Insurance company raises widow's rates

Grandmother gets rate increase after telling company her husband died

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A Jacksonville grandmother believes she's being unfairly penalized by her auto insurance company because she's a widow.

Eva Spanos, 76, spent five decades with the love of her life. She met her husband Gregory Spanos in Greece.

They moved to the United States and raised their children in Florida. Recently, Gregory passed away.

Eva Spanos is coping the best she can, "surviving," she said. She has support from her daughters, including News4Jax anchor Staci Spanos.

But they've run into a big problem. Once Spanos let her car insurance company know that her husband had died, her rates went up by $31 a month.

"And I said why?" Spanos asked. "You know, and they say 'because your husband passed away.'"

Her Allstate Insurance bills don't have an explanation why, but they do show the increase. 



That $31 dollars a month adds up to $372 a year. It's a lot for this retiree, who's on a fixed income.

"Well they said 'because you lost your husband and you are alone,' Spanos said. "What? Is that an answer?"

News4Jax took her questions to Allstate, where a spokeswoman told us that might be the case.

In an email, communication manager Cathy Mayo wrote:

"While I can't comment on specific customers and their policies, I can, however, tell you that a variety of factors, including marital status and accident history, go into rating a policy."

She suggested customers like Spanos "contact their Allstate agents and complete a customer protection review, to ensure that they are utilizing all discounts available to them."

Statistically speaking, unmarried drivers are more likely to get into a wreck. Spanos' husband wasn't a driver, but she had his name on the policy until he died.

"So married people have shown to be less risky on the road, have less accidents .and that makes them a better consumer from the insurance perspective," said Laura Adams, senior insurance analyst at InsuranceQuotes.com.

She says she's never seen a premium hike like this.

"While it may be legal for them to raise a rate we don't necessarily know what the reasoning is behind that. And so from a consumer's perspective we say just shop around. That's the way to level the playing field and make sure you're not overpaying and if there is something odd going on there with the rate I would just recommend she don't do business with that particular carrier going forward and might be time to make the switch."

Insurance companies are watched by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation.

FOIR's director of communications, Harvey Bennett, sent this statement:

"When one person is taken off of a policy, the remaining person loses the benefit of that person's income and credit ability, and can be moved into another rating tier. Florida enjoys a healthy and robust insurance market and it pays to shop around."

Spanos and her daughter say they've done that, calling over and over again but they're not getting any discounts.

Spanos has had minor claims in the past, but according to her payment history, this rate hike is not because of that. She's now looking for other insurance companies that can get her lower prices, but it hasn't been easy because of her age.

She just wants Allstate to charge her what she had been paying for so many years.