Illinois Insurance Rate Increases Could Have Implications in Other States

Insurance rate increases in one state can have a domino effect in the rest of the states.

A small sample of the insurance companies that receive approval for rate increases. (www.onlineautoinsurance.com)

Whenever a company makes a bold move to make more money at the expense of their customers, other companies watch the aftermath very carefully.  Sometimes it doesn’t work out, like when Bank of America tried to tack on a fee to their accounts for using a debit card. This causes a huge uproar and other financial institutions did not follow. In fact, Bank of America ended up reversing this program after the backlash.

There are other times when it does work, like when the airlines started charging passengers for checking their luggage. After the backlash was minimal for the first airline that tried it, almost every other airline jumped on it also.

Insurance companies do the same thing. If they find that one company can get away with an insurance rate increase, the rest quickly follow suit.

What Companies Asked for Insurance Rate Increases

Overall, there were 16 insurance companies in the state of Illinois alone that were granted insurance rate increases.  Here are just a handful of the ones that were granted these increases:

• Illinois Farmers
• Owners Insurance
• Mendakota (2 sub-companies were approved for rate increases)
• Hallmark Insurance
• Auto-Owners
• Bristol West
• Victoria Select
• Badger Mutual

Insurance Rate Increases All Summer

The state of Illinois was very busy this summer with a number of insurance rate increases approved over the summer.  These rate increases were for specific coverages as well as for just sub-companies. Sub-companies are the smaller insurance companies under one large insurance company name. For example, Progressive Northern and Progressive Universal are both affiliates of the company we all know as just Progressive.

Per onlinesutoinsurnace.com, in Illinois alone there were 11 insurance rate increase approval and 13 in July.

What to Do If Your Insurance Rate Increases

Whenever your insurance company raises their rates, you should always start getting quotes from other insurance companies. Just because your insurance company raised their rates, doesn’t mean that all of the other insurance companies raised theirs, as well. The other scenario can also be that another insurance company raised their rates, but not as high as your insurance company did; meaning that you could still get a lower rate with the other company.

Either way, it is good to always call around every now and then to make sure you are getting the best rates. For an easy way to get quotes from other insurance companies for relief from your companies insurance rate increases, click here.