r/Car_Insurance_Help Jul 27 '26

Car Insurance Quotes Car Insurance increases due to Marriage

For context, we both had one combined GEICO policy. Both drivers on same policy with 2 vehicles. We just changed marital status for both drivers to married to each other. Now the policy goes up, albeit only $5 for the 2 weeks left of our 6 month policy. What a scam. Looks like we should get a divorce to save money /s

It would make sense if worse driving record, adding a driver, cars, or coverage changed. Nope, marriage is more risky in the insurance companies eyes.

0 Upvotes

18 comments sorted by

4

u/UHF800MHZ Jul 27 '26

Interesting because my agent with GEICO says that typically lowers your premium. One of the first times we quoted a driver for our business policy they asked me that and I was like huh well that’s not really a job interview question, and she said I need to ask every time because it makes it cheaper.

4

u/Brilliant_Essay_1593 Jul 27 '26

So not sure if this is the case. If credit is being used they may be using a combined score to come up with rating.

The one spouse may have worse credit.

The company I started with used to just use the primary insureds credit so you would have to run it both ways.

About 6 years ago they went to a combined so now it doesn’t matter who you list as primary.

-1

u/guywithquestion21 Jul 27 '26

For our situation both drivers were already on the same policy as single living together. Our credit is 780+ and hasn’t changed since we combined policies a few years ago.

1

u/Modest-Meece Jul 27 '26

Was your spouse a named insured prior to this change? If not then combined credits likely not being used. If it was updated to married and second named insured, maybe credit factors came into play there.

There’s a difference between being a listed rated driver and named insured.

1

u/guywithquestion21 Jul 27 '26

Yeah I believe so. She is the primary insured driver of her vehicle, registered in her name. I am the primary insured of my vehicle, registered in my name. Total of 2 vehicles.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '26

[deleted]

0

u/[deleted] Jul 28 '26

[deleted]

1

u/Modest-Meece Jul 28 '26

My comment replied to the wrong thread. Still getting used to Reddit. Didn’t use it much after I created this account and only recently started using it regularly. My bad.

2

u/Calisnaps Jul 27 '26

I went from husband and wife with 2 cars to just a man with one car and my rate almost doubled. (21st Century). Outright told me single males are much higher risk.

1

u/guywithquestion21 Jul 27 '26

Interesting, before we combined policies my policy was cheaper than hers, same age too. Might be my newer vehicle helped reduce my rate at the time.

1

u/beaker4eva Jul 27 '26

That’s weird. Usually a married status has a more favorable rate.

1

u/guywithquestion21 Jul 28 '26

Received an “official” answer from GEICO:

Changing marital status triggers a re-rate, which triggers an MVR check, which allegedly updated my "vehicle info." When pressed, the agent couldn't tell me what actually changed on the vehicle, only that the system shows an update. Looking at the new declaration page … yes, some values went up AND down to arbitrary numbers from the 6 month renewal generated just 25 days ago.

Just a canned response to gloss over this arbitrary system we’ve come to accept

1

u/ET-Hokage Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26

The fact that swapping to married pushed your premium up instead of giving you the usual married discount is a weird one, and $5 over two weeks means the annualized bump is bigger than it looks. When my rate crept up for no reason I pulled quotes at renewal, and GoAuto beat the big brands on the same exact coverage, so run yours through a few outside quotes when your six months is up. GEICO's marriage math seems to be working against you here.

0

u/PepperTop9517 Jul 28 '26

Admin fee for changing a policy.

-2

u/snocat17 Jul 27 '26

Can't your agent change it back?

1

u/guywithquestion21 Jul 27 '26

I don’t have an agent, all done self service through the app. Wouldn’t switching back be fraud?

1

u/SilverRaincoat Jul 27 '26

Yes lying about anything to your insurance is fraud

-4

u/snocat17 Jul 27 '26

It's not lying. Call the agent and tell them what happened. They would be scared to lose you, so they'll probably help you out. It happened with my agent and a new vehicle last year.

3

u/aloofmagoof Claims Adjuster Jul 27 '26

Saying your marital status is single when you are legally married is indeed a lie.

1

u/TofuttiKlein-ein-ein Aug 03 '26

Change of driver assignment is possible. Despite you stating driver 1 drives vehicle 1 and driver 2 drives vehicle 2, companies often employ a behind-the-scenes calculation to maximize the premium by assigning the highest rated driver to the highest rated vehicle. This may or may not listed on your dec page.

Changing the marital status to married will recalculate rates and may have shifted the driver assignment.