Your Insurance Complaints Have Been Heard

State insurance regulators are listening to complaints and keeping insurance companies in check.

Does your insurance company complaint department feel like this?

When you are unhappy with a company and file a complaint, do you sometimes feel like no one is listening? If you do get someone to listen, do you get the feeling that they don’t care?

Yeah, me too.

But according to press releases being sent out by different states, state insurance regulators are listening to the complaints of the citizens they serve. In 2012 alone, there were millions of consumer dollars recovered from insurance companies for improperly conducting insurance business. So I guess there is hope for us drivers after all.

What Complaints Were Resolved

For the many, many years that I worked for insurance companies and agencies there wasn’t a day that didn’t go by that someone didn’t want to file a complaint about something. There were the silly complaints of having to pay their insurance premium on time to their address not being updated in the computer system (whether our fault or theirs).

But, there were also the more serious complaints that had to do with insurance policies being cancelled wrongly and claims that were clearly covered not being paid. It’s these more serious complaints that state regulators pursue for drivers.

Complaints like:

• Claim settlements that violated state law
• Claims wrongly denied
• Car insurance rates calculated wrong
• Policies cancelled without notice being given by a specific day
• Policies cancelled without a reason given
• Policies non-renewed without notice being given by a specific day
• Policies being denied coverage wrongly

How Much Was Recovered From Complaints?

The amounts that were recovered varied from state to state, of course. A lot of what was recovered depended on specific investigations that were conducted, or areas that were concentrated on more than others. For example, some states recovered millions for claims that were settled incorrectly while other states concentrated on insurance premiums.

Here is a quick breakdown of some of the states with impressive recoveries in 2012:

*Louisiana Department of Insurance, **onlineautoinsurance.com, ***Illinois Department of Insurance, ^Maine Bureau of Insurance, ^^ North Carolina Department of Insurance

Do People Really File Complaints?

It may seem like departments in the government just randomly check in on insurance companies to make sure they are complying with state laws and regulations, and they do (state audits). However, most of the investigations are started by drivers like you and me filing a complaint against an insurance company.

In 2012, Maine had 4,760 people make inquiries through their Bureau of Insurance about something not right about an insurance company they were working with. They also received 319 complaints in writing. In North Carolina, the Insurance’s Consumer Services Division received 65,000 calls and 7,500 complaints in writing total for all of the insurance products that were written in their state.

So never think that if you complain to the department in your state that regulates insurance that you won’t be heard.