35.8 million Americans admit to telling fibs when buying.
Honesty is the best policy. But not all Americans believe it gets them the best insurance policy, according to a recent study from finder.com.
Roughly 35.8 million American adults admit to lying to their car insurer, which equates to about 14.0% of Americans. This number is way up compared to a 2020 Finder survey, which found that roughly 11.8 million Americans have played fast and loose with the facts when applying for insurance — about a 204.8% increase in liars nationwide.
What are Americans lying about when applying for car insurance?
Lying about their accident history comes out on top, with nearly a third of people who said they lied to their insurance admitting it was about their accident history.
The next most common lie told to car insurers was using an inaccurate address with 29.7% of people who lied to car insurers saying this was a type of lie they told. In third is lying about how they planned to use their car at about 26.6%.
Most common lies told when applying for car insurance
% of respondents that lied when applying for car insurance
Lied about accident history
30.1%
Used an inaccurate address
29.7%
Lied about how they planned to use the car (i.e. Uber or pizza delivery)
26.6%
Didn’t report all the drivers for the vehicle
26.3%
Lied about ticket history
25.5%
Lied about who the primary driver is
18.1%
Lied about the actual parking location for the vehicle
18.1%
Didn’t include all owners of the vehicle
14.7%
How much do Americans think they saved by lying to their insurers?
Most Americans lie to their insurer for one simple reason: money. According to our 2020 findings, roughly 29% of those who lied to an insurance company say their reason for doing so was because they’re higher risk and would have had to pay more for their premiums if they’d told the truth.
On average, car insurance fibbers thought they saved an average of $362 each month. However, roughly three-quarters of respondents estimated they saved less than that each month, which is probably why the median amount saved according to respondents was a more modest $104. That’s an annual estimated savings of an average of $4,342 or a median of $1,249.
Men are more likely than women to lie to car insurers
Women have long been called the fairer sex, and it looks like they’re also more honest. Roughly 19.8% of men (23.9 million) said they’d lied on a car insurance application compared to 8.9% of women (11.9 million).
Men vs women: How many people are lying on their car insurance applications?
While women are less likely overall than men to lie on an insurance application, it’s possibly because they have less to save by lying. Men who lied on their car insurance applications estimated they saved a median of $104 each month, compared to a median of $97 for women.
% of respondents that lied on car insurance application
Median estimated monthly savings from lying on car insurance application
Men
19.7%
$104
Women
8.9%
$97
Does your age affect your willingness to lie to your insurer?
It turns out that generally the younger you are, the more likely you are to lie on your insurance application, with 22.5% of millennials, 18.1% of Gen X, and 17.9% of Gen Z saying they aren’t always truthful with their insurers. In comparison, only 4.0% of baby boomers and 3.4% of the silent generation said the same.
% of respondents that lied on car insurance application
Gen Z
17.9%
Millennial
22.5%
Gen X
18.1%
Baby Boomers
4.0%
Silent Gen
3.4%
Like with the genders, it’s possible that the younger generations are more likely to lie on a car insurance application because they have the most to save by lying. The youngest generations estimated the highest savings from lying from car insurance with Gen Z estimating they saved a median of $113 each month from lying. Similarly, millennials and Gen X estimated a monthly median savings of $100 and $104, respectively. In comparison, baby boomers only estimated that they were saving a median of $50 each month by lying to their car insurers.
Estimated savings due to car application lies by generation
Generation
Median estimated monthly savings from lying on car insurance application
Gen Z
$113
Millennial
$100
Gen X
$104
Baby Boomers
$50
Silent Gen
$37
The West is home to the most insurance fibbers
Those in the West are most likely to take liberties with the truth when filling out a car insurance application, with 16.3% saying they’d lied to their car insurer. Those in the Midwest are the most honest at 11.1%.
% of respondents that lied on their car insurance application
Median estimated monthly savings from lying on car insurance application
Northeast
16.1%
$117
Midwest
11.1%
$59
South
12.9%
$104
West
16.3%
$104
Finder’s data is based on an online survey of 2,059 US adults born between 1928 and 2003 commissioned by Finder and conducted by Pureprofile in April 2021. Participants were paid volunteers.
We assume the participants in our survey represent the US population of 254.7 million Americans who are at least 18 years old according to the July 2019 US Census Bureau estimate. This assumption is made at the 95% confidence level with a 2.16% margin of error.
The survey asked respondents whether they have ever lied on a car insurance application and, if so, what types of lies they told on their application. Possible types of lies were:
Lied about your accident history
Lied about your ticket history
Used an inaccurate address
Lied about how you planned to use the car (i.e. Uber or pizza delivery)
Lied about who the primary driver is
Not report all the drivers for the vehicle
Not include all owners of the vehicle you are insuring
Lied about the actual parking location for the vehicle
We also asked how much they estimated saving each month by lying on your car insurance. To avoid skewing the data, we did not include extreme outliers in our calculations.
We define generations by birth year according to the Pew Research Center’s generational guidelines:
Gen Z — 1997–2003
Millennials — 1981–1996
Gen X — 1965–1980
Baby boomers — 1946–1964
Silent generation — 1928–1945
We define geographical regions as defined by the US Census Bureau.
Previous surveys on lying on insurance
Honesty is the best policy. But not all Americans believe it gets them the best insurance policy, according to a recent study from finder.com.
Roughly 11.8 million American adults admit to lying to their insurer, which equates to about 4.61% of Americans. This number is way down compared to a 2018 Finder survey, which found that roughly 35 million Americans have played fast and loose with the facts when applying for insurance — about a 66.35% decrease in liars nationwide.
What types of insurance are Americans lying about?
Car insurance comes out on top, with nearly a third of people who said they lied to their insurance admitting it was to their auto insurer.
The next most common insurer that Americans have tried to deceive is their health insurer, with 27% fudging their applications. In third is life insurance at close to 15%.
Most Americans lie to their insurer for one simple reason: money. Roughly 29% of those who lied to an insurance company say their reason for doing so was because they’re higher risk and would have had to pay more for their premiums if they’d told the truth.
The second most common reason cited by Americans is they didn’t want to pay a higher premium, because they want to save money (23.75%) — which, if we’re being honest, is the same reason as the first but stripped of the self-conscious reasoning. Rounding out the top three is those who are unable to get insurance without lying — the reason cited by almost 19% of Americans.
Men are more likely than women to lie to insurers
Women have long been called the fairer sex, and it looks like they’re also more honest. Roughly 6.6 million men said they’d lied on an insurance application compared to 5.2 million women.
While women are less likely overall than men to lie on an insurance application, women lie more than men when it comes to their car, health and renters insurance.
On the other hand, men are far more likely than women to lie on applications for life, home, disability, travel, pet and income protection insurance.
Does your age affect your willingness to lie to your insurer?
It turns out that the younger you are, the more likely you are to lie on your insurance application, with 6.33% of Gen Z saying they aren’t always truthful with their insurers. The trend continues with each generation more honest the older they get — millennials at 6.11%, Gen X at 4.53%, baby boomers at 3.95% and the silent generation as most honest at 1.22%.
Northeast is home to the most insurance fibbers
Those in the Northeast are most likely to take liberties with the truth when filling out an insurance application, with 5.54% saying they’d lied to their insurer. Those in the West are the most honest at 3.33%.
Methodology
Our data is based on an online survey of 2,076 US adults born between 1928 and 2002. The survey was commissioned by Finder and conducted by Pureprofile in February 2020, with representative quotas for gender and age. Participants were paid volunteers.
We assume the 2,076 participants in our survey represent the US population of 255.2 million Americans who are at least 18 years old according to the July 2019 US Census Bureau population estimate. This assumption is made at the 95% confidence level with a 2.15% margin of error.
The survey asked people whether they have ever lied on an insurance application and, if so, why they lied on their insurance application. Possible categories for insurance were:
Car
Health
Life
Home
Disability
Travel
Income protection
Pet
Renters insurance
Possible reasons for lying on an insurance application were:
Didn’t want to pay a higher premium because you are high risk
Didn’t want to pay a higher premium because you want to save more money
Won’t be able to get coverage otherwise
Lying on behalf of someone else
Trying to get money from a claim or refund, etc.
Other
To avoid skewing the data, we did not include extreme outliers in our calculations.
We define generations by birth year according to the Pew Research Center’s generational guidelines:
Gen Z — 1997–2002
Millennials — 1981–1996
Gen X — 1965–1980
Baby Boomers — 1946–1964
Silent Generation — 1928–1945
We define geographical regions as defined by the US Census Bureau.
29% of Americans have lied on a car insurance application
Honesty is the best policy. But not all Americans believe it gets them the best insurance policy, according to a recent finder.com study.
Some 35 million Americans say they’ve played fast and loose with the facts when applying for insurance, with a whopping 10.2 million (29%) of these lies told on car insurance applications. Health insurance fibs take second place at 7.5 million (22%) lies, followed by life insurance at 7.3 million (21%).
Type of insurance
%
Estimated total
Car insurance
29%
10,261,140
Health insurance
22%
7,554,905
Life insurance
21%
7,329,386
Income protection insurance
8%
2,931,754
Travel insurance
7%
2,480,715
Home and contents insurance
7%
2,480,715
Pet insurance
5%
1,916,916
Source: finder.com
Who tells taller tales to insurers: Men or women?
Of the genders, it turns out we’re all pretty partial to alternative facts. Women are more likely than men to lie on an application in five of seven categories: health insurance (22%), income protection insurance (9%), travel insurance (8%), home and contents insurance (9%) and pet insurance (7%). Women are three times more likely to stretch the truth for car insurance than to protect their home and its contents.
Men are more likely than women to stretch the truth when applying for car insurance (31%) or life insurance (23%). They’re four times more likely to lie for life insurance than when picking up income protection.
Type of insurance
% of women
% of men
Car insurance
27%
31%
Health insurance
22%
21%
Life insurance
17%
23%
Income protection insurance
9%
8%
Travel insurance
8%
7%
Home and contents insurance
9%
6%
Pet insurance
7%
5%
Source: finder.com
How lies relate to your living situation
Does who we live with affect what we’re willing to lie for? Possibly. When it comes to car insurance, renters are most likely to deviate from the truth — 32% of those who rent their homes admit to lying to an insurer in the past, compared with 29% of homeowners and 28% of those who live with their parents or family. Renters are also most likely to lie when applying for life insurance (25%) or pet insurance (7%).
If you’re a homeowner, you’re more tempted to lie on a health insurance (24%) application than when applying for home and contents insurance (24%). And those living with family are more likely to trifle with the facts when applying for travel insurance (11%) or income protection insurance (11%).
Type of insurance
Homeowners
Renters
Living with parents or family
Car insurance
29%
32%
28%
Health insurance
24%
21%
18%
Life insurance
18%
25%
22%
Income protection insurance
10%
5%
11%
Travel insurance
7%
5%
11%
Home and contents insurance
9%
5%
7%
Pet insurance
5%
7%
4%
Source: finder.com
United we bluff: Lies by state
Of Americans who are most likely to lie to insurers, Arizona takes the lead, with 25% of its residents admitting to lying on an insurance application. The Grand Canyon State is followed by California (22%) and Ohio (20%).
The consequences of insurance fraud
Insurance companies ask a lot of invasive questions when deciding whether to take you on as a policyholder. But there’s more at stake than your pants catching fire when you lie on an application.
Even a white lie can come back to haunt you. If you’re caught, you risk your insurer voiding your policy or, worse, charging you with fraud, which can come with fines and even jail time.
If you’ve found yourself in a situation where fibbing feels like your only option, it’s a good sign that you haven’t yet found the right policy for you. Get quotes from multiple insurers and compare your options to find the cheapest rates and strongest protection you’re eligible for.
Methodology
This data is from a June 2018 survey of 2,020 US adults commissioned by finder.com and conducted by Pureprofile.
For all media inquiries, please contact:
Richard Laycock, Insights editor and senior content marketing manager
Richard Laycock is Finder’s NYC-based senior content marketing manager & insights editor, spending the last decade data diving, writing and editing articles about all things personal finance. His musings can be found across the web including on NASDAQ, MoneyMag, Yahoo Finance and Travel Weekly. Richard studied Media at Macquarie University, including a semester abroad at The Missouri School of Journalism (MIZZOU).
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