More bad news to folks already dealing with rising rents, grocery prices, and the cost of gas—now you can add spiking insurance rates as well.
A recent TikTok video calls out a purported price hike by American auto insurance company Geico. The original poster tells her viewers that she may end up canceling her policy because of it.
Kayla Lee Mills (@kaylaleemills) posted her complaint against Geico on Tuesday. Since then, the video has gathered over 204,000 views on TikTok.
In it, Mills states, “I guess I’m about to be a car-less girl. What the f*ck is going on with the car insurance rates in the United States of America?”
Mills says she “received a text from Geico about an hour ago saying that I owed a bill or was going to be charged $520 on June 8th.”
She says she called Geico and asked, “What is this charge for?” A Geico representative reportedly told her, “That’s your new monthly rate.”
“$520 a month for car insurance. That is more than the car payment on my lease,” she says. She also says that before the new charge, she paid her premium six months at a time.
“How do I cancel my car insurance?” she asks her viewers. “I don’t need to drive anymore. $520? I do not drive a luxury vehicle. I’m in a Honda HR-V. I am not paying nearly $1,000 a month [tacitly including her car payment] to be driving on the road in my Honda HR-V before gas, before maintenance, before anything else.”
“My next steps,” she says, “are to call Honda and figure out how I return my lease, pay whatever penalty or whatever I owe on that, and then cut it loose.”
@kaylaleemills car insurance is a fucking scam and as much as I love driving around I REFUSE to pay this insane rate #carinsurance #rant ♬ original sound – kayla lee
Why are insurance rates going up?
Geico’s website notes that a variety of factors could make a policy rate go up during renewal, including driving records, a change in previously applied discounts, and life events such as moving or marriage.
Mills did not disclose whether any of these factors applied to her.
Still, rates have been going up across the board. According to CNN, “Car insurance rates are up almost 21% for the 12 months ended in February, according to new Consumer Price Index data released” in March.
Robert Passmore, vice president for personal lines at American Property Casualty Insurance Association, a trade group representing insurers, told CNN, “There’s a lot of variation from state to state regarding the car insurance rate increases that drivers are facing. That’s partially because auto insurers price their plans based on the losses they’re incurring on a state-by-state basis.”
“We do expect trends to moderate on a national basis over the course of the year, particularly in the second half of 2024,” Tim Zawacki, principal research analyst at S&P Global Market Intelligence, told CNN. “But that doesn’t mean drivers in some markets won’t continue to see rate increases.”
Viewers are fed up too
Many of Mills’s viewers expressed similar dissatisfaction with the state of car insurance in her video’s comments section.
“For 1 k a month you could just Lyft everywhere,” one viewer noted.
V (@xoxveeeeeeee) wrote, “My car insurance was $135 in 2019. It’s now $425. No car accidents, damages, tickets, anything. I’m glad my car has been paid off because I’d be paying $700+ monthly. Smh.”
Another viewer wrote, “Insurance in general is such a scam. Literally legalized scams. Car insurance, health insurance, homeowners insurance. The fact that it is hardly even regulated is insane.”
“We need good public transport like all other developed countries,” another viewer added.
The Daily Dot has contacted Mills and Geico via email for comment.
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