GEICO Cuts Auto Rates 6% In N.Y.
NU Online News Service, Dec. 17, 4:16 p.m. EST? GEICO auto insurance customers in New York State will see an across-the-board rate reduction next year, with 6-percent savings for a typical policyholder.[@@]
New York's Superintendent of Insurance Gregory Serio announced that his department will approve the 6-percent auto rate reduction for GEICO customers. The carrier's decision is expected to save existing private passenger vehicle policyholders more than $100 million in the Empire State.
GEICO currently has more than 950,000 private passenger vehicle policyholders in New York State, which translates into about 15 percent of the state's total market share as of Dec. 2004.
The decision by GEICO to lower rates came following a request by New York Superintendent of Insurance Gregory Serio last month. Mr. Serio in November asked GEICO and 12 other auto insurance carriers cumulatively serving more than 60 percent of the state's drivers to meet with him to discuss possible rate cuts in light of industry data indicating that losses had dropped substantially between 2002 and the third quarter of 2004.
"Thousands of New York drivers are going to benefit financially from these across-the-board rate reductions and we welcome GEICO's cooperation," Mr. Serio said.
"The favorable trends that allowed GEICO to take this step are the result in large part of regulatory reforms designed to combat no-fault auto insurance fraud, a multi-year effort that is now starting to pay off," he added.
The new GEICO rate structure goes into effect on the New Year's Day for first-time customers and starts on Feb. 15, 2005 for those that are renewing existing policies.
© Arc, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.