Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Saying ‘I Do’ to Cheaper Car Insurance

Consider cheaper car insurance to be another financial benefit of getting hitched.

At Credio, we evaluated which car insurance companies offer the most discounts through the lens of our “young couple” demographic . In the U.S., some of the largest car insurance companies offer an incredible number of discounts to customers. Of the 14 companies with the highest market shares, 12 have ten or more discounts that they frequently offer. Some of these are substantial discounts of up to 20 percent or more.

These discounts generally fall into one of four buckets: driver discounts (e.g., being a safe driver), billing discounts (e.g., signing on for electronic billing), vehicle discounts (e.g., driving a car with interior safety features), and bundling discounts (i.e., setting up two or more lines of insurance with one company). For the latter, home and car insurance bundling is common. Insuring multiple vehicles under the same policy could also qualify for a bundling discount.

In part, it’s an example of passing on savings to consumers (e.g., spending less on preparing and reviewing paper bills, a la electronic billing). But it also diversifies a company’s risk pool with a variety of drivers more likely to be responsible.

While a consumer might look at insurance as a hedge against the unforeseen, insurance companies target certain traits based on probabilities. A driver perceived to be less likely to get in an accident and file a claim directly improves an insurance company’s bottom line.
Note : We’re curious how discounts apply to same-sex couples, especially since gender starts to matter less for drivers over a certain age (it’s a well-known fact that men are generally more expensive to insure than women). For today, our scope is limited to a young, heterosexual couple.