Allstate auto insurance customers are about to face an increase in the rates they’re paying for their policies. This announcement was made only 6 months after a similar one was made State Farm, the largest car insurance company in the state.
The average increase for drivers in the state with Allstate coverage will be about 6 percent.
The original filing to increase Allstate auto insurance rates was made in January. An Illinois Department of Insurance filing showed that the insurer sought a 5.9 percent rate increase for over 70 percent of its current policyholders.
Despite the fact that State Farm had already increased its own rates, this boost in premiums prices has come as a surprise to many. The reason is that in February some of Allstate’s top execs had said the company’s intention was to ease off on the rate increases for motorists as they had already seen considerable increases for the past two years. Customer attrition rates have reached record highs following two years of increase in the double digits.
This has been quite the sift as Allstate auto insurance is known of amazing customer retention figures.
The insurance company has been able to keep many of its customers beyond the fact that their coverage often comes with higher prices than what many rivals have to offer.
On February 2, Matt Winter, president of Allstate, said “To the extent we’re able to keep more moderate rate increases, at this point on, we believe customer disruption will be mitigated and we’ll be able to hold onto more customers.”
This helps to explain why many people were surprised that Illinois does not appear to have been included in the statement as the requested 5.9 percent increase this year follows a 2016 hike of 6.9 percent and increases of 86 percent in 2015,
Still, Allstate auto insurance is far from alone in this trend. State Farm has a far larger presence in Illinois and it increased its own rates by 5.8 percent half a year ago. That represents the biggest single rate increase it has implemented in 14 years.
