You knew it was coming, but you’re always a bit surprised when the day finally arrives: the day your sixteen-year-old son stands in front of you and holds out his hands expectantly, a new driver’s license burning a hole in his pocket. . . Giving your teen the freedom to drive can be scary. Even scarier is the thought of what your teen is going to do with her car insurance. Fortunately, there are many things that you as a parent can do to ensure cheaper auto insurance for your teen driver.
Have you seen the statistics floating around about teen drivers? A teenage driver is, statistically speaking, ten times more likely to have an accident than a thirty to fifty year old driver. That means your insurance provider is ten times more likely to have to pay one or more claims each year. Most insurance providers don’t like those numbers. They make no profit when they pay thousands of dollars in damages for a driver who only pays them a couple thousand dollars a year in premiums.
To make up for that loss, they are going to raise the bar as high as possible to insure their teen driver. Since teen drivers can’t have their own insurance policies, your insurance policy will take the hit. Since you can’t beat the system, you’ll just have to find a way to make it work for you! To lower your premiums and get cheaper auto insurance, you’ll need to do a couple of things:
1) Talk to your insurance agent about discounts you and your teen may qualify for. A ten percent airbag discount might not have meant much to you when the difference was only a few dollars (courtesy of your superior experience and spectacular driving record), but with a teen driver added to your policy those Small, previously insignificant discounts could be the key to cheaper auto insurance.
2) Talk to your teen. Since teen drivers don’t have good credit or strong driving records to show how responsible they can be, both behind the wheel and in the real world, most auto insurance providers are willing to consider their educational history. This might be a good time to get your underachievement on the books and start spending some quality time on the honor roll and (for college students) Dean’s List.
3) Consider getting them their own car. It’s going to cost you a fortune to insure your $87,000 2009 Jaguar XK convertible with your teenage son behind the wheel. It is a simple question of numbers; it will cost your insurance company more to replace it, so it will cost you more to insure. On the other hand, a cheap second-hand $2,000 Honda won’t cost much if it gets wrecked. Getting your teen his own used jalopy (and making it the only car he’s insured to drive) will go a long way toward helping you find the cheapest auto insurance premiums you’ve been looking for.
4) Increase your deductibles. It’s an old game, but if you want cheaper auto insurance, you need to raise your deductibles. When your insurance provider pays less after an accident, you pay less the rest of the year. It is the only premium reducer guaranteed to give you the results you have been looking for.
Relax! There’s cheaper car insurance for teen drivers today than it was a few years ago, so hand your teen the car keys, sit back, and enjoy the ride.