GEICO Back In N.J. After 27 Years
By Mark E. Ruquet
NU Online News Service, Aug. 17, 4:10 p.m. EDT?GEICO announced that it is stepping back into the New Jersey auto insurance market.[@@]
In a news conference yesterday at the state capital in Trenton, N.J., Tony Nicely, the Chevy Chase, Md.-based insurer's chairman, president and chief executive officer, made the announcement with the state's Commissioner of Banking and Insurance Holly C. Bakke.
"This is a very exciting time for GEICO," said Mr. Nicely. "We are extremely pleased to say that effective immediately New Jersey drivers can buy insurance on GEICO's Web site geico.com. Visionary thinking by state leadership and bi-partisan support of the legislature made this possible. New Jersey has found ways to balance consumer protection with a competitive marketplace."
"The department's goals through the reforms are to provide consumers with a variety of choices, continuing the downward pressure on rates," Ms. Bakke said in a statement.
She added, "The introduction of GEICO is proof positive that we are accomplishing our goals. Drivers in New Jersey are beginning to have the same choices as the rest of the country."
Robert Miller, senior vice president and head of Northeast operations, said the company is prepared to give sales and service 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with immediate policy quoting and binding for most consumers in the state.
The department said GEICO, which left New Jersey in 1976, would not set up a separate New Jersey company, like many other carriers in the state have done. Instead, it would operate as it does in 48 other states.
A spokesperson said the company plans to operate in New Jersey as it does in every other state it writes in. She added that the company has already set up claims service in the state and policyholders have been advised of that. The company would not provide figures on how much business it anticipates doing in New Jersey.
The carrier said it provides auto insurance coverage for more than 5.6 million policyholders and insures more than 9.5 million vehicles.
This is the second insurer to enter the state since auto reforms were enacted last year. Mercury General announced it would sell auto insurance through independent agents shortly after a series of reforms were enacted. The company recently celebrated its first full year of operation in the state. The department said, in the year, Mercury General has written more than 40,000 policies and appointed more than 300 independent agents.
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