Senate Bill No. 497
(By Senator Snyder)
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[Introduced March 24, 1997; referred to the Committee
on Banking and Insurance.]
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A BILL to amend article four, chapter thirty-three of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated section twenty, relating to permitting insurance companies to charge up to ten percent for the late payment of premiums.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article four, chapter thirty-three of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section twenty, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 4. GENERAL PROVISIONS.

§33-4-20. Penalty for late payment of premium not to exceed ten percent of amount of premium due.

Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, no insurance company doing business in this state may charge more than ten percent of the amount due for a premium payment, as the result of the payment being made after the due date designated therefor.

NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to permit insurance companies to charge ten percent of the amount of an insurance premium due in the event it is paid late.

Section twenty is new; therefore, strike-throughs and underscoring have been omitted.