More Coloradans reveal insurance company incorrectly billed them for “hidden” drivers

Christine O’Connor, 51, is single, works two jobs in Colorado to make ends meet and got a jolt from her insurance company, Progressive, in 2023. The insurance company notified her they were immediately increasing her auto premiums by more than $2,000 annually after they discovered another driver needed to be added to her policy.

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 O’Connor — who has never been married, has no children and lives alone — was stunned.

“I didn’t add a driver,” thought O’Connor. “Who am I adding?”

She said she called Progressive the next day and found out the insurance company wanted to bill her for a woman who apparently lived at the same address as O’Connor in Castle Rock years earlier.

“She is the granddaughter of my landlord, the people I rent the basement from,” said O’Connor.

She said the woman had never ridden in or driven O’Connor’s 2015 Kia.

“Never. Not once,” said O’Connor, who said the woman had no connection to her, aside from the same address at one point in time.

Progressive quickly reversed the new charges the next day, according to documents shared with CBS News Colorado.

It was a similar story for David Brockway of Granby. Progressive notified him in November via email that they planned to add his daughter to his insurance policy.

“If we don’t hear from you within the next month, we’ll automatically add your newly licensed driver to your policy to ensure everyone’s covered,” said the email.

Like O’Connor, Brockway said Progressive was relying on faulty information.

“She’s not around here,” he said of his daughter. “She lives in Alaska.”

He said in May his daughter moved from Colorado to Alaska, where she now has her own car and her own insurance. And according to Brockway, his daughter is 21 and was not “newly licensed.”

Brockway said he contacted Progressive to let them know they had incorrect information and prevent them from charging him for his daughter.

“It’s the assumption their data is correct and they’re going to move forward with it and make changes unless you tell them otherwise,” said Brockway. “I’m just glad I took the time to read the email instead of deleting it.”

O’Connor and Brockway appear to be the most recent examples of Coloradans caught up in the insurance industry’s ongoing efforts to find undisclosed drivers or “hidden drivers” who may be costing the industry lost premiums.

One estimate is that the industry loses $10 billion a year in what is known as “premium leakage” — drivers who fail to notify their insurance companies about others in their homes who may be driving their cars. The theory is that drivers don’t report to insurance who else is driving their vehicle — for fear their premiums will increase — or they don’t know they are supposed to add other drivers to their policies.

Insurance companies typically hire third party companies to scour DMV databases and other public information in what is known as “additional driver discovery,” or A.D.D. But CBS News Colorado found that the A.D.D. process occasionally yields incorrect or outdated data about suspected “hidden drivers,” like in the cases of O’Connor and Brockway.

Steve Hakes, a Colorado insurance broker, said insurance companies “make assumptions based on historical data.”

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“Sometimes it’s accurate, sometimes it’s not,” said Hakes.

He said he was contacted by a couple whose insurance company informed them their daughter was being added to their insurance policy as another driver in the home.

“She was only 2 years old,” said Hakes. “The only thing she drives is plastic Barbie vehicles around the driveway.”

Hakes said the faulty data puts consumers on the defensive.

“They just assume, and suddenly your premium goes up and you have to fight it,” he said.

Ron Davis, a public relations spokesperson for Progressive, would not address why data mistakes are being made and not caught, what Progressive is doing to address the issue or why the burden is placed on consumers to prove the insurance companies’ data is incorrect.

He said, “I can’t publicly discuss the details of a customer’s policy,” and referred back to an earlier statement from Progressive which stated the following: “We also regularly review information from third-party sources about individuals who possibly live in the household and should be added to active policies. When information is found, we contact the policyholders to verify the information.”

“Identifying potential missing driving — age household members/drivers and working with the customer is important,” said Davis.

Brockway said what happened to him with Progressive, “Put the responsibility on me to deal with something they were doing. I would say Progressive needs to (check) their data more.”