Insurance question (for Indy, mostly)

[Tim]

Why is insurance so much cheaper when you're married? Even with a really good record, my car was costing me $80/month to insure before I moved to Japan. I was 28 when I bought it. Now we're getting ready to add it and me to my wife's insurance (since I've been out of the country for over a year and I don't have auto insurance, that's the only real option) so that it's insured when I get back from Japan in the fall, and it'll only be $42/month. Why (from an insurance company's perspective) is it so much cheaper?

[Indy Coug]

Tim,

I'm not a property and casualty actuary and so I'm not privy to all the inner workings of their pricing models. So a few musings

1. I believe rates for individual cars go down if two or more cars are insured under the same policy. That's a casual observation with very little in the way of a sample size to back that up. This would certainly be the type of claims experience insurance companies would be tracking, so I could see that be a major reason why your rates would change.

2. Married people tend to be safer drivers than singles.

3. If you've changed insurance carriers, her carrier may simply charge lower rates. Your advancing age may afford you better rates now.

4. Car insurance companies can frequently offer "teaser rates" to lure in new business and the renewal rates are not nearly as competitive.

5. There are significantly more variables (literally dozens) that P&C companies use to underwrite policies compared to life insurance. The formulas are very complex and vary significantly from company to company. They can even include such seemingly unrelated (and controversial) items as credit score -- which is actually a major driver (no pun intended) in determining insurance premiums for some companies.

[Katy Lied]

Just add this to your list of "things that are better with marriage."

[YOhio]

Why is insurance so much cheaper when you're married? Even with a really good record, my car was costing me $80/month to insure before I moved to Japan. I was 28 when I bought it. Now we're getting ready to add it and me to my wife's insurance (since I've been out of the country for over a year and I don't have auto insurance, that's the only real option) so that it's insured when I get back from Japan in the fall, and it'll only be $42/month. Why (from an insurance company's perspective) is it so much cheaper?

Tim, this has the makings of a great Romantic Comedy. Young underachiever male (we'll call him Nate) is fed up with paying high insurance rates on his vehicle. One night while searching on the internet he discovers that the rates for a married person are have the rates he's been paying. The next morning at breakfast with his goofy overachieving roommate (Ted) he hatches a plan to get married just so they can save on car insurance. Well, the next few weeks we see a series of dating hijinx by the Nate while in the background Ted is slowly finding happiness with a girl he works with (Shannon).

Nate is getting pretty frustrated and he's close to scrapping the whole plan and consigning himself to paying high car insurance rates the rest of his life. He's on a drive where he's really depressed and ticked off when Nate comes in late on a red light and has to screetch to a halt. Unfortunately the car behind him comes in late and bumps him from behind, creating a decent bit of damage. Nate is pissed by that point when he gets out of his car to scream and yell but he sees the driver of the offending vehicle. She's a total babe and is like the girl of Nate's dreams (Candace). She starts crying because she's freaked out about her insurance! Nate is all like, hey, we won't tell the police and we'll just handle the accident between us and let's go get some coffee (This is set in a busy metropolitan area, but it can't be NYC because Nate wouldn't have a car there. I'm thinking Seattle because that will mean the music is cool.)

While drinking coffee in a very fashionable establishment Nate starts telling her about the insurance rates and Candace is all YES! let's get married. So they go and get married and run into problem after problem. Yes, they're happy they get better insurance rates but they weren't ready to be married and aren't really committed to each other. Candace is also pissed because Nate, even though very handsome, is a loser while she's a very driven career woman who never makes time for herself or her happiness. So they decide that the cheaper rates just aren't worth the frustration and they're going to divorce. Well, right before they get divorced something happens and Nate isn't a loser anymore and they both realize that they're in love and committed to marriage not just for the sake of car insurance but for each other. There should probably be a dramatic public scene where Nate apologizes and confesses his love to Candace in front of a lot of strangers, maybe the Clerk at the Family Court where she's about to file for the divorce.

The show ends with a cool scene of them being happy together and Nate is a car insurance salesman/marriage counselor.

We also see Ted very happy in his marriage.

[wuapinmon]

Tim, this has the makings of a great Romantic Comedy. Young underachiever male (we'll call him Nate) is fed up with paying high insurance rates on his vehicle. One night while searching on the internet he discovers that the rates for a married person are have the rates he's been paying. The next morning at breakfast with his goofy overachieving roommate (Ted) he hatches a plan to get married just so they can save on car insurance. Well, the next few weeks we see a series of dating hijinx by the Nate while in the background Ted is slowly finding happiness with a girl he works with (Shannon).

Nate is getting pretty frustrated and he's close to scrapping the whole plan and consigning himself to paying high car insurance rates the rest of his life. He's on a drive where he's really depressed and ticked off when Nate comes in late on a red light and has to screetch to a halt. Unfortunately the car behind him comes in late and bumps him from behind, creating a decent bit of damage. Nate is pissed by that point when he gets out of his car to scream and yell but he sees the driver of the offending vehicle. She's a total babe and is like the girl of Nate's dreams (Candace). She starts crying because she's freaked out about her insurance! Nate is all like, hey, we won't tell the police and we'll just handle the accident between us and let's go get some coffee (This is set in a busy metropolitan area, but it can't be NYC because Nate wouldn't have a car there. I'm thinking Seattle because that will mean the music is cool.)

While drinking coffee in a very fashionable establishment Nate starts telling her about the insurance rates and Candace is all YES! let's get married. So they go and get married and run into problem after problem. Yes, they're happy they get better insurance rates but they weren't ready to be married and aren't really committed to each other. Candace is also pissed because Nate, even though very handsome, is a loser while she's a very driven career woman who never makes time for herself or her happiness. So they decide that the cheaper rates just aren't worth the frustration and they're going to divorce. Well, right before they get divorced something happens and Nate isn't a loser anymore and they both realize that they're in love and committed to marriage not just for the sake of car insurance but for each other. There should probably be a dramatic public scene where Nate apologizes and confesses his love to Candace in front of a lot of strangers, maybe the Clerk at the Family Court where she's about to file for the divorce.

The show ends with a cool scene of them being happy together and Nate is a car insurance salesman/marriage counselor.

We also see Ted very happy in his marriage.

[Indy Coug]