Practical Coverage for Teenage Drivers

For most of us, if the words “teenager” and “driver” are used in the same sentence this can only mean that there are huge premiums to be paid. Almost every parent with a teenage driver at home knows that the premium that they pay just to have their teenager drive their car is borderline nonsense. It isn’t rare to see that the teenager will increase the price of the premium by as much as 2-3 times compared to what parents paid before.

Although the premiums are expensive most parents understand that the extra comes from the inherently high risk nature of teenage driving. Teenagers would have no experience behind the wheel. Teenagers, especially boys will normally take risks that normal drivers would not. The main problem is responsibility, teenagers are just not as responsible as adults and insurance companies know that. They present a very big risk to insurance companies so the only way the insurance companies are going to accept that is by increasing the premiums substantially to offset the risk. Below I will outline some practical thing you as parents can do to keep the rates down.

The first and most obvious would be the choice of car. Your teen should not be driving an expensive car and should be driving a slow car. The expensive car part is quite obvious; a car with lower market value will mean that it will be cheaper to insurance. A slow car isn’t only safer for the teenager but is also classified in a lower risk category by the insurance companies so your premiums will be more affordable. Get them to drive cars that have been fully paid for and you can even save on comprehensive car insurance and offer them 3rd party coverage which will slice the premiums in a huge way.

Here is a rule that you can use effectively. The older the car, the better. This is in part due to the way insurance companies view road accident statistics and also how well the cars were built in earlier years. Most insurance companies will class different makes and models of cars and give each model a rating. Older cars will have less insurance claims against them as cars weren’t freely available as it is now and those cars were normally slow slugs which meant that accidents weren’t that big of a problem with them. It also deals with records. Record keeping for the accident statistics of older cars just isn’t as good as those provided for newer cars. This means that many potential accidents aren’t known to the insurance company so the rates for those older vehicles will stay untouched.

There is also no coincidence that older cars are much slower than newer cars. A perfect example of this would be some 1970s Cadillac with a 355c.i. engine only has 160hp at most. Nowadays, your average Toyota Camry with a 130c.i. engine can produce the same amount of power in a much lighter package. In older cars, it makes it very difficult if not impossible to speed. You can’t even accelerate quickly enough through the traffic lights to get you into trouble. Insurance companies know this and will take this into consideration too. The basic rule is this, the higher the horsepower the higher the insurance charge.

To keep rates getting lower you have to be totally frank with your teen. They must not violate any laws or speed limits. Any violation will mean that your teen’s insurance will be increased substantially for the next year. Most insurance companies are prepared to offer significant discounts on the price of the policy should your teen demonstrate that they are responsible behind the wheel and is a law abiding citizen.

Another important key to getting better rates for your teenage driver is to have them attend defensive driving courses. You should get in contact with your insurance provider and ask them which defensive driving courses they recognize and how much discounts on the premium they are willing to offer should your teenager complete the course. Most of the time insurance companies would allow up to three different courses to be accredited towards the discounts. Most insurers would offer anywhere from 20-30% off their teenager premium should they have passed these defensive driving courses successfully.

There is also an increasing trend by insurance companies to look at your teenager’s grades to determine their car insurance quote. You’ll find that if your teenager is ranked in the top 20th percentile in their grades compared to the rest of the students then you will be able to apply for yet another discount.