Although it may be difficult to accept for husbands and wives arguing over the breakfast table, emerging research indicates that married couples are less likely than single people to get dementia or other major disorders like cancer and heart disease. [source: Parker-Pope] Fortunately, marriage also appears to have a favorable effect on the cost of car insurance.
Married couples are really less likely to be involved in auto accidents. There are several hypotheses as to why this would be the case; according to some sources, married people drive less frequently than unmarried people. According to some sources, married people drive less riskily than single people since their lives are more secure. Regardless of the cause, data demonstrate that married drivers experience fewer car crashes and injuries than unmarried drivers. In fact, a New Zealand research found that unmarried drivers were twice as likely to sustain injuries in a collision than married drivers.
Therefore, getting married typically lowers your rate for auto insurance. Married drivers typically receive a discount from auto insurance providers. Even guys under the age of 25, who often pay the highest vehicle insurance premiums, get a break if they’re married. At least from the two largest U.S. auto insurers, State Farm and Allstate, married same-sex couples are also eligible for the benefit (in states that accept civil unions and domestic partnerships).
Despite the fact that marriage is typically a surefire way to lower auto insurance costs, newlyweds shouldn’t always combine their policies. If both partners have clean driving records, pooling insurance could result in even greater savings. Even bigger reductions, such multi-policy and infrequent driver discounts, can be obtained by adding your spouse as a secondary driver and/or by adding your spouse’s vehicle. On the other side, the entire policy could be badly impacted if one partner has a less-than-stellar driving history, if one of you receives a speeding ticket, a DUI, or has an accident in the future.
Is the inverse true for divorce if marriage tends to have a beneficial impact on vehicle insurance premiums? Yep. Divorcing couples may forfeit multi-car and other discounts in addition to any applicable marital discounts. Your auto insurance costs may go down if you switch dwellings or commuting times.
Although access to more affordable auto insurance is rarely a compelling argument in favor of marriage, there are advantages when it comes to pricing.
Nota d’auteur
I adore writing for Discovery because, without fail, I constantly learn something new. I regret to say that I don’t always want to know! I’m single, and to be perfectly honest, I never ever considered that getting married might result in reduced auto insurance! That’s nerve! In my opening salvo, I consoled myself by seeing a married couple arguing over breakfast.
On the other hand, it was a pleasant surprise to learn that Allstate and State Farm provide married homosexual couples the same discounted “marriage” rates that they do for heterosexual couples (although, only in states that recognize the rights of same-sex couples).
See? Working with Discovery, I genuinely “find” something new every day.
