Complaint Review: State Farm - San Diego California

In December 2022, we purchased a 6-month insurance policy for our new car in California. In February, they increased our monthly premium by nearly $100 (from $170 to $262) without any warning or justification.

In February 2022, when we asked why they increased our policy, a State Farm agent (JS) informed us that the underwriting team increased our premium because we failed to provide proof of previous licensing, so they removed the California Good Driver Discount.

We went back and checked our policy binder, which stated, "A State Farm Agent or Representative may contact you soon to inspect your vehicle and get the required documents listed below: Foreign License Proof."

However, we were never contacted by a State Farm agent or representative requesting foreign license proof. I asked them to produce evidence of requesting such documentation, but of course, they failed to do so — as it never happened.

Anyhow, they said that to rectify this, they would need proof showing that we had licenses previous to our current one (which is a Californian license). They said we could send them via email (as pictures), so I sent photos of our foreign driving licenses right away. JS said that they submitted all the documents to their underwriting team for review and asked that any credit be backdated to the inception of our insurance with State Farm, which usually takes 5-7 business days to review. They also said, “If anything additional is needed, I will reach out to you right away!”

Sure thing! Months went by, and we kept being overcharged by almost $100 each month that went by. Our multiple requests for an update went unanswered.

On August 18th — an entire six months after their last update and JS essentially ghosting us — I finally managed to get ahold of a different State Farm agent (FG) on the phone, who said that the underwriting team said that providing foreign driving licenses was not enough and requested that we provide our foreign driving records — which, again, we provided right away.

FG said it takes 28 days to process from the day we submitted the documents, which was August 18th. On September 27th, when I contacted for an update, I got this answer: “Sorry for no response, but I have been waiting for underwriting as they denied the request and documentation I sent in. I requested a revision of their decision and am waiting for their response.” So, I asked on what grounds they denied the request and documentation. Once again, our emails went unanswered.

On October 6th, I again emailed both agents we have been dealing with to ask what was happening and cc’ed their manager (EG). I reminded them about the numerous months of being overcharged and that we have provided everything they asked for in a timely manner. I also said that in the last round we provided additional documentation, we've been told the underwriting team has denied our request and documentation without any justification or follow-up, so I asked them if we are simply wasting our time with this.

And this was their response:

“The documents provided in August were submitted to our underwriting department for review. They have advised that they will not be backdating the discount on your policy as this should have been provided at the time of application when you bound coverage online. Unfortunately we were advised that there will be no premium refunded as additional documentation was provided after the cancellation date.”

Well, this was my answer:

1.     No documentation was requested from us when we were setting the conditions of our policy — not online, nor when we spoke on the phone — so how could we have known to provide something we were not asked for?

2.     Our insurance binder stated, "A State Farm Agent or Representative may contact you soon to inspect your vehicle and get the required documents listed below: Foreign License Proof." However, we were never contacted by a State Farm agent or representative requesting foreign license proof. I asked them to produce evidence of contacting us about this, but of course, they failed to do so — as it never happened!

3.     We were the ones to contact State Farm, again and again, to see why our already high policy fee was increased, and when the underwriting requested documentation, we provided it — this was WAY before our policy had come to an end, and it is NOT our fault that the underwriting team took until August (which is over 6 months) to review the documents we provided or provide an update!