Texas Regulators: Auto Insurance Market is Competitive, Rates Remain Stable

HOUSTON, Jan. 11, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) last month released its latest biennial report, in which regulators say competition in the market has increased, costs have remained relatively stable and the number of participants in the state's high-risk car insurance pool has decreased.  

According to the report, competition in the market for auto insurance in Texas grew with the introduction of nine new coverage providers to the market between January 2009 and December 2010 and with existing carriers' filing for 22 new personal auto coverage products. OnlineAutoInsurance.com recommends that consumers take advantage of this greater competition by running free rate comparisons between carriers online.

More good news for Texans is that rates in 2010 were kept pretty stable.

A total of 471 rate filings were submitted to the department between January and the end of September, with 30 percent of those filings reflecting increases. Fourteen percent showed overall decreases in rates, and the remaining 56 percent had no overall change.

Taken as a whole, though, those adjustments amount to a statewide rate change of about zero percent for 2010, according to the authors of the report. The regulators go on to note that the industry's average change for 2009 was 3 percent.

Another impressive statistic included in the report is the drastic decline in participation in the state's assigned risk pool over the past six years. The total number of policies assigned through the state's assigned risk program during the first 11 months of 2010 was 8,193 — merely one quarter of the total number of assignments for 2005. In 2005, there were 31,517 policies assigned through the program.

Source: http://www.tdi.state.tx.us/reports/documents/finalbie11.pdf

A representative from the TDI said that, although there has not been any formal study looking at why rates of participation have shown such a rapid decline, the department considers the drop in enrollment to be a sign of a more competitive market in which consumers do not have to turn to this method of last resort for coverage.

To learn more about getting cheap car insurance in Texas, readers can go to http://www.onlineautoinsurance.com/texas/ where visitors will find informative resource pages and a free-to-use quote-comparison generator that quickly provide premium estimates from a variety of reputable carriers.

SOURCE Online Auto Insurance, LLC