In October 2010, Slate published an article online about payday lenders and a particularly egregious practice — one that went beyond the outrageous interest rates and failure to disclose fees. It all started with a site that promised to match borrowers with payday lenders.
We often talk about insurance being a highly regulated industry, but we wonder if we have explained just how far those regulations go. The state must approve rates and forms, for example, but the state also lays out rules for how agencies, brokers and insurers deal with their customers.
When it comes to unfair trade practices in the insurance industry, we don’t need the statute to figure a few of them out. Misrepresenting benefits, overcharging for coverage and underpaying claims — better known as lying, cheating and stealing — are universally acknowledged to be unfair trade practices. Yes, brokers and agents may try to justify the half-truth, and insurance companies may engage in advertising puffery, but, really, the lines are clearly drawn for those three misdeeds.
We are continuing our discussion of sinkholes and the difference between New Jersey and Florida. New Jersey has, as we said, had a rash of sinkholes appear; one swallowed a snow plow. Florida, of course, has its own Sinkhole Alley — Pasco, Hillsborough and Hernando counties — and a reputation to maintain.
We are going to pause in our discussion of sinkholes in New Jersey to explain who Henny Youngman was. We realize that our baby boomer is showing around the edges.
If the Northeast is going to share its weather with Florida, perhaps it is only fair that we share something with those states. New Jersey, in particular, has been learning about the dangers of sinkholes.
We are finishing up our discussion of the Consumer Federation of California’s complaint to that state’s insurance department about Geico Insurance Co.’s web-based application. According to the CFC, the app offers certain applicants policies with coverage limits that violate state consumer protection and auto insurance laws. The website asks for information in violation of state law as well, the CFC claims.
We are picking up the discussion from our last post — the discussion about the Consumer Federation of California’s complaint to the state’s insurance department about Geico Insurance Co. The problem, the CFC says, is that the Geico online application’s rating process requires applicants to supply information in violation of state law and then uses that information to discriminate against certain categories of applicants.
We find ourselves making reference to television ads and F. Scott Fitzgerald today. The first appears in the title of the post, which, of course, refers to the Geico ads in which the adorably charming Geico Gecko cheerfully informs us that 15 minutes will save us 15 percent on our auto insurance. The second comes in the form of an observation we are certain others share: California is different from you and me … and Florida.
We were talking in our last post about insurance and traveling and the hassle of dealing with insurance claims for things that happen away from home. Most of us are familiar with the hassle that comes from going out-of-network with a health care claim. Put a few hundred miles between you and your in-network providers, and things get even more complicated.
