BATON ROUGE – A temporary break in car insurance rates is coming to an end for many drivers. Back in April and May, nearly all companies gave rebates in the form of credit against future months of premiums. Those credits are now going away.

“When the pandemic first struck, miles went down and therefore claims went down. It was a total benefit for our auto insurance policy holders,” said Jim Donelon, commissioner for the Louisiana Department of Insurance.

Donelon says some companies offered the rebate for three months and six months for others, so now drivers are seeing their rates return to what they were before the pandemic.

“The increases we’re hearing about is not an increase. It’s the end of a discount, rebate or forbearance,” Donelon explained.

Donelon says there will be an increase, though, to homeowners insurance. The cause is not because of COVID-19 but because of the very active hurricane season this year among other large natural disasters nationwide.

"That will show up in renewals starting next year, probably the middle of the year, and we anticipate it will bring a 10-percent rate increase to homeowners in our state,” Donelon said.