And that could be in the process of happening. When Americans spend less time on the road, the frequency of auto accidents declines. And when auto accidents go down, so do claims on auto insurance. That gets the ball rolling: When auto insurance companies see their costs on claims declining steadily, they typically respond to market conditions by lowering their auto insurance quotes and, ultimately auto insurance rates in a bid to stay competitive. And voila!, we write smaller checks for our auto insurance premiums.

With run-away gas prices, Americans are already driving less. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) reported in May 2008 that Americans are driving at “historic lows.” The estimated “vehicle miles traveled,” or VMT, for March 2008 fell 4.3 percent compared to March 2007, making it the sharpest dip for any month since the FHWA began tracking traffic-volume trends in 1942. Want to follow driving trends? The FHWA publishes monthly “Traffic Volume Trends.”

When auto accident claims go down, auto insurance companies can usually respond fairly quickly. To adjust premiums, they must file new auto insurance rates with every state in which they operate. They can file new auto insurance rates any time they want to respond to market conditions, and many states offer a “file and use” system, where auto insurance companies can file new auto insurance rates and begin using them immediately without prior approval from the state insurance department. Some states even have a “use and file” system, so insurers can implement new auto insurance rates and then officially file them shortly thereafter. This way auto insurance companies can begin passing on savings (or increases) right away.

The nation’s largest auto insurance companies are the first to see trends in accidents and claims payments due to the sheer volume of their claims data. For example, State Farm, the nation’s largest auto insurance company, handles about 19 million auto insurance claims a year (that’s a little over 17 claims per minute, all day, every day).

Robert Passmore, Director of Personal Lines for Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCIAA), an industry trade group, says, “This is where you see competition kick in.” He notes that if you live in a state that requires “prior approval,” it would take a longer time to see rate reductions. That means Californians and New Yorkers could be tapping their toes waiting for auto insurance rate reductions while everyone else pockets savings.

Auto insurance companies also note that auto insurance rates have been holding steady or declining over the past few years anyway. For example, State Farm customers in all states have seen rate reductions between Jan. 1, 2004, and Dec. 31, 2007, and customers in 39 of those states saw double-digit percentage rate decreases. (State Farm policyholders in New Jersey got the biggest drop of 29.19 percent.)

Passmore cautions that other factors could offset the trend in reduced driving  specifically, medical costs from bodily injury claims, legal costs relating to claims disputes and repair costs that are, for now, rising faster than the rate at which auto accident claims are going down.

Darn those repair, medical and legal costs! If it weren’t for those, drivers could already be seeing lower auto insurance rates (as we sit at home). However, auto insurance companies generally agree that if we see significant auto accident reductions, lower auto insurance rates won’t be too far behind.

Perhaps at the $6-a-gallon mark?

Will reduced driving mean lower auto insurance rates?

Insure.com asked the nation’s top auto insurance companies whether high gas prices and reduced driving are translating to lower auto insurance rates yet. Here are their answers.

State Farm spokesperson Dick Luedke notes that State Farm auto insurance rates have been on the decline nationwide since 2004, but reduced auto accident claims are not yet leading directly to further auto insurance rate reductions: “Our actuaries look at claims data not just to see the recent past, but also to see what might change the future, like gas prices.”

Luedke says there’s no hard and fast rule as to what level of auto accident reduction would spark lower auto insurance rates, but says, “If we saw a reduction as big as 10 percent in accident frequency, we would have reacted long before that.”

Allstate spokesperson Kate Hollcraft says, “We have just recently seen a decline in automobile claim frequency and if this continues through the summer months, we would probably be able to attribute it to a rise in fuel costs.”

Progressive spokesperson Leah Knapp says, “We don’t speculate about future rate changes, but it would be accurate to say that we continuously review market and business conditions, including monitoring losses, so that we can ensure our policies are accurately priced everywhere we do business. When our analysis suggests our rates require adjustment, we may seek to either raise or lower rates accordingly.”

Nationwide Vice President & Policyholder, Standard Auto Product & Pricing, Larry Thursby, observes that “customers are having fewer accidents.” But he notes it’s been that way for a couple of years due to a variety of factors, like an aging population that becomes safer drivers, graduated licensing laws for teens and crackdowns in drunk driving. In addition, potential auto insurance rate reductions due to accident frequency are being offset by inflation in the usual suspects: medical and hospital costs, repair costs and legal costs.

Thursby says that Nationwide has been passing along cost savings by offering guaranteed renewability, lower surcharges and broader “forgiveness” for accidents, fender-benders and minor violations.

About Author

Amy Danise is an editor for Insure.com. Visit Insure.com for a comprehensive array of comparative auto, life and health quotes, including a vast library of originally authored insurance articles and decision-making tools that are not available from any other single source. Insure.com is dedicated to providing impartial insurance information to consumers. Visitors can obtain instant insurance quotes from more than 200 leading insurers, achieve maximum savings and have the freedom to buy from any company shown.

One of the things that the consumers may not really contemplate, but do expect, is that their auto insurance will cover the cost of a replacement car when their automobile is being replaced. Many auto insurance policies actually do not provide for this automatically. If you are at all dependent upon your car, it is vital that you make sure that this type of coverage is included. Rental cars are notcheap!

How do you tell if you have this kind of auto insurance coverage for automobile or RV? First, you need to look at your car insurance policy. The language you are looking for refers to something called “loss of use.” What is loss of use coverage? As the name suggests, loss of use coverage refers to the expenses for transportation while your automobile is in being repaired or replaced. In more practical terms, this simply means that you have coverage for a rental car. Indeed, many people including those in the auto insurance business refer to this clause of the car rental coverage clause.

Buying loss of use auto insurance

Buying loss of use auto insurance with the car policy is definitely something you want to do. The idea of buying more car insurance coverages and auto insurance quotes probably is one of the least favorite things for most people. That being said, going for days without your car is far worse. Most of us drive to work and home. Most of us need our cars just to get around to find basic things like food. You really don’t realize how dependent you are on a car until you don’t have it. If you don’t believe me, try a simple little test. Lend your car to a friend one morning and tell them not to bring it back till the end of the day. I guarantee that you’ll be going batty by noon!

Loss of use automobile insurance is simply worth its weight in gold. It may not seem like it now, but it will when you suddenly need to get around and your car is in the shop. Paying for a turist car for tour or turizm with your own money for more than a few days is an extremely expensive proposition. Paying 10 to 20 bucks a year extra on your car insurance to get loss of use coverage is definitely a better deal. Do it!

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About Author

Willie James is a car insurance expert of CAR INSURANCE NEWS agency. His job is to analyze online auto insurance company information and publish different reviews for Federal Insurance Bureu (FIB) in Moscow, Russia. His hobbies is chemistry of plants and seeds and growing.

There are so many ways that you can use to keep your auto insurance rates down and some of them you can use at the same time as other discounts to maximize your savings.

Here are some things that you can ask your auto insurance company for:

- Ask if you can receive a discount if you have more than one type of insurance with their company. For instance, you may find that you can have your auto insurance and your homeowner’s insurance with this company and they will provide you with a combined discount. Carry all of your insurance policies with them, such as auto, home, and life and you may find that you can get even more money off.

- If the driver of the car is a student or is listed as a driver on the car, you may find that you can get a good student discount. This is where the student maintains at least a B average on their report card. You may be required to take that report card to the automobile insurance company each time it comes out, but it really pays off. If grades go down, the discount may disappear until the grades go back up.

- See if there are any safe driver discounts available. When you haven’t had a ticket or an accident, you may find that there are discounts available for you.

- If you are a senior citizen and you’ve not had any accidents in a specific amount of time, there may be discounts available to you.

- You can always raise your deductible to cheaper car insurance premium online from auto insurer. However, you need to keep in mind that doing so will result in a higher out-of-pocket expense if an accident does occur. The standard deductible is $500, but some individuals will go as high as $2,000 to save some money on their premium. If you can pay $2,000 if an accident occurs, then that will work fine. Just make sure your deductible is not higher than what you can afford in case damage is done to your car and you need to pay it.

- You may wish to shop around. You may find a company that offers the same coverage for a lower price. You always want to compare before you make a commitment.

You want to use all of these tips so that you can save yourself quite a bit of money.

How you can compare auto insurance quotes online?

When finding the right company to do business with, it is very important that you compare. You can do this by calling companies and recording the different rates that they quote you. You can also do this by going to their websites and filling out the forms on their websites to receive quotes for the auto insurance you want. This allows you to compare in a much easier way. Take all of that information and make an informed decision.

Watch the video related to auto insurance

Its about economy of scale. When you sign up for healthcare coverage, you join a group of other people to combine your healthcare purchasing power. Your insurer covers the whole group, rather than individuals, so everyone shares the cost of staying healthy.-Stay Smart Stay Healthy See more vidoes at: www.youtube.com

Help answer the question about auto insurance

When will the Insurance Lobby force us to have Medical insurance like the did Auto insurance?
Forced auto insurance, seat belt laws, helmet laws, child safety seats, laws and regulations, all brought upon us by insurance companies who use government regulation to maximize their profits.
Isn’t it only a matter of time before they get their friends in Washington to make Health Insurance Mandatory?
Or is that the republican plan for reform?

About Author

Willie James is a car insurance expert of CAR INSURANCE NEWS agency. His job is to analyze online auto insurance company’s information and publish different reviews for Federal Insurance Bureu (FIB) in Moscow, Russia. His hobbies are organic synthesis in chemistry laboratory and styding a psychodelic plants like Salvia Divinorum (Shalfey) and another entheogens and exotic plants.