Auto Insurance For Men

There really is no such thing as gender specific auto insurance, but the point of this article is to bring attention to the fact that there is such a thing as gender specific auto insurance rates.

I’m very sure that if you’re a male between the ages of 16 and 35 you’ve found your premiums to be just a little bit higher, if not extremely higher than a female counterpart. Yep, gender discrimination (or statistics as the industry likes to call them) is alive and well in the insurance industry – However, with seemingly good reason.

I will be the first to say that there is NO reason I should have to pay $5,000/yr to insure 3 vehicles. Sure, they’re all under 2 years old and none of them are under $30k, but when you take into account that I’m married, 29, I have no active speeding tickets, never any accidents, and I work from home (no commute) then it’s easy to see that’s one heck of an unjustified premium!

This article isn’t about me complaining though, it’s simply underlining the fact that as a 29 year old male living in a city I pay some ridiculous rates and it’s very likely that nearly all males that fit my demographic do as well. Ahhh, demographics you think…”what are those?”. Well, without getting into the specifics, it’s generally all the necessary numbers that define you. Age, sex, location, driving history…and in some instances your credit profile.

So, if a demographic is just a bunch of numbers, then why do premiums vary so wildly? Pretty unsimple actually. When a company that sells insurance wants to stay in business they need to do two important things very well.

1. Sell insurance policies.
2. Assess Risk as to minimize losses (payouts) and increase profit.

Now, selling insurance policies seems like a pretty key way to actually make money right? Sure does. And it is, but you’re not likely to sell many $10,000/yr policies (unless I buy more cars anyway) so you need to develop a price point, much like any business. Finding the right price point breaks a lot of businesses, but see companies that sell auto insurance policies have one huge factor in their favor – it’s mandatory in all 50 states. Makes it a little easier to sell your product now huh? Yeah.

Ok, so how would an insurance company develop a price point? Ahhh yes, demographics, statistics, driving records, and sometimes credit – this brings #2 into play as well, as this helps minimize loss. It seems complex, but it’s really not. Statistics show that young males have proven to be reckless and senior citizens can not only be reckless, but expensive to fix (sorry, that wasn’t that funny). This leaves a 29 year old male with a spotless driving record paying for both the young kids that can’t drive, and the older one’s that can’t either.

As a male you will just pay more in auto insurance, it’s like an old person trying to get health insurance, you’re going to get a high rate to make up for all of the risk associated with coverage. It doesn’t have to make sense, and at times it can seem like a pretty nice racket for a federally regulated industry, but the bottom line is – everyone needs insurance and doing your part to reverse the statistics at a young age will help other people down the line save money.

Saving money on your premium regardless of gender can be as simple as getting multiple quotes online or over the phone from as many companies as possible. It costs nothing, you can do it at any time and you may find that leaving a major carrier with a lot of agents and going with an Independent Agent (they use a lot of carriers to find you the best rate) can save hundreds of dollars per year.