HOUSTON, April 18, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report, released Friday, shows that the average price of an American motor vehicle insurance policy rose one-tenth of 1 percent between February and March.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the cost of American auto insurance policies rose 4 percent between March 2010 and March 2011.

Source: http://bls.gov/cpi/cpid1103.pdf

Although car insurance prices have been displaying a moderate upward trend so far this year, consumers can offset any small increases by using rate-comparison sites like AutoInsurance.com to make sure that they are getting protection at the best available rates. Coverage providers all use different calculations when setting premiums for prospective policyholders, so comparison-shopping has been touted as an essential part in tracking down the best prices.

In addition, consumers can change protection levels, adjust deductible sizes and look for new discounts in order to cancel out any price increases.  

The BLS's total sample of coverage costs consists of 768 policies spread out over the CPI pricing areas. Major types of coverage incorporated into the sample policies include "collision, comprehensive, bodily injury liability, property damage liability, medical payments, uninsured motorist and personal injury protection."

The February–March month-to-month change for the price of all items tracked in the CPI far exceeded the increase in coverage prices. The latest month-to-month price change for all items was 1 percent.

The relative importance of coverage costs accounted for about 16 percent of the overall relative importance for total private transportation costs.

To learn more about the factors that influence insurance rates and how to keep them reasonable, readers can head to http://autoinsurance.com/ where visitors will find informative resource pages and a quote-comparison generator that can be used to quickly produce quotes from multiple carriers.

SOURCE AutoInsurance.com