Getting too much junk mail touting low automobile insurance rates? Being bombarded by television commercials featuring a cute gecko?
Think of them as opportunities, not just irritations.
California is enjoying a buyer's market for auto insurance. And consumers can find bargains -- whether they comparison shop, pick up the phone, check out the Internet or just ask around.
"There's a lot of competition in auto insurance, and that translates into better rates and more options for the consumer," says Amy Bach, executive director of United Policyholders, a San Francisco advocacy group.
But beware: Buyers who aren't careful could also wind up paying more than twice as much as they should for the same coverage if they pick a high-cost insurance company over a low-cost one, according to an online price comparison feature sponsored by the California Department of Insurance, www.insurance.ca.gov. The site allows shoppers to input data to get a roughly individualized premium estimate.
A buyer's market for car insurance
Rates have fallen in California and taking advantage is easy
YOUR MONEY
The survey of 48 insurance companies shows that the state's major insurance companies have widely differing rates for sample policyholders. For a Culver City middle-aged male with a clean driving record and a Honda Accord, the cost for full coverage ranged from a low of $929 a year to a high of $3,709.
The site also shows estimated premiums for other types of customers, such as a single woman from Highland Park with one ticket or a senior citizen married couple from Long Beach.
The continuing drop in premiums even surprised me, a careful watcher of insurance rates.
In March, I shopped around and found a premium that was $200 less per year than the competitively priced policy I had purchased last fall.
"It's never been easier to shop," says Robert Hartwig, president and chief economist for the Insurance Information Institute, an industry-backed clearinghouse in New York.
Average auto insurance premiums in California have been dropping for years. They declined 17% between 1996 and 2006, after being adjusted for inflation, according to state regulators. Industry analysts say the trend continued through at least the third quarter of last year, though official numbers for 2007 are not yet available.
Why the dramatic plunge? Because it's been safer to drive in recent years.
The number of most types of accidents declined from 2002 to 2006. According to the California Highway Patrol, total collisions dropped by 4.7% during the five years, injury accidents fell 17.2%, and property-damage accidents were down 3.1%. The lone increase was in fatal accidents, 3.9%.
