Who Has The Best Car Insurance Rates In Boston?
Who Has The Best Car Insurance Rates In Boston?
Find Cheap Auto Insurance Quotes in Boston
The most affordable minimum coverage in Boston comes from The Hanover, which charges just $456 per year.
Boston is the most densely populated city in Massachusetts, which means residents pay more to insure their cars. A minimum coverage auto insurance policy in Boston averages at $933 per year, which is 29% more expensive than the state average of $764.
The best way for Boston residents to keep their rates low is to compare rates from multiple insurers.
Insurers calculate your rates based on the risk they think you pose. The risk factors taken into account vary among different companies but often include factors like where you live and whether you have incidents in your driving history. If you're looking for your best rate, start by comparing quotes from at least three companies.
Cheapest auto insurance in Boston: The Hanover
The cheapest rates for a minimum coverage policy in Boston come from The Hanover. A minimum coverage policy costs just $456 per year, making it $477 cheaper than the city average of $933 per year.
Safety Insurance offers the second-most affordable rates for minimum coverage. Its annual premium is $503 per year on average, which comes out to just $11 more per month than The Hanover. Geico is next in terms of affordability, charging $583 per year. We recommend starting your search for cheap car insurance in Boston with these three companies.
Compare Car Insurance Rates in Boston
Rank | Company | Annual rate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Hanover | $456 |
| 2 | Safety | $503 |
| 3 | Geico | $583 |
| 4 | Progressive | $893 |
| 5 | Arbella | $1,106 |
| 6 | Plymouth Rock | $1,319 |
| 7 | Travelers | $1,673 |
Cheapest full coverage car insurance in Boston: Safety
Rank | Company | Annual rate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Safety | $1,384 |
| 2 | Geico | $1,496 |
| 3 | Progressive | $1,918 |
| 4 | The Hanover | $2,093 |
| 5 | Arbella | $3,026 |
| 6 | Travelers | $4,086 |
| 7 | Plymouth Rock | $5,014 |
A full coverage policy includes collision and comprehensive coverage, in addition to the minimum coverage legally required in Massachusetts. Mandatory minimum coverage in Massachusetts covers your injuries and legal fees you may incur if you hit another driver up to a certain limit, but it does not cover any damage to your own car.
- Comprehensive coverage: Pays for damage to your car that happens when you're not on the road, such as damage from animals, falling objects or theft.
- Collision coverage: Pays for damage that results from a crash, no matter who is at fault.
Cheap car insurance for drivers with prior incidents
If you have incidents on your driving record, your insurer will likely view you as a riskier customer than a driver with a clean record and increase your rates. With this in mind, we recommend the following insurance companies for Boston drivers who have:
Cheapest car insurance in Boston after an accident: Geico
Average rates go up by 50% for Boston drivers after they get into an at-fault accident, from $2,717 per year to $4,079.
If you purchase a policy from Geico, however, you can get full coverage for 47% less than average. Drivers with an at-fault accident on their record pay just $2,147 if they insure their car with Geico.
Rank | Company | Annual rate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Geico | $2,147 |
| 2 | Safety | $2,774 |
| 3 | Progressive | $2,792 |
| 4 | The Hanover | $3,699 |
| 5 | Arbella | $4,828 |
| 6 | Plymouth Rock | $5,643 |
| 7 | Travelers | $6,673 |
Cheapest car insurance for people with a speeding ticket: Geico
We found that car insurance rates increase by 35% after a speeding ticket, from $2,717 per year to $3,529 per year for full coverage. That's not ideal, but it's certainly less expensive than the increase after an at-fault accident (50%) or a DUI (66%).
Geico offers the most affordable rates for Boston drivers who get a speeding ticket. The city average is $3,529 annually, but Geico charges $1,889 less — just $1,640 annually.
Rank | Company | Annual rate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Geico | $1,640 |
| 2 | Safety | $2,247 |
| 3 | Progressive | $2,479 |
| 4 | Arbella | $3,316 |
| 5 | The Hanover | $3,403 |
| 6 | Travelers | $5,441 |
| 7 | Plymouth Rock | $7,203 |
Cheapest car insurance for drivers with a DUI: Progressive
A citation for driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI) is one of the more serious citations you can have on your record. As such, insurers raise your rates significantly. The average cost of car insurance in Boston after a DUI is $4,501 per year for full coverage.
Boston drivers seeking affordable insurance after a DUI should get a quote from Progressive. Progressive raises annual premiums by just 17% after a DUI, from $1,918 per year to $2,241. That comes out to just $323 more per year, or $27 more each month.
Rank | Company | Annual rate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Progressive | $2,241 |
| 2 | Geico | $2,438 |
| 3 | The Hanover | $3,050 |
| 4 | Safety | $3,942 |
| 5 | Arbella | $5,973 |
| 6 | Travelers | $6,456 |
| 7 | Plymouth Rock | $7,407 |
Cheapest car insurance for young drivers: Geico
Young drivers pay more for auto insurance than their adult counterparts. Insurers view their inexperience on the road as a sign of increased risk and raise rates to account for that. A sample 18-year-old Boston driver was charged $7,445 per year on average — 174% more than a 30-year-old driver.
Geico has the cheapest rates for young Boston drivers, charging $3,796 per year for a full coverage policy. While that's certainly expensive, it's 49% cheaper than the city average.
Rank | Company | Annual rate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Geico | $3,796 |
| 2 | Safety | $6,597 |
| 3 | The Hanover | $6,615 |
| 4 | Progressive | $7,131 |
| 5 | Travelers | $7,765 |
| 6 | Arbella | $8,868 |
| 7 | Plymouth Rock | $11,346 |
Teen drivers who want to avoid paying these sky-high rates should stay on their parents' policy if at all possible. ValuePenguin found that keeping a teen on a parent's policy can cost half as much as a teen taking out their own policy.
Other ways for teens to reduce their car insurance rates include taking a defensive driving course or maintaining good grades. Insurers view these steps as a sign of decreased risk and offer discounts because of it.
Best auto insurance companies in Boston, Massachusetts
You pay your insurer to be there for you in the aftermath of an accident, and while everyone likes cheap rates, reliable customer service matters just as much.
Recognizing this, ValuePenguin polled customers of top insurers in Massachusetts and found that the companies with the highest rates of satisfaction were Progressive, Geico and Travelers.
We polled customers across the nation and found that Progressive provided customers with the best claim experience, with 74% saying they were "extremely satisfied" with their most recent claim.
For more detailed information about the customer service reputations of the insurers in this study, check out our analysis of the best cheap Massachusetts car insurance.
Auto theft statistics in Boston
Boston is the most populous city in Massachusetts, but 2018 FBI crime data shows that it experiences relatively low rates of auto theft. Of the 10 largest cities in the state, Brockton has the highest per capita rate of auto theft, while Boston has the lowest. Around 3.2 cars are stolen for every 1,000 residents in Brockton, while in Boston, that number drops to 1.7 cars stolen for every 1,000 residents.
Theft rank | City | Population | Motor vehicle thefts in 2018 | Thefts per 1,000 people |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | Boston | 694,673 | 1,154 | 1.7 |
| 9 | Worcester | 186,188 | 340 | 1.8 |
| 8 | New Bedford | 95,106 | 181 | 1.9 |
| 7 | Lowell | 111,989 | 217 | 1.9 |
| 6 | Lynn | 94,558 | 218 | 2.3 |
Motor vehicle theft data was pulled from the FBI 2018 Massachusetts crime report.
Methodology
ValuePenguin pulled quotes from seven of the largest insurance companies in Massachusetts for this study, using rate data from Quadrant Information Services. Unless otherwise noted, our sample driver is a 30-year-old man who has a full coverage policy on the 2015 Honda Civic EX he owns. He has no credit history, which for insurance purposes makes him equivalent to a driver with below-fair or low credit, according to Quadrant.
The full coverage policy used in this analysis had the following limits:
Coverage type | Study limits |
|---|---|
| Bodily injury liability | $50,000 per person/$100,000 per accident |
| Property damage liability | $25,000 per accident |
| Uninsured/underinsured motorist bodily injury | $50,000 per person/$100,000 per accident |
| Comprehensive and collision | $500 deductible |
Quadrant Information Services supplied the rate data in this analysis. Rates were publicly sourced from insurer filings and are intended for comparative purposes only. Your own quotes could differ.
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