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The South Carolina Department of Insurance has proposed new rates for credit property insurance, holding the rate steady for household goods but reducing rates for other categories for 2026.

Because rate decreases in recent years do not appear to have caused a consistent rise in insurers’ aggregate loss ratio, DOI is now planning to cut rates further, pending a hearing and industry and public input, the department said in a bulletin Monday.

“We propose to hold the rate for household goods – single interest coverage at the 2025 level and to decrease the other rates ten percent from their current levels,” the bulletin reads. Based on premiums earned in 2024, the overall impact resulting from these tentative rates would be a decrease of 9%.

The tentative 2026 rates, as a percentage of the loan for the product, are:

• Automobile, fire and theft – single interest: 0.45%
• Automobile collision – single interest: 1.67%
• Household goods – single interest: 5.81%
• Household goods – dual interest: 0.50%

The noted that the aggregate loss ratio for credit property insurance in 2024 was 22.8%, up slightly from 2023.

Credit property insurance is sometimes required by lenders to protect personal property used as collateral for loans, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners explained.

Insurers have 15 days to request a hearing. Requests can be sent to: Gwendolyn McGriff, South Carolina Department of Insurance, P.O. Box 100105, Columbia, SC 29202-3105.

Topics Property South Carolina