CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Insurance.com, the largest online auto insurance agency in the United States, reports a decrease in auto insurance rate quotes depending on geographical region.The company's "2005 First Quarter Auto Insurance Pricing Report" shows a decrease in premiums by nearly 2 percent during the past quarter.

The report highlights the average change in premium quotes on a national basis. The report compares the average premium from the first quarter of 2005 against the average premium for all of 2004 in every state*. The information comes from actual auto insurance quotes consumers received from 12 of the nation's leading companies who participate on Insurance.com's comparative platform. The information was collected from more than 2 million insurance rate quotes provided by the company to its customers in 2004 and over 500,000 insurance rate quotes collected in the first quarter of 2005.

According to the report, the average consumer received an annual auto insurance quote of $2,304 in the first quarter of 2005. This is a $39, or 1.7 percent, decrease over the average annual premium quoted in 2004. The decrease is a welcome relief after the 2004 Auto Insurance Pricing Report"highlighted a 6% increase in quotes from 2003 to 2004.

"This report highlights the impact of the competitive pricing pressures insurance carriers have been facing," said Lou Geremia, president of Insurance.com. "Our data, combined with several external measures, indicates that consumers may be able to take advantage of this pricing pressure and benefit from savings not previously available."