Why Car Insurance Costs Less For Married Couples
By: Herb Scribner, Desert News Service (LVRJ) April 2015
The wedding, the honeymoon, children, pets, vacations — the list of what costs married couples a pretty penny goes on and on.
But there’s at least one purchase married couples can make that won’t break the bank — car insurance.
A new report from InsuranceQuotes.com found that car insurance rates drop for married couples in most states. In fact, married couples pay less for car insurance than singles do, the report found.
“If you’re 20 and you’re single, you’re paying a much higher rate than you would if you were married at 20 years old. We’re actually seeing a 21 percent difference, so a married 20-year-old is paying less than a single 20-year-old,” Laura Adams, senior analyst at InsuranceQuotes.com, told CNBC.
The report found married couples pay 20 percent less than single people for their car insurance. Once married women and men turn 25 — when insurance rates drop overall for men and women because of their age — married men and women pay 9 and 6 percent less than single people, respectively.
The report said this is because insurers see a single driver as more of a risk than a married couple, who take extra precautions when driving, the website said. This isn’t a surprising conclusion. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently found that married men are safer than single men, and married men are more likely than single men to seek out health services when they’re in danger.
“Marriage really does make people more careful and responsible … it isn’t at all surprising that this translates into better driving behavior,” Eli Lehrer, president of nonprofit research group The R Street Institute, told InsuranceQuotes.
Married couples also pay less for insurance because couples will often combine policies, which oftentimes lowers their insurance rate, the report said.
But combining policies isn’t an easy decision for married couples, even though rates sometimes go down, according to the Department of Motor Vehicles. When one partner has a poor driving record, married couples could see their insurance rates rise since the partner with the good record would be taking on the burden of the bad record, the DMV reported.
“If you’re married to someone who frequently incurs moving violations or has had numerous claims (nobody’s perfect!), your premium could increase even if you choose to keep your policies separate,” the insurance company Esurance reported. “Why? Because insurance companies consider the driving histories of all family members living within the same household when underwriting policies. Having a high-risk driver under your roof makes you riskier by association.”
So what should you do if you’re a married couple concerned about your insurance? Esurance recommends married couples talk to an insurance agent and review different policies to find the best deal, whether that means combining plans or staying separate.“As you can see, marriage not only unites two hearts, it generally marries two insurance policies as well,” Esurance reported. “If you recently got hitched, contact your insurer to find out how your new union affects your rates, whether you need to add or exclude your spouse, and more.”
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