Offer Frenzy Hits Citizens Customers, But Many Return
By Charles Elmore, The Palm Beach Post, Fla. | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
But if history is any guide, consumers may want to talk to agents before they accept an offer and ask about their options to return to Citizens -- and at what price -- if the new company charges more than they anticipated.
Nearly 30 percent of customers statewide and in
"You've got a high return rate of these policies in takeouts," said
He cited widespread fatigue between the deluge of transfer offers and a clearinghouse new in 2014 -- a computer system used by agents designed to make customers ineligible for Citizens in a private insurer is offering comparable rates.
"The consumer and the agent are pretty much overwhelmed at this moment," Grady said.
For renewing Citizens customers, the clearinghouse steers customers to private insurers with the same rate or lower, and lets them come back at Citizens renewal rates within three years if a private insurer's rates go up significantly. Traditional "takeout" offers, made in letters to customers, can be refused. But once accepted, they may leave the customers unable to return at their old Citizens rate.
State and Citizens officials say they have been working to make it clearer to consumers the premium they can expect to pay when private insurers send letters offering coverage to Citizens customers, but the system has not always worked well.
Gilway said Tuesday he does not expect all of the year's potential transfer offers to take customers out of Citizens, in part because private insurers covet many of the same desirable customers and in effect cancel each other out. About 124,000 customers have left Citizens this year, a far smaller number than the potential offers for them.
Still, he expects the company to shrink to about 825,000 or 850,000 customers at year's end from 933,000 now -- and to around 750,000 in 2015, about the half its size three years ago.
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