New Jersey regulators say GEICO has returned more than $10.5 million to policyholders it charged too much, and that the problems reached more than 15,000 of them. The Department of Banking and Insurance announced the results of a market conduct exam on October 20, along with a $1.2 million penalty. Most of the refunds were issued before the announcement, so there is no form to file.
What the state says GEICO did
The department’s release says the exam found GEICO charging rates higher than the department had approved, cancelling policies for improper reasons, leaving required language out of notices that could lead to nonrenewal, and failing to tell total-loss owners who kept their vehicles about their rights. It names five GEICO companies, including Government Employees Insurance Company, Geico Indemnity Company and Geico Casualty Company.
The exam began in September 2024 after consumer complaints. Acting Commissioner Susan Ochs said, “Consumer protection is at the heart of our mission here at the Department of Banking and Insurance.” GEICO began issuing refunds on its own during the exam, once the errors were identified.
Was a New Jersey policy in the group?
A policy would have been in the group only if it was a New Jersey private passenger auto policy hit by one of those rating errors. The department’s notice to policyholders says letters were issued directly to the affected customers. Affected policies were adjusted either with a credit on the policy or with a premium refund.
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The notice does not say which customers got a credit and which got a refund, and it gives no amounts. A customer with an unexplained letter, or no letter and a doubt, can call GEICO’s customer service center at (800) 841-1587. The department’s consumer hotline is 1-800-446-7467 or 609-292-7272.
The exam looked at New Jersey private passenger auto business from June 2023 through May 2024, so policies written outside that state or that period are not what the report measures. Nothing on the department’s pages describes a deadline to ask about a refund or a form to file.
The $10.58 million, line by line
The adopted exam report covers private passenger auto business from June 1, 2023 through May 31, 2024. It breaks the refunds into three rating errors. Transfers between GEICO companies tied to accident forgiveness evaluations were wrong in 4,662 of 14,123 cases, 33%, and refunds on those reached $6,744,192.26.
Transfers tied to lending loss were wrong in 2,251 of 14,362 cases, 16%, with refunds of $1,755,083.20 after the exam stepped in. The third error came from a rating-plan conversion on March 27, 2024 that applied incorrect capping factors. That one touched 12,605 policies, and 9,714 of them needed refunds totaling $2,076,482.50.
Those three figures add up to $10,577,463.95, the report’s arithmetic, in line with the department’s “over $10.5 million.” The exam report says all rate-capping credits and refunds were issued by May 22, 2025. For the accident forgiveness errors, the report shows no refunds before the exam and the full amount afterward.
The $1.2 million penalty is not a refund
A consent order signed October 20, 2026 shows GEICO agreeing to an administrative sanction of $1,200,000. That money goes to the state. No part of it is set aside for policyholders, and the refunds above came through separate credits and premium payments.
The order is a settlement of the department’s findings, not a court judgment. The report cited other problems as well: improper midterm cancellations for ridesharing, a claim loss and food delivery work, none of which is an allowed reason, and six total-loss claims that went past the 30-day or 45-day deadline with no written delay notice.
Examiners worked remotely from September 4, 2024 to March 28, 2025, with select reviews continuing to October 9, 2025, the adopted report says. They reviewed 72 new and 85 renewal policies, 267 terminations, 430 paid and 262 denied claims, and 70 total losses. Those samples are why the report can put an error rate on each practice.
Cancellations drew their own findings. The report counts 114,445 for-cause cancellations after the first 60 days in the exam period and found 49 more that used first-60-day language. In a random sample, 5 of 89 midterm cancellations and 13 of 77 nonrenewals contained errors, rates of 6% and 17%.
Claims handling got a mention too. In eight instances, owners who kept a total-loss vehicle were not told in writing of their salvage rights. The report lists no refund for those findings, and the three rating errors alone account for the $10.5 million.
For policyholders the open question is narrow. Did the letter arrive, did a credit or refund appear, and does the amount match what the policy should have cost? The notice leaves that check to the policyholder, with GEICO’s line as the starting point.
Did a GEICO refund ever reach a New Jersey policy?
Refunds issued as credits are the easiest to miss, because a lower premium bill looks like nothing at all. A policyholder who skimmed a letter in 2025 may never have matched it to a number on the policy.
The Settlement & Refund Recovery System includes a claim log and payment tracker that puts each refund, credit and letter on one dated line. It also teaches the four-date rule for reading a settlement notice, which carries over to notices from insurers and regulators, and the tracker is a 5-tab workbook pre-filled with all 51 state unclaimed-property offices.
Get the refund claim log and payment tracker →
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
