North Carolina Auto Insurers: No Rate Change Necessary

North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin announced good news for drivers in the state after the North Carolina Rate Bureau submitted its latest rate filing calling for no change in passenger car and motorcycle policies for 2011.

“This represents another victory for North Carolina drivers,” said Goodwin. “We already pay the eighth lowest auto rates in the country and we have a higher population than any other state in the top 10 lowest rates.”

Goodwin has stood firm on any rate change over the past several years. In 2009, he denied the rate bureau’s request for a 1.4 percent rate increase and rejected a 9.4 percent increase that had been implemented by the bureau the previous year. He also called for a 0.5 percent decrease. The commissioner’s action pushed rates to just under 2006 levels as one million state drivers received refunds from insurance companies totaling more than $50 million.

“The industry’s’ zero-change filing this year further affirms that I was correct in my decision to settle the 2008-2009 filings on the terms we did,” said Goodwin. “It allowed for a savings potential of $545 million over a three-year period for drivers statewide.

The North Carolina Rate Bureau is separate from the state Department of Insurance and makes rate filings for auto, workers’ compensation, and personal lines insurance.