Info on Mass car insurance rates by town?

November 3, 2006 11:05 AM

When I moved from one town in Mass to another 4 years ago the rate DOUBLED. I can't move back there (commuting) but I'm looking for a town by town comparison. Googled it, Groups too, maybe too deep down, maybe queries were weak. Where if anywhere can I find this info?

More specifically, somewhere around the Pioneer Valley.

posted by Grand Wahzoo to work & money (10 comments total)

Car insurance rates. Another victim of the "Title Doesn't Show Up On Mefi Page."
posted by Skorgu at 11:27 AM on November 3, 2006

Could you call your car insurance company?
posted by croutonsupafreak at 11:50 AM on November 3, 2006

Yeah, call your insurance company. It varies by town, but also by driver.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 12:02 PM on November 3, 2006

Actually, what you want is here.

Massachusetts has very strictly regulated insurance rates, and very little control is left up to the insurance company.
posted by smackfu at 12:12 PM on November 3, 2006

Yes - call your car insurance company - might be best, certainly the most direct shot. Thanks! You would think, why didn't he think of that? I would too, if I wasn't so... DUH! But still, they might be limited in their experience to say, 15 towns where their customers reside, and I'd like a broader area. I'd be surprised if someone hasn't already done this homework.
posted by Grand Wahzoo at 12:14 PM on November 3, 2006

Oops, you also need the the key to that table.
posted by smackfu at 12:15 PM on November 3, 2006

Actually, what you want is here.

Excellent, thanks! When I first landed there I wondered what the figures meant, but was able to broadly figure based on my current town versus my last town. Now that you've also linked the key I'll definitely be able to figure it out later after running out for a bit. TYVM, smackfu.
posted by Grand Wahzoo at 12:22 PM on November 3, 2006

Funny, but you are still the same driver, and yet you moved to a different town and all of a sudden you are a greater risk for an insurance agency... This is why the fixed rates in MA are stoopid. If I lived on the other side of the street I live on my Insurance would be 1/3 less... There is/was a motion to have real competition in MA, but I think the few companies that still do business here quashed it.
posted by Gungho at 1:30 PM on November 3, 2006

I did move from the sticks to somewhat high-crime urban-ish Holyoke, but when I called my insurance agent questioning the doubling, they said it wasn't the town itself, but the fairly chi-chi mall on the outskirts of town, a magnet for car theft. "If the mall had its own zip code the town's rates would be normal".

Still doesn't beat the other side of the street, though.
posted by Grand Wahzoo at 2:39 PM on November 3, 2006

In case anyone else wonders, here's the Broad Strokes:

There are many factors that contribute to the cost a consumer pays for private passenger automobile insurance. Among them is a community's territorial ranking. The main component that determines a community's territorial ranking is the claims experience charged to a community when a driver from that community is found to be legally at-fault for an accident. When territorial assignments are assessed, the four most recent years of claims experience for each community is compared to the same amount of claims experience statewide. More specifically, the loss per insured vehicle garaged in a community is compared to the loss per insured vehicle in the state as a whole based on the claims experience for five major coverages (Bodily Injury Liability, Personal Injury Protection, Property Damage Liability, Collision and Comprehensive). Catastrophic events, the quality and volume of vehicles in a community and the variance in driver experience within a community are factored-out in arriving at a territorial assignment.

The key referenced above is for really digging down to the level of predicting the $ you'll end up paying in a given territory. I was only interested in the relative expense per town. It seems like Territory 1 is the cheapest and 27 the dearest.

And a list with All the towns on one page is here.
posted by Grand Wahzoo at 6:42 AM on November 4, 2006