Insurance companies vary in their rating systems so it is possible that some insurance carriers within Pennsylvania include usage of the car, meaning in this instance commuting out of state into New York and New Jersey for work, could be used as a rating factor.

It is likely that driving into NJ and NY on a regular basis may find you to be a higher risk to an insurance company since those states may have higher statistics of uninsured drivers and/or accidents. Risk analysis is what insurance companies use when assessing your auto insurance premiums. Generally risk is probability; the probability that you will be involved in an accident and the probability of the severity of the accident.

When assessing risk, insurance companies take into consideration a multitude of factors according to their own internal guidelines and state laws. Some rating factors can include your age, sex, geographical location (where you live), usage of the car (how much the car is used), the type of car you drive, how many cars you insure, the type of driving you do (where you commute to), and your credit report.

Insurance companies' actuaries look at all the information compiled about you, or people like you. This part of an insurance company then takes this information, compares it against risk statistics, internal guidelines and does some sophisticated calculations. When they are done the actuaries have determined how great of a risk you, or people like you, generally are.

When you contact an insurance company or agent, they will normally ask you for a fixed set of questions. With this risk information in hand they typically also gather other information from your driving record and/or credit report. Once they have all this information compiled they put it into their computers and apply internal guidelines then your insurance rates are calculated based on your specific risk to the insurer.

The Pennsylvania Department of Insurance notes that in PA various factors can change the cost of your auto premium such as: adding or increasing coverages, adding another vehicle to the policy, replacing an older vehicle with a newer one, adding a new driver, changing the usage of the vehicle (driving to work, using for business purposes), increasing the number of miles per year and moving to another area.

It would appear that PA laws allow usage of the vehicle, such as commuting into NJ and NY can be used to help determine your insurance premium. Whether it will raise your auto insurance rate or not will depend upon the individual insurance company's rating system so you can ask if working in or commuting to NJ or NY will affect the cost of your insurance.