<p>My son’s $1800 premium includes the “good student” discount. God knows what it would be without that!! No accidents or claims either.</p>
<p>This thread makes me wonder-- my older s has returned to our state. Could we put his insurance back with ours so he can get the multi car discount? He is 24 and no longer a student. We have USAA</p>
<p>I use AMICA, as does son. He has lived in CA and Mass. One phone call and they e-mail or fax the change in states. I think the rates were similar, but cost was based on city where car located, if parked in a garage, and mileage used per year. Son has a 2004 Accord, and I’m guessing pays about $170/month for 10 months. He’s had 2 major claims.</p>
<p>jym, it’s worth looking into. For many years my sister was insured on my auto policy with State Farm in order to get the better rate and discounts and that was after she graduated from college. State Farm didn’t care, as long as the registrations matched (IIRC, we had to register it in my name as “registrant other than owner” or something like that) and she was designated as the primary driver of that vehicle. She got the same multi-car and accident-free discounts that I did and her rate was appreciably lower than if she had taken the policy on her own (I was accident/ticket free, over 25, and had my policy for around 7 years when we started this).</p>
<p>Thanks, sk8rmom-
He has his own USAA account/policy but had been on ours with the multi-car discount until he took the car out of state and we had to separate the insurance. However, you brought up a point I hadn’t thought about-- he has his own car now that is registered in his name, not ours, so we’ll have to check on that. Thanks for the head’s up.</p>
<p>How long have you been driving? MA has a point system that penalizes inexperienced and bad drivers. You said you just moved to MA but have looked into getting credit for your experience when you were out of state? If you have clean record and have been driving for awhile, you definitely should see if you can get credit for your clean record from other state. The savings can be big if you can get to step 9.</p>
<p>rates can vary by age, marital status, accidents, amount of deductable, gender, type of insurance, value of vehicle, and average costs of replacement parts.</p>
<p>When you call parents insurance company, if they can’t help you directly, ask if they can recommend other options.</p>
<p>Call Commerce Insurance - they’re the AAA insurer - and see what they can do for you with a AAA discount. It may be worth it to join AAA (which I highly recommend anyway for dealing with MA winters!).</p>
<p>Also see if your college has any “affinity programs” - insurers give a break to people who belong to certain groups. Many alumni associations have affinity programs.</p>
<p>I still qualify as an “inexperienced” driver in MA, as I’ve only had my license for four years, even though I have a clean driving record. I will see if I can get that good student discount though!</p>
<p>I don’t have AAA, since I bought my Toyota Certified Pre-Owned, and it came with 7 yrs of roadside assistance. I will look into getting it if it works out to be cheaper auto insurance though.</p>
<p>I haven’t seen my college listed as having an ‘affinity program’ (NESCAC school) in any of the online lists, but I will call a couple insurers and ask. Thanks!</p>
<p>Again here is the info on new driver safe driving credit.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=ocaterminal&L=5&L0=Home&L1=Consumer&L2=Insurance&L3=Automobile+Insurance&L4=Ways+to+Save+on+Your+Auto+Insurance&sid=Eoca&b=terminalcontent&f=doi_Consumer_WaysToSave_SDIP&csid=Eoca[/url]”>http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=ocaterminal&L=5&L0=Home&L1=Consumer&L2=Insurance&L3=Automobile+Insurance&L4=Ways+to+Save+on+Your+Auto+Insurance&sid=Eoca&b=terminalcontent&f=doi_Consumer_WaysToSave_SDIP&csid=Eoca</a></p>
<p>Excerpt below is pertinent to your situation. Insurance agency will not volunteer to give you this discount and it is not the insurance company that is doing the rating, it is the MA rating board. You need to work with your insurance company or agency and get the information to submit to the board. I am not exactly sure whether you get partial credit if you don’t have 6 years of record, but it is something you should ask.</p>
<p>Operators New To Massachusetts</p>
<p>The SDIP system allows drivers new to Massachusetts to get credit for their safe driving in other jurisdictions. If a driver new to Massachusetts was licensed in another state or country within the last 6 years, the driver will initially have zero (0) SDIP surcharge points. However, the new driver will not be eligible for any safe driving discounts.</p>
<p>If a new driver’s Motor Vehicle Report (MVR) is electronically available, the insurer will be responsible for obtaining it from the state or country where the driver was previously licensed. If an MVR is not electronically available, the driver can obtain an official driving record or a record from a previous insurer and submit it to the current insurer. If that driving record is not in English, the driver must obtain a translation certified true and correct by a translator, attach
it to the driving record, and submit it to the current insurer. </p>
<p>This information is submitted to the Merit Rating Board and is used along with the Massachusetts driving record to determine the Operator SDIP Points and eligibility for any of
the discounts or incentives.</p>
<p>Jym- with USAA, DD recently graduated and the car is now in her name, but as long as she is able to be considered part of our household, she can be on our plan. I don’t know how that works with living other places as a student vs as a worker, but we have a DD who went away to school and left home her permanent address. We have a DD who is on her own, away at grad school, but using our home as her permanent address (jury duty!!!) and she is on her own for tax purposes etc. as well as auto insurance. You would need to call and ask.</p>
<p>
Car insurance rates in MA are set by the state, not by the insurance companies. In addition, really risky drivers are assigned to a pool which is then divided among all the insurance companies in a way that penalized older, larger insurance companies. As a result many of the biggest auto insurers such as Allstate, State Farm, and Geico pulled out of the state.</p>
<p>Some insurance companies will offer small discounts (5-8% or so) for certain group affiliations such as AAA or alumnae of certain schools.</p>
<p>So it is worth looking around, but your quotes will be fairly close in price.</p>
<p>And for some reason, we have very high rates compared to the national average. Believe it or not, they are not as bad as they were a few years ago.</p>
<p>The biggest contributors to price will be collision/comprehensive, and personal injury. You can lower your collision portion by raising your deductible to $1000, or dropping it completely. Ask the companies what the value of your car is, and then you can decide if it is worth keeping the collision component.</p>
<p>You can reduce the personal injury portion by getting the state minimums, off the top of my head I think that is $20K/$50K. You have to decide whether this is adequate coverage - since the car is in your name now, your parents aren’t at risk, and you presumably have little or no assets, so you can get away with low limits.</p>
<p>I think the rate is no longer set by the state. That was changed a few years ago. People now can get different prices on rate from different companies. The part that remains is some mandatory coverage like property damage/personal injury coverage that is being enforced by state law. A lot of insurance companies still use the SDIP point rating to figure out extra discount for safe drivers, at least that is how it works for my policy/company.</p>
<p>But you are right, collision and comprehensive coverage on your own car is optional and can be quite costly especially the collision part. Dropping collision coverage is recommended for old cars that are not worth a lot. This is because if you get in an accident, the car will more likely to be labeled as a total lost and you will only get compensated up to what is worth minus the deduction. For example, if your car is worth $1500 and you elect a deductable amount of $1000, you will get only $500 if your is in an accident that will cost more than $1500 to repair. Meanwhile, you maybe paying $500 a year for the collision coverage which makes the whole thing pointless.</p>
<p>
Gah, you are right to a degree. Companies can set their own rates but they have to be approved by the state, they call it “managed competition” whatever that means.</p>
<p>This page has a link to a gigantic excel spread sheet that lets you pick some basic scenarios and your location, and see the rates for each company. One of the scenarios is “single operator licensed 6 years driving a 2005 Nissan Altima” which sounds pretty close to the OP:</p>
<p>[Auto</a> Insurance Premium Comparisons](<a href=“http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=ocaterminal&L=4&L0=Home&L1=Consumer&L2=Insurance&L3=Automobile+Insurance&sid=Eoca&b=terminalcontent&f=doi_AutorateCompare_autoratecompare&csid=Eoca#1_6]Auto”>http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=ocaterminal&L=4&L0=Home&L1=Consumer&L2=Insurance&L3=Automobile+Insurance&sid=Eoca&b=terminalcontent&f=doi_AutorateCompare_autoratecompare&csid=Eoca#1_6)</p>
<p>Note this is specific to MA in 2010.</p>
<p>Interesting spreadsheet. For the example perhaps closest to OP (6 year driver, 2005 Altima) with minimum coverage ($20/40 K liability, $25K property damage, no collision/comprehensive) some representative (annual) rates are:</p>
<p>Allstate: $963
GEICO: $584
State Farm: $433
USAA: $326</p>
<p>Even for someone with essentially no assets I would not choose such a low coverage amount, but that’s just my opinion.</p>
<p>Thanks very much! This thread has been very helpful. Massachusetts appears to have a discount which starts at six years of good driving, so I am out of luck for another couple of years. Another weird thing about Massachusetts driving (relative to my CA roots) - there is no “traffic school” to erase ticket points, something else that surprised me, though hopefully I won’t be in the situation to need that option).</p>
<p>It’s amazing to me that such low liability minimums are available. I would not recommend to ANYone that they get just the minimum amount required, regardless of what assets you have. It’s irresponsible, in my opinion, and also could end up being a big problem if you have a serious accident and there is a judgment awarded against you.</p>
<p>Yeah, the minimums are quite small… and it doesn’t usually cost too too much more to add on to them. At least here anyway. When I get my statements, it tells me a price for what I have, and also a price for the state minimum.</p>
<p>Two suggestions in addition to others noted by posters above: consider dropping collision and comprehensive altogether if you car is not worth that much. This is for your at fault conditions, theft or hit and run and can’t be identified. If you are in a crash and the other guy is at fault, his ins. will pay for your car damage. For older cars, it may not be worth the added cost; also try an independent agent who will get you a number of quotes with various companies. Surprisingly, we saved a few hundred dollars on our renewal with a new company that our agent found for us. Their commission does not add to your cost in most instances. You can still compare this to a direct buy policy or AAA type discount. I find having an insurance agent can be helpful.</p>
<p>Hmmm, comparing changes to our policy, DD just came home from being off the policy to being a driver assigned to a car, the annual premium on that car went from $400 to $640 by putting a young driver on it!</p>