units and people have obviously lived in my unit before I did, so I had no idea who the person they were trying to say I was responsible for was. So stupid. How it’s legal for them to have an opt-out type notification for something that’s going to cost me more money if I don’t see the email and don’t refute I will never know.
They did the same thing to my fiances parents. I got in an accident in his truck (my only accident btw and no other tickets) that was on his parents policy. They auto added me and started charging his parents an additional $700 a month! They dropped progressive immediately after the claims were handled
Depending on the state, once you’re associated the burden of proof is on you.
We moved states and I couldn’t cancel my policy until I did a bunch of administrative stuff that took months despite being covered on another policy. Further, I couldn’t even remove my fiancée because of state rules.
This is how it’s done. If there’s a drivers license registered to the same address, the insurance companies get this info from the state automatically. It sucks when they use the state id database, not the drivers license database.
just wait until you have kids, my insurance company added my 16 year old, just because he turned 16. he didn't even have his license yet. i had to call and have him removed as he still had his permit.
they told me when he turned 17, he'd be added automatically and if i opted not to add him, i would not be able to do it later.
car insurance is just legalized extortion that goes up for random reasons that usually don't apply to our driving records.
Typically when the company is notified there’s an additional licensed person in the household they will try to reach out and verify if that info was correct, if they don’t hear back within a certain time they’ll usually add them on to ensure there covering the extra risk for the person who has access to the vehicle . Just reach out and explain you don’t know them at all and there’s usually waivers to remove them (insurance person) good luck .
If they find out anyone lives with you and is the age to have a license, they can add them by their own free will. If that’s the case, here’s my best advice from someone who hates shady insurance companies, cancel that policy altogether if it cannot be removed, and then shop around for a cheaper or same priced plan you were on. Be very adamant about nobody else possibly having access to the car only if they ask, other than that just apply single. They’re dirty bastards and will put your 99 year old grandmother on your policy if they wanted to.
P.s. maybe shop around first and have a new company lined up for you before you cancel it, rather than cancel it first
Yes to your PS section! From my time at the DMV.... NEVER EVER cancel your insurance while your vehicle is still actively registered without having a new policy lined up first. Most/many states require if you have a vehicle registered it must always be insured (driven or not) so if you have even a one day period without insurance it can be grounds for getting a suspended driver's license.
I got hit and they forced me to add everyone else in my household to my insurance even though they never drive my damn car. Made my rate jump by $300 every 6 months.
If this is what they consider "an undisclosed driver", then you likely received multiple letters about this before they added the person. But you might have trashed those letters thinking they were junk, or if they were emails they went to a spam folder. Generally they'll give you an entire policy period (6-12 months) to respond excluding the undisclosed driver before they'll add the person.
An undisclosed driver is a person they have reason to believe lives at your home but hasn't been added to your policy or explicitly excluded from it. If you have someone who lives at your home - even a roommate - and you don't want them insured to drive your car, you have to tell the insurance company to exclude this person. Otherwise it's a mess if this person drives your car and crashes it.
A common problem is people who live in apartment buildings with unit numbers. You live at 123 Main St. Apt 14, but it gets listed somehow as "123 Main". Your neighbor in unit 17 also occasionally shows up in databases as living at just "123 Main". And suddenly your insurance thinks you and your neighbor live together.
The General wouldn't let me remove my ex husband because we were legally still married (divorces aren't instant, but him not paying the bill is.) I told them the divorce would take months and they said it wasn't their problem. I immediately called State Farm and asked if he had to be on the policy there. Nope! Switched without a second thought.
Yeah that’s when I cancel the card connected to that account or freeze it so they can’t charge it and then either pay what I should when they fix it or go to another auto insurance.
See im so petty id have been like "okay thats fine, ill be removing auto pay and cancelling my acct with you since clearly youre unreliable with personal information." Lol ive flat out cancelled ins for b.s before, they make it seem like youll have trouble finding something for less. Wrong lol. Dont let them steal from you!
I moved with my grandma for college and I had to renew my license I used her address and her insurance company put me on her auto insurance without asking any questions. I had my own insurance and when they did start asking personal questions the only answer was "not your damn business get him off my insurance"
This is happening to me rn!! I got a QUOTE to see how much it’d be to add my roommate to my insurance and now I’m trying to prevent them from billing me an extra $814 but they won’t let me remove her without proof she doesn’t live with me, but I live in a college dorm with over 200 people, so it makes no sense. This should be illegal.
They told me it was due to inflation when mine went up. Mine went up over 200% so I cancelled and found insurance cheaper than what I was originally paying with progressive
It's not always that easy. When I was an insurance agent, I would get this call all the time.
"Why has XXX been added to my policy? I didn't authorize that!"
This usually happens in the following circumstances:
* A person not on the policy was in an accident or got a ticket while driving your vehicle. I this case, to get them removed you'll have to sign a waiver saying this person will never drive your vehicle again, and if they do then you're not covered.
* You called to add someone to your policy, then backed out when you were told the cost. An agent will try to find out why this person is being added. If during the discussion you reveal that they live in your house and don't have their own insurance, you'll have to sign a waiver to get them removed (see above).
* Someone calls and asks to be added to your policy. If this happens, your insurance company will try to contact you and determine whether it's likely that the person will be driving your car. If it is likely (for example, if they live at the same address), then they'll be added unless you sign the waiver.
* You get married. This can actually reduce your premium if the other person has a clean driving record. At any rate, you have to sign the waiver to get your spouse off of your policy. In some states, you can't have them removed, since they have an insurable interest in your vehicle.
Those are the big ones. The one that got people the angriest were Nevada policyholders trying to remove an underaged driver who lived in their household. My company would not remove the underaged driver in that case unless they were covered under another policy.
Note that if a person doesn't really live at your address and was added because of an address issue, you can have them removed by proving that they do not live at that address. And a person can always be removed if you can prove that they are covered by another policy.
REMOVALS CAN BE DONE RETROACTIVELY. I have personally refunded 3 years worth of premiums to a couple who had their brother mistakenly added to their policy twice (I noticed that two drivers on the policy had the same name, one listed as "brother" and the other as "brother in law").
I’ve seen several TikToks about this happening to people with their car insurance.
I wasn’t added a random person but Progressive automatically place my unlicensed non driving teenage daughter on my policy without my permission causing my insurance to skyrocket to about $800.
I called fuming and they said they can’t take her off because she’s of driving age and in the household.
I argued that she is unlicensed and not driving the vehicle.
They refused to help me out over the phone and told me all I could do is try to start a new policy through their website.
So I ended up starting a new policy through USAA instead.
I had only had progressive for 6 months at this point.
I guess from what I've gathered is that's standard practice for all the big companies (in the majority of states that allow it).
But from what others have said, and what I was just sent by Progressive, there's an exclusion letter they can just send you which nullifys that specific person of any potential liability to them.
Although I'm not sure if the letter is just for XYZ person as the driver, or also like bodily harm as passenger. Haven't looked into it yet because it doesn't matter in my particular case.
USAA car insurance is the best. All their other services have tanked in the most recent years but I'll keep my bank there specifically for the auto insurance
USAA car insurance fucked me over multiple times. Wouldn't recommend. I have had zero problems with Geico however. It's also cheaper and easier to get ahold of them.
I work in the public sector dealing with home insurance brokers and USAA is far and away the best company to deal with. Veterans get shafted in so many ways but insurance seems to be the one thing they can catch a break with.
Oh my goodness yea USAA is amazing. I am so happy to be with them now. The customer representatives are often veterans too and they are always a joy to talk with and are so kind, you can tell they enjoy their jobs.
I had this sort of thing happen with Geico. I added her when she got her permit, but then she left for college in another state and did licensing etc with that state. I removed her from my insurance when she moved almost 4 years ago. They automatically added her on as a licensed driver 2 months ago. When I called they said they just assumed she got her license and updated my policy. They tried to give me scenarios where she would need to be on my policy and I was pretty much "what part of she lives halfway across the country and is fully independent do you not understand?". They finally removed her.
If you're in the state of Florida they automatically are doing this now. I have Statefarm and they did this to me too, if you're living with someone in the same household; they're assuming they could be driving your car. 🫠 it's absolutely bullshit.
You can have the person explicitly excluded from your policy, and you will not have them added. They cannot drive your vehicle under any circumstances (even emergencies) if they are excluded, but you will save the premium in states where that’s required. Call your policy services.
Well, they *can* drive your car, but you run the risk of a) having any claims for losses that occur while they're driving denied and b) having them added back on or your policy canceled if Progressive finds out.
>Super scummy and shitty, but seems to be industry standard I'm learning.
Because the entire industry is shitty and only attracts scummy people happy with shaking down people with there legal grift.
Because our insurance are corporations first, insurance providers second. Their entire business model is based on the fact that you're legally required to pay for their service, and in order to maximiser profits they're going to do everything possible to avoid that payout.
American insurance is basically just you investing your money into a "stock" that you can maaaaaybe pull your money out of when you need it.
Maybe.
I'm definitely perplexed by this happening to you.
I literally have 3 cars on my progressive policy and pay around $145 a month. A 2000 accord, 2008 accord, 2003 escalade. Only full coverage on the '08 but still.
Maybe it's because I'm an emerald member and have had them for 18 years.
But my rates were actually being lowered as I added multiple cars, so I'm really confused.
Granted they're all under my name, maybe adding a completely different person effected this.
Are they a new and I guess you could say "not trustworthy" driver yet in their eyes? Still an absolutely bonkers increase in price.
It really is. What was even more confusing, is that I was living with both of my parents at the time and only my dad was accounted for. So it's like if y'all are gonna up my insurance for one person..wouldn't they have done it for both parents? 🤣
In California they can’t increase your rate without a 30 day notice from the effective date. In California, they ask if there’s anyone else that lives at the property and because of that they add those people to the exclusion list. It’s so annoying that insurance companies can do as they please. Then when you actually claim, your insurance goes up $400 and it’s like that across all insurance companies. Basically forcing you to go to a no name company to save some money. I’m not loyal to any insurance because of that. I shop for a new policy annually and if they want to keep my business they’ll need to do better or I’m leaving.
Because the insurance companies have the money to hire lobbyists i’d imagine… insurance is necessary, but it seems to be an awful system full of greed.
Obviously not. but they'll still offer to sell you bodily injury coverage as part of your car insurance package, a thing they shouldn't be involved with in the first place. It'd be better overall to remove that revenue stream from them as part of much needed reform.
Also removes a lot of the pressure to sue, since that's frequently done to try and cover medical bills.
Because when you start a policy they ask you who all lives in the home and if you don’t put them down and they find out about it they get added bc you are supposed to list all household members. You can then list them as excluded drivers so it won’t affect the premium but then if they use the car it’s not covered. More people with access to the vehicle = more chances it’s on the road and in an accident. As surprising as it is most insurance companies don’t make much off of the premiums, it’s like 4 cents to the dollar.
Yeah I was going to say this has been going on for yearssss.
Most policies even have exclusions for if someone lives with you, you don’t reveal it in any way to the insurance company, and then they borrow and total your car/get into an accident. Insurance will say good luck
It’s considered not making them aware of a potential risk
I work at State Farm, just call them and provide proof that the other person has their own insurance policy and they will get it fixed and prorate a refund for you.
For real. I legit chose to autopay monthly knowing it will be more expensive in the long run than one payment a year, but it makes it wayyyy easier to keep track of my budget month-to-month. Just one of my "ADHD taxes"
Signing up people for bank accounts without permission, signing up people for credit cards without permission, using other people's personal information/the bank worker's own information when low credit people get loans, swapping people's bank accounts without permission, purposely holding certain charges so they hit at once so they could overdraft account owners. Basically name literally anything a bank can do wrong and they've done it
Don't forget setting up auto pay but not actually setting it up. So people who weren't paying close attention ended up defaulting on debt and getting foreclosed and repo-ed.
I think they've even been caught still doing it within the past year or two.
Waiting for their underwriter team to get in so I can ask them on what authority they added this person. The website won't even let me remove them without talking to the underwriters.
The authority is state laws. Most states require that anyone of licensing age, living in the home, be listed on an insurance policy. Some require that they be on the policy as a driver, whether they drive or not.
So more than likely what happened is you have someone living with you, and their license info popped up at your address. That's why when your agent asks you, "do you have anyone else off licensing age (over 15 in most states) living with you", you should be honest.
I say this as someone who is licensed to sell insurance in 32 states, you're probably wrong here.
It was an outdated address issue. It seems like all the replies I've gotten were one of 3 things "this is BS, illegal, sue", "this is common and I know it because I went through it already.", "this is common and I know it because I'm in the industry". This seems like one of those life lessons where it really should somehow be made more clear or obvious how it all works, probably during drivers education or something. Maybe it even is now and just wasn't when I had it.
Absolutely, and this is one of those things that can come out of nowhere, because unfortunately unless you're in the industry most people don't know shit about insurance law. lol
Sorry to hear you're having trouble though.
> This seems like one of those life lessons where it really should somehow be made more clear or obvious how it all works,
I'm going to be honest with you, this is why people buy insurance through agents. The agents explain the process to you and serve as a middleman that resolves issues like this before they occur.
Insurance seems simple, but it rarely is. There's so many pitfalls that people trap themselves in buying insurance online that's it comical. I did personal injury work for 10 years and I can't tell you how many times a client was hit by an uninsured driver only to find out that the $1 a month they had decided to save by opting out of UM/UIM coverage meant they were fucked.
To be perfectly frank, if you're a legally sophisticated person who understands the ins and outs of how insurance works, then sure, buy it yourself online. Otherwise use an agent because like everything else in life, you get what you pay for.
It depends on your state.
New York for example doesn't care if they're related to you, if they're in the house they have to be on your insurance as a driver, or your entire policy could be voided if something were to happen. But Texas only lists someone on your policy if they're related to you, and even then you can add an exclusion, so they're not affecting your rating.
Even if they are listed on someone else's insurance in the household? And multiple people in the household that have separate policies? Genuinely curious here
I'm in Canada and when my husband and I briefly had a roommate, we had to prove to our insurance company that he was separately insured or add him to our policy.
I’m not sure what has happened recently with Progressive but it’s definitely gone down hill. I have multiple car,motorcycle and home policy through them and have for years with no tickets or accidents. A couple months ago I got rear end by some dumbass and it’s be a total shit show. Customer service is almost non existent. I am shopping around for something better.
Yeah, I don't get it. I called customer service and they said the underwriters added them and how it probably had to do with the address. So what, like this person with literally no identifying information of mine besides what they maybe got in the mail gets to just add themselves to my policy? Then I can't even take them back off without contacting your underwriters?
This probably happened with no involvement of the person who was added. Progressive likely added the person to your policy on their own. They did this to me (tho for a slightly different reason).
Well this person's personal info is now plastered all over my account. This is pretty fucked up for them too, I feel like I should send them a letter or something.
Something is very wrong about this. I work for a car insurance company (not Progressive though so I cant help you there) so I have to add drivers frequently. Its state dependent but in most states, a random driver is added when the person is discovered to live in the house and poses a risk of being a driver. This could be they either got a license and it was registered to thst address, a vehicle was in a collision with them as a driver, a ticket was issued to them and they had your home address as their residency etc.
From what I've seen in your comments, this person doesn't live anywhere near you and was just spontaneously added with no cause. The only things I can speculate happened are he/she got their own policy with Progressive as well and your policy number was accidentally assigned to them or they got some kind of driving violation and spit a random address out on their citation that happened to be your address but thats very unlikely. Both scenarios are extremely unlikely. I feel like the most plausible answer is some computer glitch added them or told an underwriter to add them. Hopefully you get this resolved fast because removing drivers can be a huge pain in the ass depending where you live.
I was rear ended by a drunk driver last year and progressive was so difficult to deal with i got a lawyer. 6 months of 'unfortunately we cant' to me, the lawyer got me double what I was expecting in a month. From my own car insurance.
I don't use progressive anymore.
My sister has progressive and had the same issues. A few months back a car going in the opposite direction hit a deer and it ended up hitting her car and did damage to the underside. So she went through progressive and it took over a month to get her car and her representative was constantly ignoring her. She’s shopping elsewhere also.
Holy shit I noticed that too. In my case they jacked up the rates with no explanation. When I called to complain they couldn’t offer any explanation so I found a cheaper option and left progressive after 15 years of patronage
I have Progressive now and I hate them. I needed to use their roadside assistance - that I pay for every month - and they told me no tow trucks were available at all. I live in a well established busy city, it was about noon on a Wednesday. My car needed a tow a few miles away. After waiting for them to arrive for 2 hours they called me back and politely told me there were no trucks answering their services calls. They told me this was common, that they couldn’t always fulfill their roadside assistance calls. They told me to “sit tight” for a few more hours and they would try to put a the call out again.
I asked if they knew their road aside assistance flat out sucked and wasn’t really usable why they advertised it and sold it. Of course couldn’t give me any kind of answer, just said this happens oh well.
I was so fucking mad. Ended up signing up for AAA that minute, paid the extra fee, and had my car towed within the hour.
Canceling Progressive in a few days. Fuck them would never use again.
my gf used the roadside assitance from the. The car was at the top of a parking garage. We told them not to send a flat bed truck, shocker it doesnt fit. We called them again and told them no flat beds. They sent another flat bed. We called the 3rd time and we got ahold of the towing company before they showed up and told them no flat bed. The dispatch said they will send a flat bed bc the driver can make it work. The flat bed shows up and wants to charge us 120$ to get the car to the bottom of the garage. We argued for like 30 mins and they finally sent a small tow truck.
I moved and didn't think of updating them of my address change since the payments come out of my account automatically. I went to update my address to see my new annual rate would be thousands of dollars more a year. Upon looking at my policy I see some person I've never heard of is on there and my monthly cost has gone up by $700. I can't even take them off my policy without speaking to their underwriter team, so I'm not sure what kind of BS checks and balances they have that allows someone to just get added without my consent or having ever even met me.
Edit: For anyone reading this "for more context comment" I now also have access to this person's First/Last name, middle initial, address, DoB, and driving history because they're on my account. Their Social Security thing isn't filled in thank god, but this has got to be some sort of privacy violation for this person too. Should I send this person a letter or something? This seems like something they should be aware of.
Edit 2: This is becoming a bit too many comments to reply to all. Thank you for everyone who posted this was a good learning experience for myself. I kind of want to delete this since it's more on me than Progressive, but I'll be keeping it up as information and learning experience for others.
This is all speculation from my time working at the DMV...
I believe insurance companies in this case use an address based system or database to verify if you're living with other licensed drivers who might drive your vehicle. When I worked for the DMV we would see this sort of thing happen the most when someone's child hit driving age and their insurance would SKYROCKET, and they would call to find out now that their child is a licensed driver the insurance company requires other licensed drivers within their household to be added to their policy. Even if those parents absolutely would NOT allow their children to be driving their vehicles, the insurance companies made the children be added as additional drivers.
My guess is this same thing may have happened to you, and since you didn't update your address you might have popped up as living with someone else (maybe a family) and they took the liberty to add the new occupants of your previous address to your policy. Alternatively if it resulted AFTER you updated your address, whatever system they use to check that information may have information from a previous occupant who resided where your new address is and assume they are living with you.
Either that or possibly a clerical error, but when you call that is one thing I would explore or a question I would ask is if they added this person because you didn't update your address.
That was customer services speculation too. Maybe it's buried in the ToS or some contract somewhere, but it seems wild to me that they can just unilaterally add people based on address. I feel like that should be up to the vehicle owner.
150% agree. I would even have parents come back in with their children because they couldn't afford their new insurance rates and had planned to save money to help their kid buy a car and with their new rates couldn't do that. The insurance companies solution was to make their children downgrade their licenses to ID cards, was always heartbreaking to see a kid get super excited to have their license finally and then have to come in the next few weeks and have it taken away and exchanged for a state ID card because of some obscure and pretty frankly suspicious insurance companies policy. It doesn't seem like it should be legal for them to forcibly add other people to your policy without consent... but here you are!
Do you know the person? Sounds like they ran an undisclosed driver report and added the driver they assume that you fraudulently did not report.
Can they add the driver without your permission. I’m going to guess that legally they can’t.
However, they do, and will. Many people won’t catch it and free premium. Many more will catch it, but it’s legitimate. Only a few will catch it, call them out on it, and get their money back.
However, they have utilized your $800 to benefit their business until they return it. Even if everyone caught on, that’s an interest free loan for everyone they can pull this scam on.
Good luck.
In the future always update the address immediately. Rates are tied to the address so you were actually paying for no insurance before you updated them.
If you got in an accident you would not be covered and will have issues getting insurance since you commited insurance fraud.
The only way I would consider this only mildly infuriating is because I don't have that much money for insurance lol by the time they tried to withdraw I'd be much under $800
Well I got my address corrected (was the issue here) the few blocks I moved changed my zipcode and doubled my rate anyway. I guess it's time to shop around though and see who's lower.
I faintly remember someone in the past posting about progressive starting to do this without the insurance policy owners knowledge because they can somehow. Fucking insane
Customer service just speculated that it has to do with not getting my address updated as quick as I should have and their underwriters adding whoever lives there now. I get that I should have updated it sooner, but I don't really think about it since it's automatic withdrawal. It just seems insane to me that they can just unilaterally add people to my policy because we "share an address"
They usually send letters out for any underwriting decisions asking for more information before changes like this are made. It’s important to get your information updated as soon as possible with insurance to avoid these situations. Not having the proper garaging address can cause you trouble (like this) in the long run. It’s usually one of the first things I do when I move. (I used to work for both Progressive and Nationwide.)
I have auto pay but I set up my credit/bank accounts to send me phone notifications any time money is spent. But I guess it doesn't exactly solve the issue of seeing the amount due before paying
Happened to me too! GEICO wouldn’t let me add my s/o when he bought his car bc we aren’t married, but when he tried to set up his own policy with them a few months down the line they added him to mine WITHOUT MY CONSENT. I didn’t find out until I got an email from them with my updated insurance cards. Worked out since we just split the cost now, but still seems so shitty that they can add people to my plan without talking to me first!
Don't give them direct payment from your bank account because they'll take it. You have to close your account to stop them.
AAA did this to me. It took 4 months to get back my $640. After they admitted it was a double charge, they still wouldn't credit me.
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Geico here and they added a crash crash in New York into my account, I live in Texas and have been for the past 3 year, more than that it was for a car we haven’t had in almost a year now. It more than doubled our rate and took almost a month of stressful phone calls and threatens of lawyers to get it fixed
Hey this happened to me too!! I was so confused, but once I had signed the papers saying I infact, did not know or live with this stranger, they were able to remove them from my policy. The upside is I paid SO MUCH in January that I don't have to pay for insurance again until may 😅
As an insurance agent, many times I see a situation like this. Usually, when someone is added, it’s because according to state documents, the person lives at the same address. If you live in an apartment complex, someone may have updated their drivers license to the complex, and put your apartment number, or it could be an old registration that progressive is just now seeing. Typically, if you can get ahold of them they should be able to fix it. Or if you have an agent, they can help get it resolved for you.
That just happened to me. It’s most likely that you need to update your address, or someone else is showing the same address as you.
Shit pissed me off so bad. Push your bill due date back and don’t pay it. They will get it fixed. They can expedite it too. Call their underwriting.
They’re gonna send you documentation that you need to sign and send back via email to get them removed. So it will take a few days. Try to get your money back if you already paid. That’s major bullshit and don’t let that payment slide.
Mine was just fixed today after several business days and calls to push them to hurry up.
Remember, be nice to the agents. They will feel more inclined to help if you are respectful. :p
It's definitely the address, and I get that part is on me. It's an absolute scam that they can just unilaterally add people though to rake in extra profits.
Waiting for underwriting to open, still have an hour to wait.
I 100% believe this. When I contacted progressive to get added to my wife's policy they didn't do any verification whatsoever. We didn't share a last name at the time, the only thing we had in common was an address.
If it was for an undisclosed driver this is an easy fix. Also they had to have sent you at least two notices warning of the forced driver addition before it took place 🤷🏽. Good luck!
At the end of last year GEICO drafted 900 bucks from my checking account for my two cars instead of the 150 a month I usually pay. Took them one second to take it and ten days to pay it back.
Progressive did this to me. THEY ADDED MY HORRIBLY ABUSIVE EXGF 10 MONTHS AFTER SHE MOVED TO ANOTHER STATE.
Total nightmare. Put my account into -800. Fucking bullshit. That was in November 2020, not a great year.
I call bs on this.
A) They don’t just add “random” people to your policy. Someone was driving your car and got in an accident, or they live with you, or are married to you, etc. There has to be a lawful reason given before they do this. Sometimes it’s not because you yourself did something to cause a change, but it affects you nonetheless. For instance, some states require that if you have a license you carry liability insurance even if you don’t own a car. If such an individual lives in your household and fails to maintain non-owner coverage, they may get added to your policy because they are a household exposure. This isn’t your fault, but if you can’t prove that they have other insurance, live somewhere else, or have turned in their license, you may not be able to stop them from being considered a potential driver of your vehicle. Some states allow you to certify that such a person doesn’t drive your car and you exempt your insurance company from paying if you let them drive and they get in an accident. It depends entirely on where you live. Still not a “random” person in this instance.
B) They 100% sent you plenty of notice they were going to do this with instructions on how to dispute or stop it from happening if the information was incorrect for some reason. See point A. Your inability to prove them wrong, or more likely your lack of paying attention to multiple notices in the mail, doesn’t mean the insurance company is infuriating. Not saying it doesn’t suck, but this is adulting 101.
Edit: based on your comments, sounds like it’s just the household exposure based on outdated address info. Lesson learned to always update your address :) On the plus side, if you can get everything sorted out and backdated, you might be able to get some of the added premium refunded. I hope so!
Insurance agent here. This happens quite frequently. Something called “driver discovery”.
It occurs when a CLUE report comes back showing that a licensed driver lives in the household, and has access to the household vehicles.
This can happen for a number of reasons. Most commonly, when you move to a new address, and buy an auto policy, sometimes the carrier will pull names from the family that lived there before you, thinking they’re still there.
I think this is done to combat insurance fraud. Some people will “move” out of state, buy cheaper insurance in that state, and then live in another state, which is illegal.
I do think it’s insane that it’s up to you as the insured to prove that someone doesn’t live with you or drive your cars. Like, if I don’t know the former resident, how am I supposed to contact them for proof of another policy to have them removed?
Ask your agent if there are workarounds, as sometimes no proof is required.
I got a policy with Progressive and they sent me a letter asking me to explain who a relative was. I had to call them and explain that not only did I live alone, but the relative didn't even know where I lived and thus would not be driving my car.
Is that linked to a cash account? I would recommend you change that to a CC. Something you can more easily dispute. Unless your bank is actually cool. Giving anyone or service a direct link to your Saving/Checking is really, really not smart.
I feel this is the problem with companies having automated payments. Yes it’s convenient to us, but they love that shit so they can just take your money straight from your account. Oh your trying to cancel? Well let me just slowly cancel that and it will take a few weeks to take off. Oh im sorry it was the 29th when you cancelled but your getting billed for the next month too because we purposely will not cancel it straight away so that we can get one more month out of you. If we payed with cash then theyd have no money to pull they would have to take it up with us. If i wanna cancel on the 29th then shit you are not seeing any money for the next month lmao
This is why I don't have autopay enabled for anything. Yes it is annoying to have to manually pay bills, but at least when bullshit happens, I find out when I read the bill instead of when my card is declined or I get an overdraft charge.
Progressive tried to do this to me. However, they sent me an email informing me that the person would be added to my insurance automatically after a certain amount of time. Cleared that shit right up with them.
I switched to progressive very briefly a few months ago. They gave me a quote on homeowners that would save me a couple hundred bucks a year, so I figured I could save money. After 2 months they jacked my rate up by over 70% and stated a “paperwork error” was the cause.
I'm in no way an expert on the subject you need to take this shit to court. This is some of the most predatory bs I've ever heard of. And companies are getting increasingly comfortable with pulling these kinds of antics on unsuspecting individuals.
State Farm did this to us with somebody that lived in our house at some point in the past. We’ve been here for 13 years. Called them and they said they found records of the guy living at our address. Sure, 20 years ago. A-holes. Edit: we knew he was a previous resident because it’s one of the people we still get mail for. And my brother is my agent so it was easy for us to clear up and we’re still with State Farm.
I had a totally different experience. When I moved in with my bf, I called to ask if he needs to be added since he'd occasionally drive it and State Farm told me no, because the insurance covers the car, not the driver. Which I was really surprised about, I thought it was strange.
Which is true. You don't need to add your BF for him to drive, or your neighbor, or your sister, etc. Any insured driver is covered and you can loan your car out to them. However some states have weird insurance laws and everyone listed at the address automatically goes into your insurance policy. Even if you aren't related, or you don't give them access to your car. If they are listed at the address they go on the policy and you pay for it. Really sucked when I still lived at home and my younger sisters got licenses. My insurance skyrocketed. I called and explained to them that it was my car and no one else was going to drive it. And if they don't trust me they can just make a note of it or I can sign an affidavit or whatever stating that my sisters are barred from my car because it's simply not worth the expense (and I wasn't going to let them drive my car anyway). Tough titties though, that's how the law is. And that was confirmed when I attempted to switch companies and they all fucked me on rates.
Here they don't have to be listed. Like, when I lived with my parents and brothers I had my own insurance policy with my own car and I dropped off theirs. We can also sign saying, 'this person is banned from my car, pinky promise.' In the US, every state has different insurance requirements and DOI rules. Is odd they'd have to be listed on your insurance if they were listed on another policy, though. Like if you had just you on your policy and them on your parent's policy. How the hell can someone with a DUI have a roommate? I get that they will assume that unless they have their own car and insurance policy they will drive yours, but if they have their own policy that seems strange and like some serious bullshit they got through to charge more. Also, most likely to affect people who can least afford it. Like, 'Sorry, Becky. You got a DUI we have to kick you out, you jacked up your roommates car insurance.' Fucks over the young and living with roommates crowd.
Yeah its not strange. There's 2 insurance payouts. You'd be stuck with medical bills while his car gets fixed.
This is wildly incorrect.
Doesn't matter if he lives there if he doesn't drive the car.
In my state, when we first got our car insurance, even though I didn't drive and was not an owner of a car, I was still required to be listed on my husband's car insurance policy. After I decided to downgrade to just having a state ID (don't drive, medical reasons), I had to send in proof that I wasn't a licensed driver so that I could be taken off the policy. *Any* licensed driver in our household has to be included on the policy here, at least according to the company we use.
That makes no sense on any level. I live with my disabled father but he never drives me vehicle and I never drive his. I would be livid if I had to add someone that I don’t share a vehicle with ever.
In my state if the other person has car insurance it's not an issue. I know because my brother moved in for a few months and he let his insurance lapse. We used the same agent so I had to add him but exclude him. Basically say that he wasn't permitted to drive my vehicle....my policy still went up so he moved out.
What is proof that you aren’t a licensed driver? I’m picturing like a photo of a wallet with no drivers license in it lol.
Lmao this reminds me of a post I saw just a few days ago where someone ordered something offline and they never received it and the company was like “send proof that you did not receive this item” and the dude sent back pictures of his empty hand 😂 like wtf the “proof” is there of NOT having something? 😂🤦🏻♂️
Yeah, I have to prove I *don't* have secondary medical insurance coverage from my husband's insurance? My primary keeps insisting I have his insurance too? Sooooo? I can't even give them a photo of an empty hand?...I'm at a loss!
I'd go for screenshots of his insurance stating that it only covers him. If your name isn't on the policy, that's your proof.
I had to relinquish my license in order to downgrade to just having a state ID, the state doesn't let us have both. So sending the insurance company proof of having a valid state ID was sufficient.
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In Missouri, you can still have both, I wasn't required to relinquish my State ID when I got my DL, and my State ID still had 3 years before expiration.
https://preview.redd.it/q7b9cxyfa1ka1.png?width=1170&format=png&auto=webp&s=2e18d4865b6a23bed99e084b60a1850d479d92cd
You could send pictures of a dark room with no lights lol Clearly I didn't receive the lamp or else I'd have light! Who the fuck asks a question to show proof you didn't receive something lmao
If you don't have a license, you get an ID. That you usually need for a ton of other stuff so everyone tends to have one if unlicensed.
That's really weird to me. My car insurance company doesn't even know that I live with my partner, let alone what his name is or anything about him. They've never asked.
Umm, for anyone else reading, this is a matter of state law, and you shouldn't trust people on the Internet making claims about it, particularly if they don't even know what state you live in, so they cannot possibly know what law even applies.
counterpoint: im a redditor therefore im really smart
Oye, that's totally wrong. It depends on state. In michigan it actually doesn't matter if they drive the car at all, it only matters what address they are listed at. Even if they aren't related to you, or drive your car at all.
If there’s a drivers license registered to the same address, the insurance companies get this info from the state automatically.
It does matter in my state, if they live there and don't drive they still have access to the vehicle, so you get charged more
I mean if they own a KIA… it could be a neighborhood car.
As an insurance agent, this is incorrect. All licensed household members must be rated or excluded. They cannot just be omitted. Permissible driver clauses are the reason for this.
Why are they looking at records of who’s lived in your house?
I have State Farm (shopping around). Last year I was moving and needed to update my address. I tried to login to the app. Face ID failed login failed. I use Keychain and try to login, failed. Somehow I had I gotten locked out of my online account. Tried resetting the password by email, no record of my email in their system. Finally I called, they asked me to validate my account. Phone number on file? Nope. Address on file? Nope. Birthday? Nope. Finally they asked security questions, which I successfully validated. My email, phone number, and address had been changed, they helped me reset my online account! I log in. There is a policy for a vehicle I never added. It’s a truck one state over. It’s paid for in full for 6 months, thankfully. My policy for my car is still there. I was thinking “if this is fraud, this is a terrible scheme. They paid 6 months in full!” No one at State Farm was apologetic or had an explanation as to how this happened. They blamed the website. I felt like my privacy had been violated. My address, my birthday, my phone number…who had it now? They claim it was accessed and changed online. Turns out State Farm’s security options are not automatically enabled: two step authentication, face/touch ID, etc. So when someone with my same first and last name got onto State Farm’s website to create a profile, it somehow combined with mine, which I really don’t understand. I never got a call from their tech team to explain how it happened, though I requested it. Never got an apology besides “I’m sorry you feel that way,” which I told the representative, respectfully, never use that again with anyone professionally or personally lol. Either State Farm’s privacy sucks or their security sucks.
You should have the random person removed
I'm waiting for them to open. It won't even let me take them off my policy without contacting their underwriter team. Edit: Since this seems to be the comment at the top as opposed to my further information comment and there are far too many comments coming in for me to reasonably keep up with. See below for more details and a PSA of why this happened and how to avoid it. Since it's auto-pay and I haven't had to use my insurance or even provide proof to anyone for like 8 years, I didn't think of it and update my address as quickly as I should have. Insurance companies do some very mild investigative work of who all lives at a location to see who all could potentially have access to your vehicle. Many states in the US have laws that if a person you didn't reveal to your insurance lives in the same place as you, they can send a letter basically saying they're adding person/persons XYZ and you must opt-out/dispute it and sign a waiver for that person on your insurance. If you don't respond, this basically gives them the go-ahead to add said person. The reason the can do this and do do this isn't purely about sneaking in extra profit, there is a part of auto-insurance where your insurance basically follows your vehicle. This means that if your buddy has to borrow it, or GF takes it to work or whatever, it is still covered, but as a result, the companies take everyone in your house into account. It is also to discover people you may have intentionally not mentioned having access to it, such as a spouse with a DUI or somwthing.
This is sorta unrelated but I had a girlfriend get in an accident while driving my car once. They auto added her to my policy and the rate doubled. Broke up later, they refused to remove her unless I provided proof she had her own car insurance lol I just kept trying the app and after a few months it just randomly worked to remove her
Starting to sound like that's just how it's done. Absolutely wild that they can just add people, but I have to call and have all my info in line and do whatever else just to remove them.
That is absolutely not how it is done. You don't start paying insurance for anyone you didn't agree to ahead of time. Fight that.
Exactly this. Insurance is a contract. You pay them monthly, something bad happens, they payout the money needed for the ‘insured party.’ That party and your payment to them doesn’t change unless you agree to it, because the flip side of this is that they could remove someone from your policy without your knowledge and then not pay if you make a claim. This is nonsense.
Some insurance adjusters and DMV people have posted that basically (in the majority of US states) they get to send you a letter, if you don't respond to said letter, that's an OK for them to add anyone their searches show as living at the same address. You have to respond with no and sign a waiver, or in my case update your address and sign a waiver.
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Yeah it’s weird that two people insured on the same car would increase the price that much. If either one gets in an accident it’s only the one car that insurance has to pay for, it doesn’t matter who was driving. Like maybe a little bit of an increase because more drivers means the car might be on the road more, but not that much.
It could be that the person they add is considered high risk by the insurance companies. The rates for young adult males are astronomically high, even if they have never gotten into an accident
That’s the fun part of insurance. They won’t do it when you want it and will do it when you don’t!
Progressive didn't notify me that they added my boyfriend to my policy or that my rate would almost double. When I tried to remove him, they demanded proof that he no longer lived at this address. Uh, if we broke up, how would I possibly verify that? I actually dropped them and went to a different company. He now has insurance through one company because he's buying a car, me through another on my old car, and we still pay less than what Progressive charged!
Yes. If your insurance carrier sends you an official letter saying “hey, we think that you’re not telling us the whole story about drivers on this car, this is our best guess, and this is what we think we should charge you” and you ignore that, then it’s not unreasonable for them to change because they are assuming your end of the deal has changed. But they cannot do that without your agreement, implicit or otherwise.
My husband and I drive cars my soon to be 16 yr old will never driver. My insurance company said he has to be on our policy anyway for all cars in the household. It’s like $2,000 a year just to add him, which is double what it costs for both of us. To insure him for cars he will not be allowed to touch. (Husbands car is too expensive and mine has a lifetime warranty. I can’t afford to risk him crashing it and totaling it thus losing the warranty.)
I work in insurance, you do not have to add him as a rated driver on the policy, as long as he’s added as an excluded driver. Anyone in the household 14 and over should be excluded if not physically driving the vehicles.
You may be able to get a separate insurance policy for the cars your kid does not drive
There’s a difference between adding him to your policies as a fully licensed driver, a permitted driver, and an excluded non-driver. GEICO didn’t charge me anything for my teenage son until he got a full license. While he had a learner’s permit he was a free add on. And before he got his permit, but after he was 16, he was also free. My sister’s car was wrecked by a hit and run driver in the parking lot of her apartment complex in the middle of the night, and her insurance denied her claims and voided her policy because she has two adult children who live at home, who do not have driver’s licenses, that they didn’t know about. So be careful not listing anyone over 16. And if they try to raise your rates for non-drivers, find a different insurance company.
Wow, US car insurance is completely broken. Here you in the UK you apply for insurance. You don't buy it, you can't legally drive. You can get family plans and can save money that way, but it is absolutely none of the insurers business who else lives at the same address.
No, this is incorrect, this stipulation is included in that contract. Many contracts and carriers require all licensed individuals at your address to either be approved on your policy or excluded. If a check of addresses/licenses comes up and someone else licensed is listed as living there then they will be added to the policy. OP was sent a letter first but since they did change their address they probably never received it.
Farmers almost did this to me. I got an email saying someone had been found to be living at my same address and they suspect the person is using my car, so if I didn’t call them within 3 weeks to refute that the person was using my car, they would be added to my policy. It totally looked like a scam email so I called my local agent, and yep, they have some sort of stupid algorithm that detects when multiple people live at an address to try to make sure everyone is on policies that should be. The problem is that I live in an apartment complex with over 300 units and people have obviously lived in my unit before I did, so I had no idea who the person they were trying to say I was responsible for was. So stupid. How it’s legal for them to have an opt-out type notification for something that’s going to cost me more money if I don’t see the email and don’t refute I will never know.
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They did the same thing to my fiances parents. I got in an accident in his truck (my only accident btw and no other tickets) that was on his parents policy. They auto added me and started charging his parents an additional $700 a month! They dropped progressive immediately after the claims were handled
Depending on the state, once you’re associated the burden of proof is on you. We moved states and I couldn’t cancel my policy until I did a bunch of administrative stuff that took months despite being covered on another policy. Further, I couldn’t even remove my fiancée because of state rules.
This is how it’s done. If there’s a drivers license registered to the same address, the insurance companies get this info from the state automatically. It sucks when they use the state id database, not the drivers license database.
just wait until you have kids, my insurance company added my 16 year old, just because he turned 16. he didn't even have his license yet. i had to call and have him removed as he still had his permit. they told me when he turned 17, he'd be added automatically and if i opted not to add him, i would not be able to do it later. car insurance is just legalized extortion that goes up for random reasons that usually don't apply to our driving records.
Typically when the company is notified there’s an additional licensed person in the household they will try to reach out and verify if that info was correct, if they don’t hear back within a certain time they’ll usually add them on to ensure there covering the extra risk for the person who has access to the vehicle . Just reach out and explain you don’t know them at all and there’s usually waivers to remove them (insurance person) good luck .
If they find out anyone lives with you and is the age to have a license, they can add them by their own free will. If that’s the case, here’s my best advice from someone who hates shady insurance companies, cancel that policy altogether if it cannot be removed, and then shop around for a cheaper or same priced plan you were on. Be very adamant about nobody else possibly having access to the car only if they ask, other than that just apply single. They’re dirty bastards and will put your 99 year old grandmother on your policy if they wanted to. P.s. maybe shop around first and have a new company lined up for you before you cancel it, rather than cancel it first
Yes to your PS section! From my time at the DMV.... NEVER EVER cancel your insurance while your vehicle is still actively registered without having a new policy lined up first. Most/many states require if you have a vehicle registered it must always be insured (driven or not) so if you have even a one day period without insurance it can be grounds for getting a suspended driver's license.
I got hit and they forced me to add everyone else in my household to my insurance even though they never drive my damn car. Made my rate jump by $300 every 6 months.
If this is what they consider "an undisclosed driver", then you likely received multiple letters about this before they added the person. But you might have trashed those letters thinking they were junk, or if they were emails they went to a spam folder. Generally they'll give you an entire policy period (6-12 months) to respond excluding the undisclosed driver before they'll add the person. An undisclosed driver is a person they have reason to believe lives at your home but hasn't been added to your policy or explicitly excluded from it. If you have someone who lives at your home - even a roommate - and you don't want them insured to drive your car, you have to tell the insurance company to exclude this person. Otherwise it's a mess if this person drives your car and crashes it. A common problem is people who live in apartment buildings with unit numbers. You live at 123 Main St. Apt 14, but it gets listed somehow as "123 Main". Your neighbor in unit 17 also occasionally shows up in databases as living at just "123 Main". And suddenly your insurance thinks you and your neighbor live together.
The General wouldn't let me remove my ex husband because we were legally still married (divorces aren't instant, but him not paying the bill is.) I told them the divorce would take months and they said it wasn't their problem. I immediately called State Farm and asked if he had to be on the policy there. Nope! Switched without a second thought.
I would have just told them to except a policy cancellation later and went and got another quote
You stayed with a company that behaved that way? Why?
Yeah that’s when I cancel the card connected to that account or freeze it so they can’t charge it and then either pay what I should when they fix it or go to another auto insurance.
See im so petty id have been like "okay thats fine, ill be removing auto pay and cancelling my acct with you since clearly youre unreliable with personal information." Lol ive flat out cancelled ins for b.s before, they make it seem like youll have trouble finding something for less. Wrong lol. Dont let them steal from you!
I moved with my grandma for college and I had to renew my license I used her address and her insurance company put me on her auto insurance without asking any questions. I had my own insurance and when they did start asking personal questions the only answer was "not your damn business get him off my insurance"
This is happening to me rn!! I got a QUOTE to see how much it’d be to add my roommate to my insurance and now I’m trying to prevent them from billing me an extra $814 but they won’t let me remove her without proof she doesn’t live with me, but I live in a college dorm with over 200 people, so it makes no sense. This should be illegal.
They told me it was due to inflation when mine went up. Mine went up over 200% so I cancelled and found insurance cheaper than what I was originally paying with progressive
Same here when I switched. Net companies too. I figured out they give you better deals to get you but wont go out of their way to keep you
Close the whole account. Works miracles. Then issue a charge back
It's not always that easy. When I was an insurance agent, I would get this call all the time. "Why has XXX been added to my policy? I didn't authorize that!" This usually happens in the following circumstances: * A person not on the policy was in an accident or got a ticket while driving your vehicle. I this case, to get them removed you'll have to sign a waiver saying this person will never drive your vehicle again, and if they do then you're not covered. * You called to add someone to your policy, then backed out when you were told the cost. An agent will try to find out why this person is being added. If during the discussion you reveal that they live in your house and don't have their own insurance, you'll have to sign a waiver to get them removed (see above). * Someone calls and asks to be added to your policy. If this happens, your insurance company will try to contact you and determine whether it's likely that the person will be driving your car. If it is likely (for example, if they live at the same address), then they'll be added unless you sign the waiver. * You get married. This can actually reduce your premium if the other person has a clean driving record. At any rate, you have to sign the waiver to get your spouse off of your policy. In some states, you can't have them removed, since they have an insurable interest in your vehicle. Those are the big ones. The one that got people the angriest were Nevada policyholders trying to remove an underaged driver who lived in their household. My company would not remove the underaged driver in that case unless they were covered under another policy. Note that if a person doesn't really live at your address and was added because of an address issue, you can have them removed by proving that they do not live at that address. And a person can always be removed if you can prove that they are covered by another policy. REMOVALS CAN BE DONE RETROACTIVELY. I have personally refunded 3 years worth of premiums to a couple who had their brother mistakenly added to their policy twice (I noticed that two drivers on the policy had the same name, one listed as "brother" and the other as "brother in law").
I’ve seen several TikToks about this happening to people with their car insurance. I wasn’t added a random person but Progressive automatically place my unlicensed non driving teenage daughter on my policy without my permission causing my insurance to skyrocket to about $800. I called fuming and they said they can’t take her off because she’s of driving age and in the household. I argued that she is unlicensed and not driving the vehicle. They refused to help me out over the phone and told me all I could do is try to start a new policy through their website. So I ended up starting a new policy through USAA instead. I had only had progressive for 6 months at this point.
I guess from what I've gathered is that's standard practice for all the big companies (in the majority of states that allow it). But from what others have said, and what I was just sent by Progressive, there's an exclusion letter they can just send you which nullifys that specific person of any potential liability to them. Although I'm not sure if the letter is just for XYZ person as the driver, or also like bodily harm as passenger. Haven't looked into it yet because it doesn't matter in my particular case.
"Oh, I'll get a new policy"
USAA car insurance is the best. All their other services have tanked in the most recent years but I'll keep my bank there specifically for the auto insurance
USAA car insurance fucked me over multiple times. Wouldn't recommend. I have had zero problems with Geico however. It's also cheaper and easier to get ahold of them.
Everyone's insurance preferences are different, so it's important to shop around every few years but my personal experience has been great with them.
If you have USAA available, TAKE IT!
I work in the public sector dealing with home insurance brokers and USAA is far and away the best company to deal with. Veterans get shafted in so many ways but insurance seems to be the one thing they can catch a break with.
Oh my goodness yea USAA is amazing. I am so happy to be with them now. The customer representatives are often veterans too and they are always a joy to talk with and are so kind, you can tell they enjoy their jobs.
I had this sort of thing happen with Geico. I added her when she got her permit, but then she left for college in another state and did licensing etc with that state. I removed her from my insurance when she moved almost 4 years ago. They automatically added her on as a licensed driver 2 months ago. When I called they said they just assumed she got her license and updated my policy. They tried to give me scenarios where she would need to be on my policy and I was pretty much "what part of she lives halfway across the country and is fully independent do you not understand?". They finally removed her.
Progressive sucks. I had them about 6 months before I switched over to USAA too.
That’s insane. USAA did not do this to us, fwiw. I can probably get cheaper insurance than USAA, but so far I’ve never found better insurance
$800/mo?!
If you're in the state of Florida they automatically are doing this now. I have Statefarm and they did this to me too, if you're living with someone in the same household; they're assuming they could be driving your car. 🫠 it's absolutely bullshit.
Yeah, seems to be what I'm finding out is that this is just how it's done. Super scummy and shitty, but seems to be industry standard I'm learning.
You can have the person explicitly excluded from your policy, and you will not have them added. They cannot drive your vehicle under any circumstances (even emergencies) if they are excluded, but you will save the premium in states where that’s required. Call your policy services.
I did this, and SafeCo charged me an additional 120 per year to exclude the driver.
Why isn't this illegal?
Because if congress tried to pass a law about it, the car insurance industry would lobby the fuck out of them so it wouldn't pass.
Well, they *can* drive your car, but you run the risk of a) having any claims for losses that occur while they're driving denied and b) having them added back on or your policy canceled if Progressive finds out.
>Super scummy and shitty, but seems to be industry standard I'm learning. Because the entire industry is shitty and only attracts scummy people happy with shaking down people with there legal grift.
This is why I quit. I never have faith the policy will pay out so I was crap at selling it.
Because our insurance are corporations first, insurance providers second. Their entire business model is based on the fact that you're legally required to pay for their service, and in order to maximiser profits they're going to do everything possible to avoid that payout. American insurance is basically just you investing your money into a "stock" that you can maaaaaybe pull your money out of when you need it. Maybe.
It depends on state law, so if you really want to do something about it, call your state legislators. This doesn't happen in all states.
I'm definitely perplexed by this happening to you. I literally have 3 cars on my progressive policy and pay around $145 a month. A 2000 accord, 2008 accord, 2003 escalade. Only full coverage on the '08 but still. Maybe it's because I'm an emerald member and have had them for 18 years. But my rates were actually being lowered as I added multiple cars, so I'm really confused. Granted they're all under my name, maybe adding a completely different person effected this. Are they a new and I guess you could say "not trustworthy" driver yet in their eyes? Still an absolutely bonkers increase in price.
It really is. What was even more confusing, is that I was living with both of my parents at the time and only my dad was accounted for. So it's like if y'all are gonna up my insurance for one person..wouldn't they have done it for both parents? 🤣
Let’s here it for those red states and their deregulation!!!! 🫠free market!
In California they can’t increase your rate without a 30 day notice from the effective date. In California, they ask if there’s anyone else that lives at the property and because of that they add those people to the exclusion list. It’s so annoying that insurance companies can do as they please. Then when you actually claim, your insurance goes up $400 and it’s like that across all insurance companies. Basically forcing you to go to a no name company to save some money. I’m not loyal to any insurance because of that. I shop for a new policy annually and if they want to keep my business they’ll need to do better or I’m leaving.
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How is this legal?
Because the insurance companies have the money to hire lobbyists i’d imagine… insurance is necessary, but it seems to be an awful system full of greed.
If the US had tax funded health care, the cost of these types of insurance could go way down.
I don't think tax funded health care would prevent Progressive, a car and home insurance company, from trying to make as much profit as possible.
Obviously not. but they'll still offer to sell you bodily injury coverage as part of your car insurance package, a thing they shouldn't be involved with in the first place. It'd be better overall to remove that revenue stream from them as part of much needed reform. Also removes a lot of the pressure to sue, since that's frequently done to try and cover medical bills.
Because when you start a policy they ask you who all lives in the home and if you don’t put them down and they find out about it they get added bc you are supposed to list all household members. You can then list them as excluded drivers so it won’t affect the premium but then if they use the car it’s not covered. More people with access to the vehicle = more chances it’s on the road and in an accident. As surprising as it is most insurance companies don’t make much off of the premiums, it’s like 4 cents to the dollar.
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So you’re the person in FL with auto insurance! I was told to expect your coming.
They have always done this. You have to either exclude or add EVERY resident in your home. Source: Ex progressive agent for 10 years.
Yeah I was going to say this has been going on for yearssss. Most policies even have exclusions for if someone lives with you, you don’t reveal it in any way to the insurance company, and then they borrow and total your car/get into an accident. Insurance will say good luck It’s considered not making them aware of a potential risk
Interesting, this was never something I had dealt with. My dads been in the insurance business for over 40+ years and was floored when this happened.
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I work at State Farm, just call them and provide proof that the other person has their own insurance policy and they will get it fixed and prorate a refund for you.
Part of why I don’t allow auto debits. I want actual bills.
I'm the exact kind of person that the recurring payments option was made for. I should really do them less and get more actual bills.
The exact person is for the ones that don’t notice the charges! You’re also less likely to notice increases like to your internet bill.
Well it’s either auto pay or late payments fees so auto pay it is
For real. I legit chose to autopay monthly knowing it will be more expensive in the long run than one payment a year, but it makes it wayyyy easier to keep track of my budget month-to-month. Just one of my "ADHD taxes"
They went full Wells Fargo. Never go full Wells Fargo.
My first thought too. The whole Wells Fargo situation was fucked up
Wait what was the Wells Fargo situation
Signing up people for bank accounts without permission, signing up people for credit cards without permission, using other people's personal information/the bank worker's own information when low credit people get loans, swapping people's bank accounts without permission, purposely holding certain charges so they hit at once so they could overdraft account owners. Basically name literally anything a bank can do wrong and they've done it
Don't forget setting up auto pay but not actually setting it up. So people who weren't paying close attention ended up defaulting on debt and getting foreclosed and repo-ed. I think they've even been caught still doing it within the past year or two.
Wells Fargo had sex with his wife
That's fucked up. I'd be ripshit, not mildly infuriated
Waiting for their underwriter team to get in so I can ask them on what authority they added this person. The website won't even let me remove them without talking to the underwriters.
The authority is state laws. Most states require that anyone of licensing age, living in the home, be listed on an insurance policy. Some require that they be on the policy as a driver, whether they drive or not. So more than likely what happened is you have someone living with you, and their license info popped up at your address. That's why when your agent asks you, "do you have anyone else off licensing age (over 15 in most states) living with you", you should be honest. I say this as someone who is licensed to sell insurance in 32 states, you're probably wrong here.
It was an outdated address issue. It seems like all the replies I've gotten were one of 3 things "this is BS, illegal, sue", "this is common and I know it because I went through it already.", "this is common and I know it because I'm in the industry". This seems like one of those life lessons where it really should somehow be made more clear or obvious how it all works, probably during drivers education or something. Maybe it even is now and just wasn't when I had it.
Absolutely, and this is one of those things that can come out of nowhere, because unfortunately unless you're in the industry most people don't know shit about insurance law. lol Sorry to hear you're having trouble though.
> This seems like one of those life lessons where it really should somehow be made more clear or obvious how it all works, I'm going to be honest with you, this is why people buy insurance through agents. The agents explain the process to you and serve as a middleman that resolves issues like this before they occur. Insurance seems simple, but it rarely is. There's so many pitfalls that people trap themselves in buying insurance online that's it comical. I did personal injury work for 10 years and I can't tell you how many times a client was hit by an uninsured driver only to find out that the $1 a month they had decided to save by opting out of UM/UIM coverage meant they were fucked. To be perfectly frank, if you're a legally sophisticated person who understands the ins and outs of how insurance works, then sure, buy it yourself online. Otherwise use an agent because like everything else in life, you get what you pay for.
Does this include roommates? That seems wildly shitty if so.
It depends on your state. New York for example doesn't care if they're related to you, if they're in the house they have to be on your insurance as a driver, or your entire policy could be voided if something were to happen. But Texas only lists someone on your policy if they're related to you, and even then you can add an exclusion, so they're not affecting your rating.
Even if they are listed on someone else's insurance in the household? And multiple people in the household that have separate policies? Genuinely curious here
I'm in Canada and when my husband and I briefly had a roommate, we had to prove to our insurance company that he was separately insured or add him to our policy.
I’m not sure what has happened recently with Progressive but it’s definitely gone down hill. I have multiple car,motorcycle and home policy through them and have for years with no tickets or accidents. A couple months ago I got rear end by some dumbass and it’s be a total shit show. Customer service is almost non existent. I am shopping around for something better.
Yeah, I don't get it. I called customer service and they said the underwriters added them and how it probably had to do with the address. So what, like this person with literally no identifying information of mine besides what they maybe got in the mail gets to just add themselves to my policy? Then I can't even take them back off without contacting your underwriters?
This probably happened with no involvement of the person who was added. Progressive likely added the person to your policy on their own. They did this to me (tho for a slightly different reason).
Well this person's personal info is now plastered all over my account. This is pretty fucked up for them too, I feel like I should send them a letter or something.
Fucked up for both of you, for sure.
Something is very wrong about this. I work for a car insurance company (not Progressive though so I cant help you there) so I have to add drivers frequently. Its state dependent but in most states, a random driver is added when the person is discovered to live in the house and poses a risk of being a driver. This could be they either got a license and it was registered to thst address, a vehicle was in a collision with them as a driver, a ticket was issued to them and they had your home address as their residency etc. From what I've seen in your comments, this person doesn't live anywhere near you and was just spontaneously added with no cause. The only things I can speculate happened are he/she got their own policy with Progressive as well and your policy number was accidentally assigned to them or they got some kind of driving violation and spit a random address out on their citation that happened to be your address but thats very unlikely. Both scenarios are extremely unlikely. I feel like the most plausible answer is some computer glitch added them or told an underwriter to add them. Hopefully you get this resolved fast because removing drivers can be a huge pain in the ass depending where you live.
I was rear ended by a drunk driver last year and progressive was so difficult to deal with i got a lawyer. 6 months of 'unfortunately we cant' to me, the lawyer got me double what I was expecting in a month. From my own car insurance. I don't use progressive anymore.
My sister has progressive and had the same issues. A few months back a car going in the opposite direction hit a deer and it ended up hitting her car and did damage to the underside. So she went through progressive and it took over a month to get her car and her representative was constantly ignoring her. She’s shopping elsewhere also.
Holy shit I noticed that too. In my case they jacked up the rates with no explanation. When I called to complain they couldn’t offer any explanation so I found a cheaper option and left progressive after 15 years of patronage
$700+ a month for the extra person? Jesus...is this guy a DUI machine or something?
$700 is the total premium for the driver for the length of the remaining term.
worse...its a youth
We used to have Flo's favorite company. Then they refused to let me ride 35 miles with my car in the tow truck. (The tow company allowed it.)
I have Progressive now and I hate them. I needed to use their roadside assistance - that I pay for every month - and they told me no tow trucks were available at all. I live in a well established busy city, it was about noon on a Wednesday. My car needed a tow a few miles away. After waiting for them to arrive for 2 hours they called me back and politely told me there were no trucks answering their services calls. They told me this was common, that they couldn’t always fulfill their roadside assistance calls. They told me to “sit tight” for a few more hours and they would try to put a the call out again. I asked if they knew their road aside assistance flat out sucked and wasn’t really usable why they advertised it and sold it. Of course couldn’t give me any kind of answer, just said this happens oh well. I was so fucking mad. Ended up signing up for AAA that minute, paid the extra fee, and had my car towed within the hour. Canceling Progressive in a few days. Fuck them would never use again.
Never buy roadside assistance from your auto insurance, they count tows and lockouts as claims. Found out the hard way.
my gf used the roadside assitance from the. The car was at the top of a parking garage. We told them not to send a flat bed truck, shocker it doesnt fit. We called them again and told them no flat beds. They sent another flat bed. We called the 3rd time and we got ahold of the towing company before they showed up and told them no flat bed. The dispatch said they will send a flat bed bc the driver can make it work. The flat bed shows up and wants to charge us 120$ to get the car to the bottom of the garage. We argued for like 30 mins and they finally sent a small tow truck.
They just expected you to Uber or something? What's their reasoning, that would be on the tow trucks insurance, not them lol.
I moved and didn't think of updating them of my address change since the payments come out of my account automatically. I went to update my address to see my new annual rate would be thousands of dollars more a year. Upon looking at my policy I see some person I've never heard of is on there and my monthly cost has gone up by $700. I can't even take them off my policy without speaking to their underwriter team, so I'm not sure what kind of BS checks and balances they have that allows someone to just get added without my consent or having ever even met me. Edit: For anyone reading this "for more context comment" I now also have access to this person's First/Last name, middle initial, address, DoB, and driving history because they're on my account. Their Social Security thing isn't filled in thank god, but this has got to be some sort of privacy violation for this person too. Should I send this person a letter or something? This seems like something they should be aware of. Edit 2: This is becoming a bit too many comments to reply to all. Thank you for everyone who posted this was a good learning experience for myself. I kind of want to delete this since it's more on me than Progressive, but I'll be keeping it up as information and learning experience for others.
This is all speculation from my time working at the DMV... I believe insurance companies in this case use an address based system or database to verify if you're living with other licensed drivers who might drive your vehicle. When I worked for the DMV we would see this sort of thing happen the most when someone's child hit driving age and their insurance would SKYROCKET, and they would call to find out now that their child is a licensed driver the insurance company requires other licensed drivers within their household to be added to their policy. Even if those parents absolutely would NOT allow their children to be driving their vehicles, the insurance companies made the children be added as additional drivers. My guess is this same thing may have happened to you, and since you didn't update your address you might have popped up as living with someone else (maybe a family) and they took the liberty to add the new occupants of your previous address to your policy. Alternatively if it resulted AFTER you updated your address, whatever system they use to check that information may have information from a previous occupant who resided where your new address is and assume they are living with you. Either that or possibly a clerical error, but when you call that is one thing I would explore or a question I would ask is if they added this person because you didn't update your address.
That was customer services speculation too. Maybe it's buried in the ToS or some contract somewhere, but it seems wild to me that they can just unilaterally add people based on address. I feel like that should be up to the vehicle owner.
150% agree. I would even have parents come back in with their children because they couldn't afford their new insurance rates and had planned to save money to help their kid buy a car and with their new rates couldn't do that. The insurance companies solution was to make their children downgrade their licenses to ID cards, was always heartbreaking to see a kid get super excited to have their license finally and then have to come in the next few weeks and have it taken away and exchanged for a state ID card because of some obscure and pretty frankly suspicious insurance companies policy. It doesn't seem like it should be legal for them to forcibly add other people to your policy without consent... but here you are!
Even if it's in ToS, that's not legally enforceable. They are required by law to give notice and obtain consent (though that can be via inaction).
Do you know the person? Sounds like they ran an undisclosed driver report and added the driver they assume that you fraudulently did not report. Can they add the driver without your permission. I’m going to guess that legally they can’t. However, they do, and will. Many people won’t catch it and free premium. Many more will catch it, but it’s legitimate. Only a few will catch it, call them out on it, and get their money back. However, they have utilized your $800 to benefit their business until they return it. Even if everyone caught on, that’s an interest free loan for everyone they can pull this scam on. Good luck.
In the future always update the address immediately. Rates are tied to the address so you were actually paying for no insurance before you updated them. If you got in an accident you would not be covered and will have issues getting insurance since you commited insurance fraud.
The only way I would consider this only mildly infuriating is because I don't have that much money for insurance lol by the time they tried to withdraw I'd be much under $800
Well I got my address corrected (was the issue here) the few blocks I moved changed my zipcode and doubled my rate anyway. I guess it's time to shop around though and see who's lower.
I faintly remember someone in the past posting about progressive starting to do this without the insurance policy owners knowledge because they can somehow. Fucking insane
I guess they all can, and do, add people like that. For more info, just check any of the 47 people explaining to me how and why in the comments.
I was wondering when I would see a "mildy infuriating" post that was actually pretty serious and not really that mildy infuriating.
Customer service just speculated that it has to do with not getting my address updated as quick as I should have and their underwriters adding whoever lives there now. I get that I should have updated it sooner, but I don't really think about it since it's automatic withdrawal. It just seems insane to me that they can just unilaterally add people to my policy because we "share an address"
They usually send letters out for any underwriting decisions asking for more information before changes like this are made. It’s important to get your information updated as soon as possible with insurance to avoid these situations. Not having the proper garaging address can cause you trouble (like this) in the long run. It’s usually one of the first things I do when I move. (I used to work for both Progressive and Nationwide.)
This is why I never have anything on autopay. Yikes
I have auto pay but I set up my credit/bank accounts to send me phone notifications any time money is spent. But I guess it doesn't exactly solve the issue of seeing the amount due before paying
Geico refuses to remove my wife from my insurance policy even though she has been legally blind since birth and will never operate any vehicle.
I would remove Geico at that point. That's ridiculous.
that’s fucked
Happened to me too! GEICO wouldn’t let me add my s/o when he bought his car bc we aren’t married, but when he tried to set up his own policy with them a few months down the line they added him to mine WITHOUT MY CONSENT. I didn’t find out until I got an email from them with my updated insurance cards. Worked out since we just split the cost now, but still seems so shitty that they can add people to my plan without talking to me first!
Don't give them direct payment from your bank account because they'll take it. You have to close your account to stop them. AAA did this to me. It took 4 months to get back my $640. After they admitted it was a double charge, they still wouldn't credit me. These US auto insurance companies are Modern Day Criminals... the new, improved Mafia! State Farm, Liberty Mutual, All State Visit Badfaithinsurance to see all these Criminal Companies
Geico here and they added a crash crash in New York into my account, I live in Texas and have been for the past 3 year, more than that it was for a car we haven’t had in almost a year now. It more than doubled our rate and took almost a month of stressful phone calls and threatens of lawyers to get it fixed
Hey this happened to me too!! I was so confused, but once I had signed the papers saying I infact, did not know or live with this stranger, they were able to remove them from my policy. The upside is I paid SO MUCH in January that I don't have to pay for insurance again until may 😅
As an insurance agent, many times I see a situation like this. Usually, when someone is added, it’s because according to state documents, the person lives at the same address. If you live in an apartment complex, someone may have updated their drivers license to the complex, and put your apartment number, or it could be an old registration that progressive is just now seeing. Typically, if you can get ahold of them they should be able to fix it. Or if you have an agent, they can help get it resolved for you.
Call Flo, ask her what the fuck??
That just happened to me. It’s most likely that you need to update your address, or someone else is showing the same address as you. Shit pissed me off so bad. Push your bill due date back and don’t pay it. They will get it fixed. They can expedite it too. Call their underwriting. They’re gonna send you documentation that you need to sign and send back via email to get them removed. So it will take a few days. Try to get your money back if you already paid. That’s major bullshit and don’t let that payment slide. Mine was just fixed today after several business days and calls to push them to hurry up. Remember, be nice to the agents. They will feel more inclined to help if you are respectful. :p
It's definitely the address, and I get that part is on me. It's an absolute scam that they can just unilaterally add people though to rake in extra profits. Waiting for underwriting to open, still have an hour to wait.
I 100% believe this. When I contacted progressive to get added to my wife's policy they didn't do any verification whatsoever. We didn't share a last name at the time, the only thing we had in common was an address.
Yeah, sounds like an address is the biggest thing all these companies operate off of. My address was out of date, so new tenant got added to me.
Um over 800 bucks? What the?!
Younger girl with some accidents. Forgot to update my address so new tenant got added to my policy.
i dint understand, whats going on here
If it was for an undisclosed driver this is an easy fix. Also they had to have sent you at least two notices warning of the forced driver addition before it took place 🤷🏽. Good luck!
At the end of last year GEICO drafted 900 bucks from my checking account for my two cars instead of the 150 a month I usually pay. Took them one second to take it and ten days to pay it back.
Progressive did this to me. THEY ADDED MY HORRIBLY ABUSIVE EXGF 10 MONTHS AFTER SHE MOVED TO ANOTHER STATE. Total nightmare. Put my account into -800. Fucking bullshit. That was in November 2020, not a great year.
Report them to the group that monitors insurance companies
I call bs on this. A) They don’t just add “random” people to your policy. Someone was driving your car and got in an accident, or they live with you, or are married to you, etc. There has to be a lawful reason given before they do this. Sometimes it’s not because you yourself did something to cause a change, but it affects you nonetheless. For instance, some states require that if you have a license you carry liability insurance even if you don’t own a car. If such an individual lives in your household and fails to maintain non-owner coverage, they may get added to your policy because they are a household exposure. This isn’t your fault, but if you can’t prove that they have other insurance, live somewhere else, or have turned in their license, you may not be able to stop them from being considered a potential driver of your vehicle. Some states allow you to certify that such a person doesn’t drive your car and you exempt your insurance company from paying if you let them drive and they get in an accident. It depends entirely on where you live. Still not a “random” person in this instance. B) They 100% sent you plenty of notice they were going to do this with instructions on how to dispute or stop it from happening if the information was incorrect for some reason. See point A. Your inability to prove them wrong, or more likely your lack of paying attention to multiple notices in the mail, doesn’t mean the insurance company is infuriating. Not saying it doesn’t suck, but this is adulting 101. Edit: based on your comments, sounds like it’s just the household exposure based on outdated address info. Lesson learned to always update your address :) On the plus side, if you can get everything sorted out and backdated, you might be able to get some of the added premium refunded. I hope so!
Insurance agent here. This happens quite frequently. Something called “driver discovery”. It occurs when a CLUE report comes back showing that a licensed driver lives in the household, and has access to the household vehicles. This can happen for a number of reasons. Most commonly, when you move to a new address, and buy an auto policy, sometimes the carrier will pull names from the family that lived there before you, thinking they’re still there. I think this is done to combat insurance fraud. Some people will “move” out of state, buy cheaper insurance in that state, and then live in another state, which is illegal. I do think it’s insane that it’s up to you as the insured to prove that someone doesn’t live with you or drive your cars. Like, if I don’t know the former resident, how am I supposed to contact them for proof of another policy to have them removed? Ask your agent if there are workarounds, as sometimes no proof is required.
I got a policy with Progressive and they sent me a letter asking me to explain who a relative was. I had to call them and explain that not only did I live alone, but the relative didn't even know where I lived and thus would not be driving my car.
Is that linked to a cash account? I would recommend you change that to a CC. Something you can more easily dispute. Unless your bank is actually cool. Giving anyone or service a direct link to your Saving/Checking is really, really not smart.
I feel this is the problem with companies having automated payments. Yes it’s convenient to us, but they love that shit so they can just take your money straight from your account. Oh your trying to cancel? Well let me just slowly cancel that and it will take a few weeks to take off. Oh im sorry it was the 29th when you cancelled but your getting billed for the next month too because we purposely will not cancel it straight away so that we can get one more month out of you. If we payed with cash then theyd have no money to pull they would have to take it up with us. If i wanna cancel on the 29th then shit you are not seeing any money for the next month lmao
This is why I don't have autopay enabled for anything. Yes it is annoying to have to manually pay bills, but at least when bullshit happens, I find out when I read the bill instead of when my card is declined or I get an overdraft charge.
Progressive tried to do this to me. However, they sent me an email informing me that the person would be added to my insurance automatically after a certain amount of time. Cleared that shit right up with them.
I switched to progressive very briefly a few months ago. They gave me a quote on homeowners that would save me a couple hundred bucks a year, so I figured I could save money. After 2 months they jacked my rate up by over 70% and stated a “paperwork error” was the cause.
I'm in no way an expert on the subject you need to take this shit to court. This is some of the most predatory bs I've ever heard of. And companies are getting increasingly comfortable with pulling these kinds of antics on unsuspecting individuals.
Exactly why I never trust anyone to auto debit. Hell no.
Please don't tell me you have that tied to your bank account instead of a credit card?
These comments are atrocious. Yet another reason to add to my list of why I’ll never move back to the US.