Smart Auto Insurance Blog

Alabama has been one of the leaders in uninsured motorists for years according to the press release found on OnlinePRNews.com.  Alabama auto insurance leaders and state lawmakers want to change this statistic and are pushing through legislation to reduce the rate of uninsured drivers throughout the state.

Alabama state law says that residents must have a liability policy in place if they want to legally drive an auto.  They are also required to carry proof of insurance with them in the car.  Even though there is a $500 fine for first time offenders, many drivers still choose to go uninsured.  The Insurance Research Council says that about 1 in 5 drivers in Alabama were uninsured in 2009.  To discourage this stat, lawmakers are trying to put in place an electronic auto insurance verification database which would match up policies with autos registered in the state allowing officials and the Department of Revenue to quickly determine whether or not a given car is insured.

In order to register your car you must check a box confirming you carry auto insurance for the car, but this database would actually verify this information rather than taking the driver at their word.  Obviously a handful of drivers are blatantly lying about this information so something needs to be put in place to prevent this from going on.  Hopefully this type of system will encourage more drivers to keep their policy valid and choose to be truthful on their registration application.

The two largest providers of Alabama auto insurance recently announced plans to lower their rates, according to Jeff Amy in the Press-Register. State Farm, which holds almost a quarter of the state’s auto insurance market, will lower its rates by about 1.8%, as of January 12. Second-place Alfa Insurance is going to decrease its rates by 1.7% to 1.9%, depending on the subsidiary which wrote the policy. Those rate changes will go into effect on January 26.

Progressive Insurance also intends to lower its insurance rates for one of its Alabama subsidiaries later this month, by 5% on average. They’re the fourth-largest insurer in Alabama.

While Jeff warns that these lower rates won’t necessarily apply to everybody, it’s still a good idea to check out State Farm quotes or Progressive Insurance quotes, as well as Alfa’s, in order to keep up with rate changes in Alabama.

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