Cheap Auto Insurance For Teen Driver?
This is old news, but in California, cheap auto insurance for teen drivers means no cell phones on the road. This is a great law, and I wish every state would pass it, but in the meantime those in states without the law have to educate them on the consequences of driving and cell phone use and enforce a personal ban with their teen drivers. As I’ve said before, if you want to get cheap auto insurance for teen drivers, the first step is accident avoidance.
According to recent studies, eight percent of teen drivers use a phone while they are driving during the day, and five percent do at night. Using a cell phone while you’re driving can be a big factor in getting into an accident, and drive you from cheap auto insurance for teen drivers to some very expensive rates.
While studies have not been done to show exactly how cell phones themselves cause car accidents, they have been done to show that a sizeable amount of accidents occur because the at fault driver is distracted in some way. This includes changing the radio station, bending down to pick up something you’ve dropped, talking to friends, and talking on your cell phone. One of the biggest problems is text messaging while driving.
Even though most of us survived fine without cell phones in the past, many parents today feel it necessary to have a way to keep in touch with their teen’s while they are away. This makes it harder to enforce a rule of not using your cell phone while driving. What you can do is teach your teen about the consequences of driving recklessly and punish them by removing driving privileges when you find that they have been using their cell phone on the road.
What Is The Best Teen Car Insurance?
You hear a lot of talk about getting a safe car to get the best teen car insurance quote, and while we give you the attributes of a safe car along with everything else, no one ever tells you the exact kind of car that can get you the best teen car insurance quote. So, for those who are sick of analyzing, here’s a list of some of the best cars for teens, and why.
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The Honda Civic.
This car is what I would consider the best car for anyone who wants to get a cheap auto insurance quote. For those who are interested in being environmentally aware, the Civic comes as a hybrid. Its cheapest price is around fourteen thousand dollars. It’s dependable, safe, classy, good for gas, and has some of the best teen car insurance rates. With an array of features, it’s also fun for teens to drive.
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Toyota Corolla.
This is a lot like the Civic, being dependable and spacious with some of the best teen car insurance rates. It tend to cost around thirteen thousand dollars, has lots of room inside, and has a very effective stability control option which you should add. If you want something a little bigger, you can get the Camry, which is practically the same in all but size.
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Ford Focus.
Not quite so dependable as the above, the Focus is an enjoyable ride. There are twelve models to choose from, and it prices at around thirteen thousand dollars.
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Scion xA, xB, or xC.
The lowest price for these cars is around twelve thousand dollars. While not the most comfortable, it’s cheap, has one of the best teen car insurance rates out there, and comes with a lot of great safety features like active restraints and air bags.
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Nissan Sentra.
This is cheap, but not very spacious. The lack of space isn’t such a bad thing if you don’t want your teen driving with a lot of people in their car anyway. It’s very similar to the Corolla, although the gas mileage is slightly better.
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Mazda3.
This car has an innovative design, and you can get it as a hatchback or a sedan for around thirteen thousand. While it’s not the fastest, that’s a good thing, and it does have a good amount of space and is reliable.
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Mitsubishi Lancer.
This is the car that teen drivers will love, but might not be the car that you want to buy them. It has a turbo charged model and is considered to be higher performance car in the other models. It will not get you the best teen car insurance price, though it is very cool.
What Is The Average Teen Auto Insurance Rate?
Car insurance companies are taking monitoring your teens driving to new heights with all of the different programs to allow parents to control their teen auto insurance rate by making sure that said teen is driving responsibly. This is one of the newer ones, called Teensurance, which is even more in depth and up to date then the DriveCam that I talked about in another post. Here’s a breakdown of the provisions of Teensurance, which is from Safeco Insurance.
- Roadside assistance.
While roadside assistance is great for anybody, teen’s could use it even more than most because they are more prone to not thinking ahead. Teensurance provides them with up to three gallons of gas if they run out on the road, it charges their battery if it goes dead (and teens often do things like leave the lights on for hours), it replaces tires, and it can open a car when the keys are locked inside, among other things.
- TeenDASH.
This is like a test given to your teen that will determine how they would react in certain driving situations and provide you with ways to get them to do the right thing. The better they can score on this test, the better their teen auto insurance rate will be. You can also compare your own teen to others nationwide by doing this.
- Help for parents.
Teen surance is involved with both the teen and the parent. It provides parents with materials to help them lower their teen auto insurance rate, and shows them how things such as tickets cause the teen auto insurance rate to rise.
- Safety Beacon.
This is perhaps the most innovative aspect of the Teensurance teen auto insurance rate plan. It provides real time updates for parents on a portable device, so they can communicate with their teen and monitor their movements through the GPS system.
- Tracking. The Safety Beacon GPS tracks a car if it is stolen so that it has a chance of being recovered.
- Unlock. In many cases, you won’t even need to call roadside assistance, because if your teen locks his keys in the car you can unlock it through the Safety Beacon device.
- Speed monitoring. You get instant messages on your device f your teen is going over the speed limit that you have set for them. For example, if you limit them to driving forty miles an hour, then you will be notified when they go over that amount for a minute or more.
- Curfew. If your teen is using the car while they aren’t allowed to be, you get notified.
While some parents might see the teen auto insurance rate policy as a little authoritarian, you should think about safety first. I know that as a teen I would have hated it, but this type of monitoring saves lives.
How To Get a Better Teen Car Insurance Rate
When your teen turns sixteen and you’re hit with the reality of a teen car insurance rate, it’s like a monster that popped out of that birthday cake. As with all life experiences that affect your car insurance premium, it’s time for you to sit down and try to figure out what you can do to save money. You look at your budget and cross off the unnecessary things, but as you try to fit that thousand dollar a year new expense into it, you think it might be better just to buy your kid a bicycle and let the car go back to its natural habitat. That’s up to you, but remember that your teenagers first couple of years of good driver experience will help her get a good teen car insurance rate once she’s out of the house, so the earlier you can start, the better.
The truth is that you don’t have to start eating boiled rice every night and one raw egg for breakfast every morning, move into a tent under the overpass, and wear a hat to keep out the rain. Even teenagers can get a teen car insurance rate with little effort that doesn’t break the bank.
Instead of trying to cut out everything but water, roots, and berries from your budget, start thinking of all the ways that you can save money on your teen car insurance rate. That birthday doesn’t look so scary anymore. Let’s look at the options available to you.
- Discounts
Lots of companies have discounts that are available to lower your teen car insurance rate. If your teen only drives a couple of miles to school every day, then it’s possible she is eligible for the low mileage discount. If she makes good grades, there’s a discount for that, and if you enroll her in a driver’s ed course, there’s on for that as well.
- Deductible.
Raise the deductible for the entire policy to lower your monthly premium. If you do this in addition to taking other measures that will keep your teen from getting into a car insurance accident, then you can lower your teen car insurance rate pretty substantially.
- Coverage.
Think about it. Do you really need a thousand different kinds of coverage? You might want to keep full coverage on your teen’s car, just in case, but if your own car is worth less than a thousand dollars, then there’s really no point. Cut your coverage down to the minimum liability required in your state, because that’s where most of your teen car insurance rate is coming from.
Want Cheap Car Insurance For Teen Driver?
Why is it that getting cheap car insurance for teen drivers is so hard? Mostly because they bring it upon themselves. While it sucks to be part of a group that is statistically more likely to get into a car accident, with teens it simply makes sense to charge more. Even though only four percent of the drivers on the road are teenagers, over twenty percent of car accidents are the fault of teenagers.
If you want to try and get cheap car insurance for teen drivers, then you have to follow the same basic steps that you do when getting cheap insurance for yourself. One thing that you should watch out for, though, when adding your teen to your policy, is that the car insurance company will try to put your teenager as the main driver on the car that is most expensive to insure, and as a result your rates will raise. In order to get cheap insurance for teen and make sure that this doesn’t happen, you need to specify who is the driver of each vehicle and get everything in writing.
The typical cheap car insurance for teen drivers premium in Colorado is about a thousand dollars for male drivers, and a couple hundred dollars less for female drivers. Some parents will try to put their own name on the risky vehicle that their teen drives in order to get lower car insurance rates, but what they don’t realize is that this is fraud.
Many parents commit this kind of fraud every year without considering it to be fraud. Instead of getting yourself into this trap, the best thing to do is to buy your teenager a car that isn’t risky in the first place.
Teen Driver With Learners Permit Insurance Rate Quote
Reader question:
My son just turned fifteen and is studying to get his learner permit. Do I have to add him to my policy when he gets it? Isn’t a teen driver insurance rate so much higher?
Gabby
Thanks for asking, Gabby.
Yes, you do have to add him, and yes, a teen driver insurance rate will be higher than the one you currently have. You gotta do what you gotta do, though, and if you do it right, then your teen driver insurance rate does not have to be exorbitant. Here are a few steps to follow when insuring your teen driver.
- Keep it in the family.
A teenager should not have his own car insurance policy, even if they have a job to pay the premium. While adding a teen driver insurance rate to your own policy may seem undesirable, it will come out cheaper than two separate policies. Your teen being on your policy will lower his risk rate, and give him cheaper rates. Not so great for you, but since you’ll probably be helping out with the payments, it’s best to have a lower total than one lower and one very high.
- Keep the grades up.
When your son starts driving, he can get a good teen driver insurance rate if he makes good grades in school. Make an ultimatum. Good grades, you drive; bad grades, you walk. You’re killing two birds with one stone, there.
- Keep looking.
Anytime you’re about to make a major change in your policy, you need to look at what other companies have to offer. Your teen driver insurance rate from one company may be much better than the teen driver insurance rate you have with the company you already own a policy with, because at your current company teens might file more claims.
- Keep it crash worthy.
If you buy the right car, not only can you get a discount on your teen driver insurance rate, but you can also be sure that your teen is more protected while on the road.
- Keep it safe.
Don’t just buy your teen the car and let him loose. Make sure that he understands driving safety, and enroll him in a driving course or two to enforce that understanding. Keep on top of his driving habits and correct him when he is out of line. If he ever wants to get a cheap teen driver insurance rate, then he needs to start his good driving record ASAP.
- Keep it real.
You can’t just tell your son to drive safe, you have to lead by example. Drive well, follow the laws, and try to drive a safe car to show him what should be done. Point out how you drive to him, and use it as a conversation starter on driving safety.
- Keep it innovative.
Many states have adopted a graduated driver’s license program which restricts teen’s driving priveleges while they are younger, and as they get older allows them more freedom, until they reach the age of eighteen. Even if your state does not have this law, you can ensure driver safety by creating a system of your own just for you and your son.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.
Teen Drunk Driver Car Insurance
This is a terrible (and I mean emotionally terrible, not badly made terrible) video that was filmed by a couple of high school students and their teacher about a teen drunk driver. If you don’t have the time to devote to watching the film, in the end the seventeen year old teen drunk driver survives with injuries, while the classmates that were involved in the crash but were sober die. It is a story of guilt that a lot of drunk drivers go through, and the problem is that most people who drive drunk are not malicious at all, but their stupidity can cause such horrible results.
A teen drunk driver is less likely than an adult to consider the consequences of his or her actions, which is why drunk driving is higher among teenagers, despite it being illegal for them to drink. When I was in high school, it was simply something that people did, and most drove while drunk because they were scared of what will happen if their parents found out they were drinking. While I don’t think a parent should accept that their teen is drinking, I think at times you must sacrifice discipline for safety. For the sake of your teen, make sure that they know that if they are ever drunk and need a sober ride, they can call you and you will be there for them.
However, you should also take measures to make sure that that never happens in the first place. One way is by educating your teen about the statistic involving teen drunk driver deaths. For example, the main way that teenagers die in the United States is through car accidents, usually caused by themselves. Thirteen percent of the car accidents involving a death are caused by drunk drivers, and forty percent of the time that is a teen drunk driver.
Nobody wants their teen to drink, but it is almost unavoidable, statistically. According to research, ten percent of 12 to 13 year olds partake in alcohol once a month or more. Just think of how much that increases by the time they get their license.
I would say that the best way of making sure that your teen does not become a teen drunk driver is by instituting your own graduated licensing program if your state does not have one. Either require that your teen have you or another trusted person with them when they go driving, or don’t let them drive at all. Give them more driving privileges as they grow older and become more responsible.
I Want To Get Auto Insurance For Good Teenage Driver
Reader question:
I know my teenager drives well, but he doesn’t pay as much attention as necessary at times and I’m worried that he could get into an accident and hurt himself or cause our car insurance rates to go up. Is there anything that I can do about this? He’s a good kid, so I don’t want to take away his privileges.
Mary Anne
Great question, Mary Anne.
I completely understand your situation, and I also get that you don’t want to punish your son for practicing the common teenage gift of absent mindedness. However, you have to remember that while he’s being the wheel, his lack of attention could end up in at the best higher teen driver car insurance rates, and at the worst a serious car accident. The first thing that I would do would be to sit down and talk to him about paying more attention on the road.
After that, whether he starts to pay more attention or not, I would enroll him in a defensive driving course. Most teen driver car insurance companies will give you a discount for taking a defensive driving course, and they are often good for the whole family so that rates for everyone can be lowered.
Defensive driving can be helpful in supplementing the knowledge that your son learned in his driver’s education courses. It goes beyond simply knowing the laws of the road and teaches teenagers and their parents about one of the most important concepts for owners of a teen driver car insurance policy–accident avoidance.
There are several types of classes that you can take, and usually you can call your teen driver car insurance company and ask them which ones will be acceptable to count towards the discount. One of my favorites, though, that I have heard of is Xtreme Measures, which is taught by David Reutimann, a driver for NASCAR. This defensive driving class is accepted by many teen driver car insurance companies, and besides that, it travels! It was in California recently, and a bunch of teenagers took the two day course that involved intense lessons and fun obstacle courses. Here is a bit of advice from the course for driving while it’s raining:
- If you notice that the weather is starting to turn foul, double check your windshield wipers. You do NOT want to get caught out in the rain without wipers. Believe me, one time the motor on my wipers broke, and I was an hour away from home. I bought something that you can spray on your window which will make the rain just slide off to the side, and it’s great. You can ask for it at your local auto parts shop and they’ll know what you mean. I would keep it on hand for emergencies.
- Keep your windshield clean. Get the dirt, bugs, and bird poop off before you go driving. It helps you to see better.
- If it’s raining hard, go slow enough so that you can squint your eyes and drive according to how far ahead you can see.
- If the rain is pouring too hard, get off the road and find somewhere to hang out until it dies down.
The suggestions and real life practices are fantastic, and can help your teen drive more safely and also lower your teen driver car insurance rates.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.
New Teen Driver Safety Tips
If you’re interested in teen driver safety for your son or daughter, then you should avoid buying them an SUV, or allowing them to buy one for themselves with their own money, until they are out of your house. The video above details the inherent danger of sports utility vehicles when they are under the control of teenagers, and the gap between the safety of an SUV and that of a regular car is growing all the time.
Last year, in relation to deaths from car accidents, eleven percent more deaths resulted from crashes involving SUVs than those that didn’t. At the same time, SUV’s have been selling far more vehicles, so we will only see those statistics rise, taking a big toll on teen driver safety.
While many of the newer sports utility vehicle models have roll over protection on them, this doesn’t always work, and when they don’t have it, rolling over is a very dangerous possibility. It is one of the things that makes the SUV most dangerous for the driver and passengers, and when teen driver safety is compromised by both the vehicle and by the fact that teenagers are more likely to take risky actions that would cause a roll over, you have something to worry about.
Another reason that SUVs are dangerous is that they have bumpers that are higher than those of other cars. These bumpers come to the level of the driver and passengers of a smaller car, and are thus more likely to cause injuries and fatalities, instead of doing what their supposed to do, which is hit the body of the car or the other car’s bumper and absorb the impact.
Not only do SUVs compromise teen driver safety, but they come at a heavy price. Most car insurance companies charge more for SUVs than they do for other cars, although if you have safety features installed, you might be able to get a discount.
Getting Auto Insurance Discounts For Teen and New Drivers
If you’re a teen and new driver, then you can’t simply take your car out on the road and guess how to drive. If you want to get good teen and new driver car insurance rates, and also drive safely and within the law, then you need to have a driver’s education program. Most schools offer one, and the schools in this video offer a different, more effective type of driver’s education–one designed by teens.
Most car insurance companies will apply a ten percent discount or more to your insurance if the teen takes a driver’s education program, even if it is taken outside of school.
There are several places on and off line where a teen and new driver can get their drivers education, and there are even games to help the teen learn the rules of the road better.
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