Attorney General Martha Coakley yesterday accused Premier Insurance of price discrimination” for allegedly basing some of its auto-insurance rates on whether consumers own a home.
Coakley, who asked the Division of Insurance to review Premier’s recent rate filing with the state, said new deregulation rules ban insurers from basing auto-insurance rates on sensitive personal information, such as a person’s income, marital status and other factors.
The goal is to prevent insurers from creating a two-tiered insurance system - one for the more affluent, one for the poor.
One of the banned categories is asking potential customers whether they own a home, something that conceivably could be used to estimate a person’s wealth.
But Coakley said Premier, a unit of Travelers Insurance, is now basing some of its rate discounts on homeownership.
“We’re saying it violates the rules,” said Amie Breton, a Coakley spokesman.
In a statement, Premier said it will “work with the Division of Insurance and attorney general to resolve any issues” and “hopes to offer discounts to consumers, thanks to a (recent) auto insurance reform.”
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