State Farm auto customers could receive up to $100 one-time payment per vehicle

State Farm will pay $5 billion back to auto insurance customers through a cash dividend, starting this summer. It will make one-time payments averaging $100 per vehicle to qualifying customers, the Bloomington-based insurance giant said on Thursday in a news release.

The dividend is due to “stronger than expected underwriting performance, which has been reported industry wide,” it said in a news release.

It’s the largest dividend in State Farm’s history and will apply to more than 49 million vehicles insured by the company, but payments will vary by state and premiums paid. It didn’t specify how many Illinois customers are eligible, nor the average dividend payment.

The company also lowered auto insurance rates in 40 states by an average of 10% in recent months, due to decreasing auto repair costs and fewer collisions in 2025. The lower rates, including in Illinois, represent $4.6 billion in premium savings to customers.

The news comes weeks after State Farm CEO Jon Farney wrote Gov. JB Pritzker in January to push against legislation aimed at curbing insurance premium hikes, WBEZ previously reported.

Pritzker and other Democrats have been seeking a legislative remedy to State Farm home insurance premium increases last summer that averaged 27%, jolting homeowners with massive sticker shock. In January, Farney said the state’s proposals would “destroy Illinois’ current healthy insurance market.”

Under a stalled legislative plan that Pritzker wants to revive, insurers like State Farm could still propose whatever premium increases they want, but state insurance regulators would be empowered to force consumer refunds if the price hikes are deemed “unfair or excessive.”

Pritzker said eight states have regulatory frameworks in place similar to what he’s pushing and 41 have more restrictive standards.

State Farm is one of Illinois’ largest employers with 21,000 workers at its Bloomington headquarters and agents across the state, according to Farney’s January letter. The company has about 65,000 employees total and more than 19,200 agent offices.