Cheap Car Insurance a Likely Result of Lower Theft Rates

Consumers may have a better chance to find cheap car insurance in light of new government statistics showing a decline in auto theft and other crimes.

The past several years have already proven beneficial to the industry and to consumers because of a falling theft rate brought on by improved law enforcement technology and advanced security features in newer cars.

According to recently released figures from the FBI, auto theft declined by 12.7 percent last year, even in the midst of a recession that has seen other crimes, such as fraud, increase. Overall property crimes were down for the sixth consecutive year, while violent crimes declined 1.9 percent.

Despite the improvement, auto theft is still a serious problem, with industry professionals estimating that a car is still stolen more than once every minute. Auto theft also continues to represent a substantial portion of the overall property losses to crime each year in the United States, even though a sizeable number of vehicles are eventually recovered.

Overall, with lower theft rates, insurers have fewer claims to deal with, allowing them to pass on cheap car insurance to their customers.