A recent study, comparing insurance premium increases from driving with a suspended license and driving without any license, found that insurance companies tend to treat driving with a suspended license as a more serious offence.

While having a prior conviction of driving without a license could increase your premium when you get an insurance quote by up to 35 percent, those with prior convictions of driving with a suspended license can expect up to a 75-percent increase in their insurance premiums.

The study found that insurance providers view drivers with tickets for driving with a suspended license as a potential safety risk. That’s based on a California DMV statistic that says a driver with a suspended license is four times as likely as a licensed driver to be involved in a fatal accident.

So if you lose your license, or it’s suspended, think about the day you’ll get it back. Do you want to pay nearly double what you would have for car insurance? If not, take the bus.

Minnesota law enforcement officials are voicing caution due to what has been a month of unusually high numbers of extreme speeding citations.

In July the state saw 21 convictions of drivers exceeding 100 mph as the result of a statewide crackdown on speeding, and although the ramped-up efforts paid off, law enforcement officials don't like what they are seeing.

"Many motorists fail to see the dangers in speeding and don't understand its deadly consequences," State Patrol Lt. Eric Roeske said in a press release. "This campaign focuses on educating drivers that when your speed increases, so does your risk of crashing."

However, the heavy fines, potential suspension of driver's licenses and inflated insurance premiums that come with such blatant speeding violations aren't what Minnesota drivers, or any driver for that matter, should be most concerned about.

The potential loss of life is obviously the biggest toll any person can pay when driving in excess of the posted limit with a total of 86 speeding related deaths in Minnesota in 2010 alone.

Also, Minnesota isn't alone with their speeding problem. According to a recent nationwide survey by Allstate, nine out of 10 motorists admitted to exceeding posted speed limits, and 40 percent said they had topped the limit by more than 20 mph.

All the while, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reported that in 2009 speeding was a major factor in over one-third of all fatal crashes nationwide.

But, for those motorists fortunate enough to hold on to life, there are a heap of other residual costs that can haunt them for years.

According to the Insurance Information Institute (III), a motorist's driving record, including any citations for exceeding posted limits or other infractions, is a major factor in determining the price he or she will pay for auto insurance coverage, and those with tarnished records seeking coverage even from cheap insurance companies are likely to have difficulty finding inexpensive car insurance rates.

That's because insurance companies take into account statistics from organizations like the Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS) who cautions that driving at excessive rates of speed is dangerous due to the overwhelming evidence that it makes a driver far more likely to lose control of a vehicle, increases the distance required to stop, cuts the time a motorist has to avoid a crash and increases crash severity.

—AJ Register

Although the national average of auto theft has fallen slightly over the last year, the Boise metro area has undergone a rise in vehicle theft, and that is causing insurance rates to rise in the region as well.

According to a recent study by the Northwest Insurance Council, nearly 1,000 cars were stolen in the Boise Metro Area last year, which is a significant increase of about 5 percent from 2009.

In contrast to the Treasure Valley, there's been a more than 5 percent decrease in auto thefts statewide. In fact, Boise City proper saw a decrease in auto theft of about 10 percent, which Boise Police Spokesperson Lynn Hightower said in a press release has, "actually been one of the biggest decreases we've seen in any crime category over the past six years."

The Northwest Insurance Council says while that's encouraging, vehicle owners are still paying the price for this costly crime in the way of higher premiums, and because of the growing crime rate in the metro area, including Caldwell, Nampa and other surrounding towns, the savings that would normally go hand in hand with a huge decrease in theft aren't showing up.

Comprehensive insurance premiums, which cover auto theft, are calculated using a multitude of variables such as make, model, and year of the vehicle as well as the driver's age, driving record, and credit score. But, one variable that is a huge determinant of rates is location. Since theft rates are on the rise in areas surrounding the "Gem State's" capital, Boise is actually seeing a slight rise in insurance rates even though there was an overall decline in theft statewide.

"Insurance carriers are paying those [theft] claims. And if they don't have to pay the claims, then they don't have to pass on the losses in the form of premium increases to the consumer," said Boise insurance agent Bob Ricketts to Fox 12 Idaho.

The Boise Police are backing Ricketts claim, and advising drivers in the Treasure Valley to be more careful when leaving their vehicle susceptible to theft.

Territorial auto insurance ratings have been a staple in determining the cost of your premiums for decades. However, legislators in Connecticut have recently made a push to ban the practice with House Bill 5565.

Territorial ratings are fairly self explanatory, and can be easily summed up by the amount you pay for insurance in relation to where you live, which often times has nothing to do with your actual driving record and habits. Because the territorial benchmark can significantly affect the cost of your insurance, this practice that's been around almost as long as car insurance itself has become a hot button issue.

Supporters of the bill claim that the practice of using territorial ratings is controversial and unfair to those who have little choice in living conditions, especially when considering economic strains that have severely impacted Americans across the country, as well as claims that territorial ratings have undertones of racist components when viewing the close correlation of race and class.

The controversy surrounding the territorial rating process came about in Connecticut when legislative researchers were asked in 2004 to quantify the issue through an auto insurance comparison of costs across the state. What the researchers found was that rates sometimes fluctuated so widely based on territory that, for example, motorists in the suburban part of the state's capital would be charged 37 percent less for the same policy when compared to residents living in other parts of the same city.

Connecticut already has regulatory provisions in place that limit the effect of territory on a person's rates. Without these provisions, drivers in the urban areas of larger cities like Hartford, Bridgeport and New Haven would be paying around 10 percent more in premiums, but if the bill passes it would ensure that territory would no longer be a determining factor whatsoever.

But, the insurance industry is fighting the bill tooth and nail.

"Territorial rating is an important part of cost-based pricing and is used in every state in the development of auto rates. In fact, actuarial studies have shown that territory is highly predictive of future risk, much more so than driving record,” the Insurance Association of Connecticut (IAC) said in a statement issued after HB5565 was introduced.

The IAC went on to add to their distaste for HB5565, using similar language to those in support of the bill.

"HB5565 would cause unfair cost-shifting, impair the insurer's ability to judge risk, and do real harm to the marketplace to the detriment of consumers across the state," said the IAC in a statement.

—AJ Register

Last week, legislators in Wisconsin introduced a bill that would effectively reduce the state’s minimum liability car insurance requirements.

The legislation was unveiled in light of a January 2010 raise in liability requirements from 25/50/10 to a whopping 50/100/15, doubling the minimum in two of the three categories, placing Wisconsin in the top tier, so to speak, of the most expensive states to insure a vehicle.

Supporters of the new reduction say that costs have gone up in the state due to the increase in 2010.

Rep. John Nygren, one of the bill’s sponsors, said that the 2010 increase inflated premium cost up to 33 percent. However, the Citizen Action of Wisconsin, a state group, says that those numbers are just plain wrong, citing that premiums only went up 1 percent since the rate hike.

Regardless of the dispute, legislators are still pursuing the liability reduction.

—Theo Romeo