How gender and marital status can change your car insurance price

How insurers use gender and marital status

Insurers build their prices from claims data, and in most states they may sort drivers by sex and marital status if their filed rating plan does so. State insurance departments list both among the factors that can affect a premium: Indiana's department names age, sex and marital status next to driving record and the vehicle, and the Louisiana Department of Insurance's consumer guide says gender and marital status may affect a premium.

Neither factor has to work in isolation. An insurer's plan can combine them with age and driving experience, so the effect of being a man or a woman, single or married, may differ for a teen and for a 50-year-old, and from one company to the next. Regulators don't publish a single figure for either factor, and you shouldn't trust one that claims to apply to everyone.

If you want to know whether a company uses either factor, ask it. Rate filings are another route: in Indiana, for example, each insurer files its rates with the Department of Insurance before using them, the rates must not be excessive, inadequate or unfairly discriminatory, and the filings are open to the public. A filed rating plan shows which factors a company uses, even if it doesn't show your own price.

States that ban gender rating

California's rule came from a Department of Insurance regulation that took effect on January 1, 2019 and required insurers to file class plans without gender. Hawaii's law dates to 1987 and North Carolina's has applied since September 1, 1975. Both reach further than gender: Hawaii also bars age, marital status and length of driving experience, and North Carolina also bars age.

Montana is often listed with these states, but its law changed. Its anti-discrimination statute (MCA § 49-2-309) still bars discrimination solely on sex or marital status in insurance, yet since a 2021 amendment it lets insurers use accepted ratemaking methods based on sex or marital status in setting premium rates, except where federal health insurance rules forbid it. Ask a Montana insurer directly whether its auto plan uses either factor.

In the six states in the table, a man and a woman with the same record, car, address and coverage should get the same quote from the same company. If one doesn't, ask the insurer which factors produced the difference. The Pennsylvania and Michigan cost pages show what else those laws keep out of the price.

Marital status, and where it can't count

Three states keep marital status out of the rate itself. Michigan's 2019 reform bars sex, marital status, home ownership, credit score, education, occupation and ZIP code from a driver's rates; Massachusetts doesn't let insurers group auto risks by marital status; and Hawaii forbids any rating plan based on it. Elsewhere, marital status may count in the rate, but several states keep it, and gender, out of the credit-based insurance score that many insurers use:

• Arizona bars income, gender, address, ZIP code, ethnic group, religion, marital status and nationality from the score (A.R.S. § 20-2110).
• Maine bars income, address, ZIP code, marital status, race and sex from the score (24-A M.R.S. § 2169-B).
• Tennessee bars income, gender, address, ethnic group, religion, marital status, nationality, education and occupation (Tenn. Code § 56-5-402).
• Virginia bars income, gender, address, ZIP code, race, marital status and total available credit (Va. Code § 38.2-2234).

Oregon adds a protection for life events: an insurer can't re-rate you on credit because your marital status changed through the death of a spouse or a divorce. Our page on credit-based insurance scores covers the rest of those rules.

Nonbinary drivers and gender markers

If your driver's license carries an X gender marker, or you don't identify as male or female, where you live decides how much it matters. In the states that ban gender rating, the marker can't change your price, because the insurer may not use gender at all. In other states, insurers set their own rules for drivers who don't list male or female. If that applies to you, ask each company how it rates you before you buy, and compare the answers alongside the prices.

What to do after a life change

1. 1 Tell your insurer when you marry, divorce or are widowed, and update the drivers and cars on the policy. A driver who moves out, or a spouse who joins, changes the policy as much as the status itself.
2. 2 Get quotes both ways. If you are marrying, compare one combined policy with two separate ones, on the same coverage. Use our guide to when to shop to time it with your renewal.
3. 3 Check the declarations page after any change to make sure your status, drivers and discounts are listed correctly.
4. 4 Ask for an explanation if a quote in a state that bans gender rating differs between otherwise identical drivers, and complain to the state insurance department if the answer doesn't hold up.

Questions drivers ask