Drivers Getting Break as Many Insurers Cut Rates

[CShine]

With gasoline prices at more than $2 a gallon this summer, there is at least one bit of good news for drivers: the cost of auto insurance is starting to fall. State Farm, the nation's largest insurer, and two other big auto insurers, USAA and the Farmers Insurance Group, are cutting prices in many states and dozens of other insurers across the country are following their lead, industry experts say.

"Millions of drivers are going to see the cost of auto insurance fall this year," said Robert P. Hartwig, the chief economist of the Insurance Information Institute, a trade organization in New York. Rather than announcing across-the-board rate decreases, insurers including giants like Allstate, Progressive and Geico are more aggressively offering lower prices to customers with good driving records and significantly raising prices for those who have been involved in crashes or have received tickets for speeding and other violations. Since most drivers fall into favorably rated categories, the net result is expected to be lower costs for millions of drivers.

"Many of the national players are strategically reducing rates," said Anthony Diodato, a supervisor of analysts at A. M. Best, a source of data on insurance.

Over all, the average cost of insurance is still increasing, albeit at a much lower rate: instead of last year's average rise of 7.8 percent, prices for auto coverage across the country are expected to increase by 3.5 percent, according to the Insurance Information Institute. The rate reductions are expected to apply to all categories of passenger vehicles, from tiny compacts to monster S.U.V.'s, and should be felt across the country over the next 12 months.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/26/business/26insure.html