Auto insurance sticker shock hitting South Florida drivers
Rates are higher across the nation, up an average 8.5 percent over the year ending
People with clean driving records -- meaning no tickets, no crashes, no insurance claims -- are getting renewal notices with premium increases between
Young adults and drivers with less-than-perfect records can expect to take the worst hits. One client, a single mom who bought her 19-year-old son a used car, recently saw her premium for a six-month term jump by
Experts are blaming the rate hikes on increased risks on the roads: Too many drivers are staring at their smartphones from behind the wheel. Cheap gas is causing us to log more miles, and the strong economy is putting more vehicles on the roads.
More crashes lead to more claims. More claims lead to higher costs for insurers. Higher costs for insurers must be recouped by charging everyone more.
In metro regions like
Statewide, the number of motor vehicle crashes increased 15 percent between 2014 and 2016, more than three times as fast as the state's population rate grew during that time, according to data from the
Crashes and fatalities in the tricounty region increased at a slightly lower rate over the same period -- crashes increased 12 percent and fatalities jumped 24 percent.
After hovering around 250,000 since 1997, the annual number of crashes statewide began trending upward in 2011, coinciding with the beginning of the economic recovery and the rise in popularity of smartphones. Crashes have increased each year since -- from 227,998 in 2011 to 395,785 in 2016, state data shows.
The sharpest price increases are coming from a handful of companies, Broder said, including
According to rate filings with the
Nationwide received approval for an average 8.2 rate increase that took effect
Three
The two most expensive cities were
The national average of
Rates can also be affected by high numbers of claims after catastrophic weather events, and 2017 saw plenty, the report said. The year started with hail in
Drivers in states with heavy losses from those weather events won't start to see effects on rates for several months up to a year afterward, the report said.
Of all those events,
Examples of fraud that lead to higher premiums include a Personal Injury Protection (PIP) scam ring that investigators said defrauded 10 insurance companies out of more than
Of the 50 most expensive of
Broder said many of his sticker-shocked
"We are seeing the trend to direct [policy writing]," he said, "which is unfortunate for us as an agency, but by going online, companies can cut out the commission, cut out the middleman."
[email protected], 954-356-4071, twitter: twitter.com/ronhurtibise
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