“Putting your teen in a big, boring vehicle is going to be a lot easier on the wallet than giving them the zippy small car they may want,” says Russ Rader, spokesperson for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).
So, adding a teenage driver to your car insurance bundle will raise your rates, but you can control how much will they climb. Teenagers cost more to insure, and there is a reason for that! Usually, new drivers are one of the most dangerous drivers on the road, at rates several times the scale of the average driver.
Ensure your teen driver!
You should ensure all family members in the household, whether they drive your cars or not. I don’t have full custody of your child, consult insurance company. Companies have different policies regarding ensuring a teen as a single parent. Best way to approach this is that the parent with primary custody adds the new driver. A minor cannot own a property or sign contracts, without a parent’s signature or consent.
The average car insurance rate for a 16-year-old who has his or her policy is as follows, per year:
- State minimum coverage: $2,593
- Liability limits of 50/100/50: $2, 957
- Full coverage: $6,930
It’s better and cheaper to add teenagers to an existing policy than to exclude them, and then buy an additional car and ensure it, says consumer analyst Penny Gusner.
Think about choosing a car you can ensure at low cost
If you have a couple of cars, it can be resourceful to have your new driver assigned to a specific one, the one that’s cheapest to insure. When choosing a car, you should start with IIHS’s, which lists insurance losses by make and model for vehicles built before 2010. The vehicles with lower auto insurance losses will typically have lower auto insurance rates while providing more protection if the crash occurs.
“Bigger, faster engine costs more money to insure and more money to repair,” says June Walbert, a Certified Finacial Planner for USAA.
Having a car with a powerful engine can be a temptation to a young mind(And sometimes for an even older one), and you will probably use that kind of power. She recommends four-door sedans and crossover vehicles. Don’t overlook car Insurance discounts.
Check with the insurer to see what types of discounts for teenagers might be available.
The nationwide study done in 2010 of almost 2000 parents of teens between the ages of 15 and 19 found auto insurance costs soared an average of $800 a year just by adding a teenager to their policy.
There are good-student discounts to teens who maintain at least a “B” average. If your teen is old enough to go to college and doesn’t have a car. You’re likely to get a break on our auto insurance. That’s because the teen isn’t a regular operator. Several insurance companies offer digital monitoring devices to keep an eye on tour teen’s driving behavior.
Depending on the system installed, it might monitor specific specified behaviors like seat belt usage, speeding, hard braking, cornering and arrival and departure times.
