Apr 24, 2020 3 min read

Ordered to “shelter in place,” Americans are driving less, and that means fewer car crashes.

Depending on your insurer and your unique situation, you may be seeing a lower automobile insurance bill.

Bob Hollick, a local State Farm agent and Observer-Reporter columnist, said companies realized in a matter of weeks how quickly the number of insurance claims decreased.

The situation means State Farm customers will be seeing a discount in their insurance rates by June of this year, he said.

“We’re giving back $2 billion,” Hollick said of State Farm in the United States. “Not every company did it. A lot of companies said, ‘Oh, we’ll figure it out later.'”

Although the length of the novel coronavirus pandemic is unknown, State Farm chose a 70-day window from March 21 to May 31 as a period of impact.

Some customers pay monthly for car insurance, and because each driver’s circumstances are different, the formula for calculating rates can be complicated.

“Anything that renews in June should be seen in renewals,” Hollick said. “It works out to be about $40 a car.”

Issuing checks to customers would have cost an estimated $9 million, so the company is recalculating rates rather than mailing refunds.

Regardless of what insurance company a vehicle’s owner chooses, in Pennsylvania, every car registered must be insured.

And if someone has financed the purchase of the car or is leasing it, agreements typically require the owner to have both comprehensive and collision insurance during the length of the pact.

Out of work and figuring car insurance is something you can drop? “If you let your insurance go, that’s a black mark against you,” Hollick said, and it will cost more to resume auto insurance down the road.

In a press release, GEICO noted it is providing $2.5 billion to customers through policy credits to its auto and motorcycle customers in renewals from April through Oct. 7.

The credit will also apply to any new policies purchased during this period. The credit is part of GEICO’s ongoing efforts to assist customers during this unprecedented time.

The average auto policy has a semi-annual premium of about $1,000 and generally covers more than one vehicle. This means GEICO expects credits to average about $150 per auto policy and $30 per motorcycle policy.

The company estimates the benefit to its 18 million auto and one million motorcycle customers will be approximately $2.5 billion.

GEICO customers do not need to take any action to receive this credit.

Allstate Insurance notified customers that most will be getting an average 15% payback.

Erie Insurance, according to an answer to frequently-asked questions, is going to mail checks to those who were insured April 1 and offers an online calculator to its customers.

As the COVID-19 crisis continues, state police have also noted they are responding to fewer vehicle accidents throughout Pennsylvania.

State police used the final week of February as a baseline. For example, from Feb. 22 to 28, state police handled 1,235 crashes. From April 4 to 10, they were called to 309 crashes.