Michael Tarulli, a retired NYPD officer who worked recovery at Ground Zero after 9/11, did what he thought was the responsible thing with his car insurance. He set the payment to automatic to ensure it got paid. When his checking account went into the red, he had no idea why.

The Staten Island retiree called his insurer, Liberty Mutual, for an explanation. The answer made no sense. A new driver had been added to his policy: a teenage girl he had never met.

This may sound ridiculous, but would you know if your insurance payment has increased? You may not. You may not know if you are getting the best deal, either. Comparison shopping for insurance at least once a year is a valuable habit to cultivate. It takes minutes and costs you nothing. Why wait? Compare car insurance rates now. You might save a bundle.

Stranger things

The teenager lived on another floor of a multifamily home Tarulli used to live in. He did not have her date of birth or her Social Security number, and at first he did not even know her first name. None of that kept her off his auto policy, where she more than doubled his monthly premium, from $426.50 to $1,039.83.

Because the bill was set to autopay, he did not notice. The inflated amount cleared five months in a row before it came to light. By then, it had pushed his checking account into the red and started bouncing his payments.

Silent assent

Liberty Mutual’s explanation rested on a letter. The company said it had mailed Tarulli a notice asking whether he wanted to add the driver, and when he did not respond, it added her anyway. By the company’s account, the change was legitimate because he never said no.

Whether an insurer can treat your silence as agreement depends on where you live. Notice and auto-renewal rules vary by state, and consumer advocates generally argue that a change large enough to double a bill should require explicit approval, not an unanswered letter.

Regardless, the takeaways are clear: Open mail from your insurer, take action if need be, and check the payments leaving your bank account.

Backup required

Tarulli spent his career in law enforcement dealing with other people’s issues. Decades later, he could not pry his own money back from an insurance company that had taken it. The refund came only after he called a local TV consumer reporter for backup.

Within a day, Liberty Mutual reversed course and returned $2,667, as 7 On Your Side reported. In a statement, the company said it does not discuss customer policies publicly and that whenever it was asked for information, it reached back out to the customer directly.

You may not have a news team, but that’s no excuse for failing to check your bank account or review your annual insurance renewal notice. Just before renewal is the perfect time to read the fine print and compare policies with Insurify, which lets you review real-time quotes side by side. You could save up to $1,100 on your car insurance.