Marital Status and Insurance Rates

I do believe I have heard that it is in general more expensive for single owners. I am also shopping for insurance in Michigan and you should be able to find a price cheaper than $2500/yr. I am 21yo and single with a clean record and I currently have AAA insurance for $1600/year but am hoping to get quotes more around $1200/year.

 

It may also be that you don't own a home with a garage. If your car is outside in a parking lot at an apartment complex, it's more likely to suffer damage.

You have one car with collision/comprehensive insurance (the new Prius) and one without (the old Olds). How much is the collision/comprehensive part? Ask your agent how much that would go down if you had a home with a garage, were married, had kids, and so on.

I have a car with liability only, and it's even insured up to the point where its liability coverage is the deductible for my umbrella policy. It's insured up to 300K liability. I pay a few pennies under $300/year. I paid a few bucks more when I used it for work, but now it's just pleasure.

 

It's not just being single, it's being a single man. When I was widowed, my insurance didn't go up. What made it go up was moving from a house with garage in an upscale suburb to a condo in downtown Milwaukee. Even though my car was in an underground parking garage, my insurance went way up because my zip code was high risk. My agent told me that the garage made no difference in that zip code. To keep the insurance affordable, I increased my deductibles to $1000 or more.

Now that I'm back in the suburbs with a garage (and the same zip code as the house I lived in previously), my insurance (with the high deductibles for liability & collision) is under $600 per year for the '07 Prius (which is not used as a commuter car any more).

(And when my daughter divorced her husband, her insurance went down. I'll bet his went up!)

 

Insurance rates are based on statistical risk tables. Young unmarried men are the highest risk because they are more likely (statistically) to drive recklessly. As Judy pointed out, location is also a factor. I am a never-married man, 58 years old, and my rates went down each time I passed a set age. I pay $812 per year to insure my 2004 Prius, in a low-risk part of a low-risk city (Spokane). My deductible is $250.

So, yes, you are paying a premium for being unmarried. And you are paying it because others in your age / gender / marital-status category are jerks at a higher rate than other categories. Statistically, young married men drive more carefully than young single men. But you are also paying more because you are insuring two cars.

 

I believe you should be able to find a company that will lower your rates over time for not making claims.

 

That seems pretty expensive now that you're 30. And it does vary with location and also driving record. Have you had any tickets or accidents.

That said, you should get a two vehicle discount.

Check rates at 21st century. They offer discounts for multiple vehicles, good drivers, certain organizations if you're a member, and if you insure your home with them as well as your vehicles.

 

Like others said, there are a lot of reasons insurance companies use to charge you high rates. I would definitely shop around a bit and see if you can get a better deal - I'm a 25 year old single male, and my rates are something like 1/3 what you're paying (with a few tickets on my record, too). But i'm also in another state with only one car.