Consumer Watchdog chastises California’s Mercury Insurance for supposed illegal practices

Mercury is looking to raise its auto insurance rates by $89 million in California, a move that consumer advocates are calling “illegal.” Consumer Watchdog, a group concerned with making the California insurance industry more consumer friendly, claims that the insurer is looking to pass a new law that would allow it to raise rates for good drivers that have, simply, not driven for a period of time for any reason. Mercury Chairman George Joseph claims that the legislation the company is backing would save policyholders money, but Consumer Watchdog calls such…

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Hartford to test a new form of car policy in 2012

Hartford Financial Services Group has announced its intentions to begin a pilot program in 2012 for an auto insurance policy based on telematics. Hartford’s president of consumer markets, Andy Napoli made the announcement during the company’s investors meeting. The new policy will be using telematics. According to Napoli, using the “devices in insured vehicles to transmit information about driving behavior, such as miles driven, speed, acceleration, deceleration, and using that information to price the risk.” This pilot program will be known as TrueLane and will begin in the first half…

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