Many Ohio insurance companies cutting auto rates

CLEVELAND Ohioans paying record gas prices may be pleased when they open their car insurance bills.



After years of increases, some of Ohio's largest auto insurers are either cutting premiums or holding rates steady because the insurers say claims per policy are falling.



Ohio's largest insurer, State Farm Insurance Cos., cut premiums in March an average of 4.1 percent. Nationwide, the state's third-largest auto insurer, cut rates an average 1.7 percent in April, spokesman Kevin Craiglow said.



"We have the 16th-lowest insurance rates in the country," Ohio Insurance Director Ann Womer Benjamin said.



According to a 2003 National Association of Insurance Commissioners study, Ohioans pay an average $682.67 for full coverage auto insurance _ $134.76 less than the national average of $817.43.