coronavirus

Insurance Companies Offering Relief During Pandemic

NBC Universal, Inc.

What to Know

  • With less work and a shelter-in-place order, Florida is driving less but still paying big bills for car insurance
  • Several companies such as Geico and Allstate are pausing policy cancelations due to nonpayments
  • Some are offering free or automatic coverage to anyone using their personal car for important deliveries during this time

Several of the major insurance companies are stepping up to offer some much needed relief to their customers during these tough financial times.

De’Andre Kliass is one of so many Floridians struggling to pay the bills because of the impact of COVID-19. 

“Pay check to pay check,” said Kliass. “I work two jobs. My morning job, I got my hours cut back severely.”

With less work and a shelter-in-place order, he’s driving less but still paying big bills for car insurance.

”I’m young so it’s high,” said Kliass. “Plus my rent and all my other stuff that I have to pay for.”

Allstate is one of the many major insurance companies working to ease the burden on their customers during these tough times.

Allstate’s CEO Tom Wilson posted a messaging saying, “because customers are driving less and having fewer accidents, we created the shelter in place payback to give our auto insurance customers more than $600 million back to help with these challenging times.”

“In the insurance company, we refer to ourselves often as financial first responders and you’re really starting to see that kick in right now,” said Sean Kevelighan, the CEO of the Insurance Information Institute. 

He says the insurance companies are coming up with a number of ways to help their customers. 

For example, some companies are allowing you to delay payments without penalties or come up with a personal payment plan. 

Several companies, including Geico, are pausing policy cancelations due to nonpayments. And lastly, like Allstate, a few companies are starting to offer relief in the form of paybacks to customers, which Kevelighan says is extraordinary and he expects other companies to follow. 

“The insurance industry absolutely understands the challenges that Americans are facing right now, and they’re encouraging their customers to call them directly and figure out what solutions they can work with together hand in hand so we can get though this financial catastrophe,” said Kevelighan. 

The other thing some companies are doing is offering free or automatic coverage to anyone using their personal car for important deliveries during this time. 

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