The good news about pricier car insurance

Auto insurance companies did not make a profit in New Jersey in 2008 as they battled for customers, one factor that is causing drivers to pay higher rates after several years of declines, according to state and industry sources.

After five years of double-digit profits, insurance companies here flatlined in 2008, down from a 10.1 percent profit in 2007, according to the Auto Insurance Report, to be released tomorrow.

Far from being bad news, the low profits and rate increases show the New Jersey market is healthy after reforms in 2003 attracted more companies to the state, said Brian Sullivan, editor of Risk Information, which covers the insurance industry.

“It’s the strongest indication that what the reforms set in motion to do has worked,” Sullivan said. “Currently, insurance companies aren’t making money because of their own folly. That is, they’re competing so hard for customers, they’re charging too little. This is exactly what you want if you’re the people who drew up New Jersey’s reforms.”

The reforms, championed by Assemblyman Louis Greenwald (D-Camden), allowed insurers to make higher profits and cut down the time state regulators are given to decide on companies’ requests for rate changes. Those reforms made New Jersey more attractive to auto insurance companies, and soon several big names such as Geico and Progressive entered the market and sparked aggressive price wars.

Two years ago, the pendulum began to swing the other way. The rate increases were driven mainly by higher medical costs, according to the state Department of Banking and Insurance, which must approve rate increases. The department improved rate increases averaging 2.14 percent in 2008 and 6.86 percent in 2009.

But the tough competition also played a part, said Chuck Leitgeb, vice president of the Insurance Council of New Jersey, which represents insurance companies.

“As the market evens out, you realize you might have to increase prices here because you were too low, but that’s part of the market working,” Leitgeb said.

Drivers should expect even more increases, said John Dyke, a trustee of the trade group New Jersey Auto Agents Alliance and owner of the Perth Amboy-based Dyke Company.

“Some of the insurance companies are going to have to increase some of their rates,” he said. “Some of them waited a little bit too long.”

On the bright side for drivers, the state Supreme Court this summer approved an insurers’ bid to pay lower medical bills for personal injury costs, which should allow insurers to keep costs in check, Leitgeb said.

Profits across the country are down in part because the industry is in a cyclical downswing, but also because insurers’ investments are down and drivers are trying to take less expensive policies in the recession, Dyke said.

“The industry, like any other industry, is affected by the economy,” he said.

The nationwide average was a profit of 4 percent, down from 8.1 percent, according to the report.

During the years of rate declines, premiums were going down faster in New Jersey than in the rest of the country, but the state remained one of the most expensive in the nation. Experts say this is because drivers in this densely populated state have more expensive cars and need more insurance to cover more expensive assets, such as homes.

Average profit had been steadily creeping down since a wave of reforms in 2003. Profit went from 12.5 percent in 2003 to 10.1 percent in 2007, according to the report. The report computes the profit annually using data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, a coalition of state regulators.