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I'm glad you put up the notice about California rates only. I'm in NYC and saw that I was paying nearly double what I should be paying within the same insurer.

by jreposa 14y ago

I'm glad you put up the notice about California rates only. I'm in NYC and saw that I was paying nearly double what I should be paying within the same insurer. My question... Is it possible to vary that much between the different states?

jasontraff 14y ago
The short answer is yes. Because insurance is regulated on a state-by-state level, each insurer will submit different models to different states. For example, in California doesn't include credit score and New York does - this alone could change your rates by 60%. However, while the final prices may not be the same, the magnitude changes that happen to your prices as you make different selections (ie changing your vehicle or get a speeding ticket) will be largely similar across states.
- jreposa 14y ago
  Now that I remember it... I found it odd that it was asking me my profession. I entered Engineer and it dropped substantially. Anyways congrats! It's really interesting stuff. I have very similar issues to Leaky on my personal finance/banking startup. Really like the way you incorporated the ratings at the end.
  - jasontraff 14y ago
    Yeah some companies do _really_ big discounts for profession -- engineer being one of the better ones.
  - randomdata 14y ago
    In my test, there was almost a $200/yr. difference between Engineer and Software Engineer. I wonder what makes software engineers specifically statistically poorer drivers?
    - jasontraff 14y ago
      Some companies draw distinctions that sometimes seem arbitrary, which is another reason that we think Leaky is helpful. However, there's almost always a statistical analysis for the decisions that they make and it may have nothing to do with driving record. It might be that one profession stays with the insurer longer or is a more profitable customer by allowing the insurer to insurer multiple-lines for them (house, life, etc.).
      - webjprgm 14y ago
        Huh. So now all of us "Software Engineers" will start claiming to be "Engineers" on our auto insurance, and then the insurance companies will have to recalculate their rates to raise them on the "Engineer" category.

by jreposa 14y ago

jasontraff 14y ago

The short answer is yes. Because insurance is regulated on a state-by-state level, each insurer will submit different models to different states. For example, in California doesn't include credit score and New York does - this alone could change your rates by 60%. However, while the final prices may not be the same, the magnitude changes that happen to your prices as you make different selections (ie changing your vehicle or get a speeding ticket) will be largely similar across states.

jreposa 14y ago
Now that I remember it... I found it odd that it was asking me my profession. I entered Engineer and it dropped substantially. Anyways congrats! It's really interesting stuff. I have very similar issues to Leaky on my personal finance/banking startup. Really like the way you incorporated the ratings at the end.
- jasontraff 14y ago
  Yeah some companies do _really_ big discounts for profession -- engineer being one of the better ones.
- randomdata 14y ago
  In my test, there was almost a $200/yr. difference between Engineer and Software Engineer. I wonder what makes software engineers specifically statistically poorer drivers?
  - jasontraff 14y ago
    Some companies draw distinctions that sometimes seem arbitrary, which is another reason that we think Leaky is helpful. However, there's almost always a statistical analysis for the decisions that they make and it may have nothing to do with driving record. It might be that one profession stays with the insurer longer or is a more profitable customer by allowing the insurer to insurer multiple-lines for them (house, life, etc.).
    - webjprgm 14y ago
      Huh. So now all of us "Software Engineers" will start claiming to be "Engineers" on our auto insurance, and then the insurance companies will have to recalculate their rates to raise them on the "Engineer" category.