Troubleshooter: Auto Insurance Run Around
HOLLY SPRINGS, N.C. (WTVD) -- Making changes to your insurance plan should be simple, that is what one Holly Springs dad thought, but quickly learned the opposite.
Jerry Gulyes wanted to take his 17-year-old daughter off of his auto insurance while she was studying abroad.
"We thought that was just a standard practice if she's not here, she's not driving," Gulyes said. "By contract, being in France, she's not allowed to drive."
However, when he called to make the change, he says he learned that wasn't possible.
"I was told that in fact it's North Carolina state insurance law that she has to be insured and that was all they could do for me. They apologized and that was the end of the story," Gulyes said.
Gulyes continued to contact his insurance company, Safeco, but says he didn't get the answer he wanted.
"He said, 'You could go ahead and drop her from full-time driver status, at $2,214 a year, to occasional driver status,' which was $1,682 a year. So there was a little over $500 savings to be had, but I was not satisfied with that because she was not an occasional driver," Gulyes said.
He did not understand why he could not change the policy, so he called ABC11.
"It was amazing how the direction of the wind changed after you made your inquiry of Safeco regarding the particular circumstance," he said. "I received a call back from the office of the President, up in Massachusetts, who said that in fact they could drop her insurance completely."
Gulyes said he saved $2,220 by dropping his daughter off of his insurance policy.
"Diane, without you I had no other avenue to turn to," he said.
A rep with Safeco said they would work with Gulyes to resolve any concerns. Gulyes is happy with the resolution.
