After falling or remaining flat through 2007, average auto insurance premiums rose an average of 1.05% during the first quarter of this year, a new survey by Insurance.com, a website that lets consumers compare insurance quotes, found.

Fortunately, there are steps you can take to lower your insurance rates:

•Drive Safely. Just 1 speeding ticket could raise your insurance premium. Conversely, many insurers will lower your rate if you haven’t had an accident or been ticketed in the past three to five years.

•Raise your deductible. Raising your deductable from $200 to $500 could reduce the cost of collision and comprehensive coverage by up to 30%. Raising your deductible to $1,000 could lower your premium by 40% or more. Just make sure you have enough money put aside to cover the higher deductible amount in case you’re in an accident.

•Take advantage of discounts. Many insurers provide a discount of up to 15% for teenage drivers with a B average or higher in school. Some also offer a 5% to 10% discount for policyholders who take a defensive driving course.

•Driving less often (if you use public transport to go to work for example) could reward you with a low-mileage discount. You’ll probably need to provide documents to support the change in your driving habits.

•Consult your insurance agent before you buy a car. Premiums vary significantly from one type of vehicle to another as insurers review several factors (repair costs, model’s safety record…).

•Shop around and fill in a comparison quote. Switch for a new policy well before your current policy comes up for renewal if possible as many insurers provide an “early shopping” discount of up to 12%.

A read a great article today by Jason Bordoff about a new model for car insurance which would see the cost of car insurance link to the amount of miles (or kilometers) the owner drives in the year.

Here’s an extract of his article:

Drivers who are similar in all respects – age, gender, driving record – pay roughly the same premiums whether they drive 5,000 or 50,000 miles per year, even though the likelihood of a collision increases with each mile. This “all you can drive” pricing scheme is inequitable, as low-mileage drivers, particularly low-income people and women, subsidize high-mileage drivers.

A better approach is simple and obvious: pay-as-you-drive (PAYD) auto insurance. With insurance costs that vary with miles driven, people would have an incentive to drive less, thus decreasing the harm that more miles have on society – from greenhouse gas emissions to wear and tear on our roads. Under this system, higher-risk drivers – for example, the 25-year-old with a sports car and a DWI record – would still pay more per mile than lower-risk drivers.

What a great idea which should see most people premium reduced and use todays technology to assess risk more fairly.

To read more, visit the website: http://www.dallasnews.com

Car theft in the US has dropped in the recent years. For once you can’t blame Grand Theft Auto IV coming out in a few weeks and actually maybe it helped by keeping thieves inside acting it out on the console instead of stealing for real

So here it is…

The Top 10 Worst Car Thief cities in the US:

1. Modesto, California

2. Las Vegas/Paradise, Nevada

3. San Diego/Carlsbad/San Marcos, California

4. Stockton, California

5. San Francisco/Oakland/Fremont, California

6. Laredo, Texas

7. Albuquerque, New Mexico

8. Phoenix/Mesa/Scottsdale, Arizona

9. Yakima, Washington

10. Tucson, Arizona

Allstate car insurance has been ordered to cut car insurance rates by 15.9% for residents in California. The news is likely to have a big effect on Allstate’s bottom line with the company insuring about 10% of the states cars. The rate cut comes into effect on April 14 and will result in average savings of $124 per vehicle.
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Esurance car insurance has announced that it has signed a six-year agreement with AutoWatch. Tech savvy customers of the direct-to-consumer personal auto insurer will now be able to monitor their vehicle’s repair progress online.
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Conning Research has made a study on the nonstandard car insurance market. Nonstandard generally refers to drivers that are considered as high-risk.

They have some interesting findings, including;
- Increasing use of technology in the insurance market gives car insurance companies the ability to track the actual risks of insuring motorists previously considered as high-risk.
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Wow, just read a post from this site. It sounds like he didn’t have uninsured motorist car insurance cover. How can you not feel sorry for this guy. He sounds like a reasonable, intelligent law abiding citizen. I completely agree with his comments;
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Investors had a little bit of a freak out at Progressive Car Insurance’s news that February monthly earnings fell 51%, dropping the share price by 6.6%. I guess the interesting question is; is this a sign of bad things to come?

Overall the situation is far from being bad for Progressive. Lets face it even if the economy is struggling a bit auto insurance is pretty much a necessity especially when you consider a basic level of cover is pretty much mandatory.
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State Farm is currently under investigation for suspected deceptive medical exams and document reviews. We pay our car insurance company for peace of mind that if we’re involved in an accident we will be taken care of.
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Have you noticed your Arizona car insurance quote getting cheaper over the last four years? Apparently State Farm auto insurance rates have dropped a total of 20.29% for Arizona motorists in the past four years. Arizona features in the top 10 states with the highest rate cut, with New Jersey topping the list at 29.20%.
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