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Allstate Insurance Corp. will refund roughly $450,000 to Ohio cus
tomers who have been paying higher auto rates since January now that the state insurance department has rejected the company's plan for a rate hike.
Under its new director, Ann Wormer Benjamin, the Ohio
Department of Insurance sent a message to insurers March 7 when it rejected Allstate ' s request - rate hikes will not be approved without close review.
In a rare move, the department rejected a 3 percent auto premium increase proposed by Northbrook, Ill.-based Allstate, which has a 7.5 percent market share for auto coverage in Ohio and is the state's fourth-largest auto insurer.
As a result, Allstate said it will credit the policies of customers who were charged the increased rate from Jan. 27-when the rate application was filed with regulators-to March 10. Because Ohio is a file-and-use state, rate changes take effect when a rate change application is filed with regulators.
An Allstate spokesman said its 35,000 Ohio auto insurance customers will receive an...