New driver laws that start next week could drive up the auto insurance premiums for New York car owners, while lower car theft rates may make automobile insurance cheaper for local residents in a long-term view, said experts and governmental officials this week.
In New York State, driving while talking on a mobile phone has been illegal for about ten years. Starting from next week, an offender will face an additional punishment of getting two demerit points on his or her license. Experts believed that the new rules will have an impact on local residents, for it takes a New York driver only 11 points over an 18-month period to lose a license.
The new laws may also increase the car insurance premiums in New York. “It definitely will increase the (insurance) premiums,” Elaine Ramundo, spokeswoman of the Professional Insurance Agents of New York State, told the Albany Times Union on Saturday (February 12, 2011).
NYPD: Lost Property and Car Theft Down over Past Decade
The average car insurance premium for New York residents was 2,658 US dollars in 2011. That's 84.6 percent higher than the national average of 1,440 US dollars, according a recent research by CarInsurance.com. Why are the auto insurance premiums in New York so high?
New York has been famous as the Car Theft Capital of the World for decades. High crime rates, including car theft and vandalism, increased the costs of automobile insurance for New Yorkers. As a result, insurers count the high car theft risks in calculating premiums and make local auto insurance very costly.
Fortunately, lost property crimes, including car theft, kept declining over the past decade, according to a Wall Street Journal report on the latest statistics from the New York City Police Department (NYPD). This trend has reduced the risks for insurance companies and will lower the car insurance premiums for New York residents in the future.
Car Insurance: New York Auto Insurance Premiums Increased in 2011
But other trends may raise the insurance costs for New York drivers in 2011. In addition to the new driver laws, traffic density, especially in NYC, is an important factor that raises the insurance costs too, for high traffic density increases the chances of car accidents.
According to the CarInsurance.com research, car insurance premiums in New York have grown by about 12 percent in the first month of 2011 compare to the same period of last year. Now the New York drivers seem to have not too many choices except keeping up their good driving records, putting the cars in safe places, and comparing cheaper solutions from seemingly millions of online auto insurance quotes over and over.
Chen Nanyang - Chen Nanyang's journalist career began in 2002 when he started writing for China's Nanfang City News, Singapore's United Morning Post and ...
