There are times when you wish the world was a fairer place. Over the last three years, the bust has followed the boom years of the property bubble. The credit crunch has hit and banks are still going under around the country. For ordinary Americans, the reality is unemployment stubbornly refusing the come down and mortgages underwater. Although you never really want deflation and prices coming down, you at least hope they will not continue to rise. Yet, despite the best efforts of Insurance Commissioners and the pressure of public opinion, insurance premium rates have continued to rise. If you listen to the talking heads for the insurance industry, this is all perfectly normal. The cost of spare parts has continued to rise, those working in body shops want more per hour, and medical costs. . . Well, medical costs seem out of control. So naturally, premiums must rise. We can all appreciate how restrained the industry has been. The companies run an Insurance Information Institute and one of its functions is to monitor what's happening to premium rates nationally. Ironically, premiums were at their lowest from 2005 to 2007 while the boom was at its height. At the end of December, we reached the lowest point with the national average being $795 for insuring a vehicle for 12 months. The current national average is $895 following increases in each of the last three years. The rates rose by 2.6% to 2008, then by 4.6% to 2009 and by 5% to bring us up-to-date.

There's a further factor to take into account. The actuaries who work out the probabilities of accidents by make and model of car as driven by different classes of drivers, have announced the need for rates to start rising more rapidly. You ask why. It's all the fault of the Boomers. There's a sad fact of driving life. As we grow older, our reflexes and eyesight grow less efficient. We have more accidents. Because older drivers tend to drive more slowly, they cause less damage, but drivers of 65 and above have the second highest premium rates after teens. Up to now, this fact of life has not had much of an effect on the national average, but as the main wave of the Boomers gets steadily older, the number of people over the age of 65 is going to rise fairly quickly over the next ten years. That means the number of accidents is going to rise, quickly followed by the premium rates.

Unfortunately, the auto insurance industry is for-profit. This means the rate increases will be spread across the whole group of drivers insured. If you are with a company mixing ages together, that means rate rises for everyone. So, if you are an older driver, the moral of this story is you should get as many auto insurance quotes as possible before deciding where to place your business. Common sense says you should narrow the field down to three possible companies and then talk to them to see what discounts you can get for reducing the number of miles you drive and restricting your driving to off-peak times. This is not a time to be passive.