If you've seen your car insurance rates go up sharply in recent months, don't worry, you're not the only one — it's a national trend:

A 40% increase by Allstate in Georgia, a 32% rise sought by Nationwide Mutual Insurance in California, an 11% bump by State Farm in New York. Insurers are imposing steep increases on auto insurance rates, with state regulators doing little to stop them.

Why the sudden spikes? A number of factors are reportedly driving the prices up: People are having more accidents, it costs more to repair them, medical bills are up, and people are getting more litigious.

Insurers last year reportedly lost on average 12 cents on every dollar of premium written. State Farm was even higher, at 28 cents. For a large business, that's not a little bit. It can quickly add up and start chomping away at your bottom line in no time.

It's gotten so bad that even states with notoriously vigilant insurance regulators have permitted rates to rise sharply. New York, for instance, has in the past year agreed to steep increases for both Geico and State Farm.

One State Farm spokesman told the Wall Street Journal bluntly:

"[W]e continue to adjust…to make sure we are matching price to risk."

And boy, are we feeling it.