1 in 5 Americans admit to lying on insurance applications
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Twenty-one percent of Americans admit to intentionally providing incorrect information on an insurance application, according to a new survey by the personal finance website NerdWallet.
The youngest U.S. adults, Gen Zers (ages 18-27), are most likely to admit to fibbing: 42% of them say they’ve lied on an insurance application for better rates, compared with 28% of millennials (ages 28-43), 17% of Gen Xers (ages 44-59) and 6% of baby boomers (60-78), according to the company’s Insurance Dishonesty Report released this month.
According to the site, the survey of more than 2,000 U.S. adults, conducted online by The Harris Poll, asked Americans about the acceptability of lying about certain personal information on insurance applications. We also asked these Americans why they think these lies are OK.
Just 19% of Americans say it’s acceptable to lie about the number of miles a person drives each year to receive lower auto insurance rates, and 14% say it’s acceptable to lie about health data to receive lower life insurance rates.
The No. 1 reason some Americans think it’s acceptable to lie about certain personal information to get lower insurance rates is because they want to save money (45%), and 38% say it’s because rates have increased too much.
