Auto
Massachusetts writes its own rules.
The policy language here is set by the state, credit cannot be used to price you, and the required minimums went up in 2025. Almost none of the advice you will read online accounts for any of that.
Cars, trucks, teen drivers, clean records and imperfect ones.
Shrewsbury · Massachusetts
Same policy, different price
Massachusetts insurers write auto coverage from a standardized state policy form. The contract wording does not change from company to company the way it does elsewhere, which means you cannot be sold a worse policy by accident.
What does change is the price, and it changes a lot. Since 2008 the state has run on managed competition, so companies set their own rates within the regulator’s rules rather than all charging one established figure. Two households on the same street, with the same cars and the same records, can be paying very different amounts because they happened to walk into different companies.
That is the entire reason to have somebody independent holding your file. When the paper is identical everywhere, the only questions left are who prices your household best this year, who handles claims like adults, and whether anyone is checking.
What is different here
Three things that are not true anywhere else.
- I.
Your credit is off the table
Massachusetts law bars insurers from using credit information to rate or underwrite private passenger auto. In most states your credit is one of the strongest factors in your premium. Here it is not a factor at all.
- II.
Age, sex, and marital status are restricted
Rates cannot be grouped by sex or marital status, and cannot be grouped by age except for one rule written into the statute: drivers 65 and over who qualify for the lowest rate class get 25 percent off it.
- III.
Points follow a published schedule
The Safe Driver Insurance Plan sets it out: 2 points for a minor violation, 3 for a minor at-fault accident, 4 for a major at-fault accident, 5 for a major violation. Companies may use the state plan or file their own, so the same incident does not cost the same everywhere.
What we check
What we look at on an auto policy.
Every year, on every car we write, and again whenever your household changes.
- 01
Whether you are still at the state minimum
Massachusetts raised its required minimums on July 1, 2025. Plenty of policies written before then were never moved up, and even the new floor is modest next to what a serious injury actually costs.
- 02
Your bodily injury limits, seriously
This is the number that decides whether a bad afternoon ends with an insurance claim or with your savings. It is also the cheapest place on a policy to buy real protection.
- 03
What happens when the other driver has nothing
Uninsured and underinsured coverage is what pays when the person who hit you cannot. It gets overlooked because it protects you rather than somebody else.
- 04
Your surcharge history, and whether it should still be there
Points age off. Some incidents should never have been surcharged in the first place. We look at what is actually on your record rather than accepting the renewal as given.
- 05
Who is listed, and who is actually driving
A teenager who got a license, a partner who moved in, an adult child who moved out. Households change faster than policies do, and this is where claims get denied.
- 06
Collision and comprehensive against the value of the car
At some point the deductible and the premium stop making sense for what the car is worth. That is a real conversation, not an automatic renewal.
Straight answers
About Massachusetts auto
What is the minimum auto insurance required in Massachusetts?
As of July 1, 2025, Massachusetts requires four compulsory coverages: Bodily Injury to Others at $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident; Personal Injury Protection of $8,000; Bodily Injury Caused by an Uninsured Auto at $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident; and Damage to Someone Else’s Property of $30,000.
Those figures went up that day. Bodily injury was previously $20,000 and $40,000, and property damage was previously $5,000. A great deal of published guidance still quotes the old numbers.
Worth saying plainly: these are legal minimums, not recommendations. A single serious injury can run past $25,000 without much difficulty, and anything above your limit is yours to pay.
Can my credit score affect my car insurance in Massachusetts?
No. Massachusetts law prohibits insurers from basing private passenger auto rates on credit information, including credit-based insurance scores, and prohibits refusing to issue or renew a policy on that basis.
This is one of the ways Massachusetts genuinely differs from most of the country. If you moved here from a state where your credit drove your premium, that factor is simply gone.
Can they rate me on my age, sex, or marital status?
Sex and marital status cannot be used to group risks for Massachusetts auto rates. Age cannot be used either, with one exception written into the law itself: drivers aged 65 and over who otherwise qualify for the lowest rate class are entitled to a rate 25 percent below that class.
So if you’ve just turned 65, that’s worth a phone call.
How do accidents and tickets actually affect my rate?
Through the Safe Driver Insurance Plan, the state’s point system. A minor traffic violation is 2 points, a minor at-fault accident 3, a major at-fault accident 4, and a major violation 5.
Here’s the part most people don’t know: insurers are not required to use the SDIP. They may file their own merit rating plan instead. So the same incident can land differently at different companies, which is precisely the kind of thing an independent agency is useful for.
Why do quotes differ so much if the policy is the same everywhere?
Because in Massachusetts the policy really is the same everywhere. Insurers here write from a standardized state policy form, so the contract language does not vary company to company the way it does in other states.
What varies is price, how a company treats a claim, which surcharges it applies, and whether anyone is watching your file between renewals. Since 2008 Massachusetts has operated under managed competition, meaning companies set their own rates within the regulator’s rules rather than all charging a single established rate.
That is the whole argument for using an agency here. When the paper is identical, the only remaining questions are who is cheapest for your specific household this year and who will behave well when you need them.
Do I have to tell you about a teenage driver?
Yes, and it’s better to tell us early. A new driver is the largest single change most households make to an auto policy, and it is also the moment to look at your liability limits and whether an umbrella policy makes sense.
Leaving a household driver off a policy to keep the price down is the kind of saving that disappears the first time they have an accident.
The Never-Overpay Review
Let us read what you are paying for.
Send us your current declarations page. We will tell you where your limits actually sit, what your surcharge history is doing to the price, and whether a different company fits your household better.