Woman catches car insurance company trying to add person to policy and increase rates

Kim Thie was stunned when she opened a letter from her car insurance company and saw her premium would be going up.

“It’s between $1,500 and $1,700 every six months, and that just isn’t feasible on our income,” Thie said.

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She said her 23-year-old daughter who lives with her just got her license in May and her insurance company just let Thie know they’d be adding her daughter to Kim’s policy.

But her daughter has her own car and her own policy with a different carrier.

Fortunately, Thie was able to catch this before her premium was changed.

She is not the only one. News Center 7 Daybreak reported on a woman who noticed a $2,000 increase in her premiums after her provider added her two boys, ages 21 and 17.

“One is 21 years old and doesn’t live here. And the other one is 17, does not have a permit, doesn’t want to take driver’s ed, doesn’t want to get a driver’s license until he doesn’t have to take driver’s ed,” she said. The woman has Progressive Insurance.

Jesse Jones from our sister KIRO TV in Seattle says consumers better check their insurance premiums before paying them.

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Thie reached out to News Center 7 after a report our sister station KIRO TV about a woman in a similar situation.

“It got me thinking that I received a letter from my Liberty Mutual a couple of days beforehand,” she said.

The letter let Thie know about the upcoming change if she didn’t take action.

“That’s the default in your contract. It’s actually in the contract,” Michael Marchand, Deputy Commissioner, Washington State Office of the Insurance Commissioner said.

News Center 7 talked to Marchand in our original report.

“The way the policy is written, it stipulates that it is inclusive of anyone who is driver-aged in the household,” Marchand said.

Thie also says she’s upset about how the insurance company told her they got the personal information for her daughter.

“She said that they researched through the Ohio Department of Motor Vehicles, and I’ve seen that she is a licensed driver that lives in my household,” she said.

That’s also a standard practice by insurance companies.

Thie said to check your bill and make sure everything lines up so you’re not paying for coverage you don’t need.

“People need to know about this,” she said.

News Center 7 reached out to Liberty Mutual who responded “We do not publicly discuss the details of our customers’ policies.”

They said their consumer affairs team would look into Thie’s policy and then contact her directly with any concerns.

As of Aug. 28 Thie said new documents from her insurance company do not have her daughter on her policy.

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