Brief: major auto insurers allstate, state farm raising rates

By Purva Patel, Houston Chronicle

Aug. 18--Texas' major auto insurers are elevation rates.

Allstate told the Texas section of Insurance that it increased rates last month and State Farm said it plans to hike rates start Oct. 27.

State Farm, the state's largest insurance company, told state regulators it plans to raise rates an norm 2.8 percent.

Various State Farm companies, through which it sells auto insurance, will raise rates rates 2.4 percentage to 7.3 percentage, the section said.

Allstate Indemnity, the company's larger subordinate with 694,000 policyholders statewide, hiked rates 3.6 percentage at July's end. Allstate County Mutual, which has 435,000 policyholders, raised rates 5.5 percentage.

"These are addition after a long time period of stableness in the auto marketplace," said Jerry Hagins, a spokesman for the Texas section of Insurance. "We're visual perception an uptick now but we don't consider this to be more than up up pressure from low terms in the past."

purva.patel@chron.com

-----

To see more of the Houston Chronicle, or to subscribe to the paper, go to http://www.HoustonChronicle.com.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

NYSE:ALL,