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 teen and new driver 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.

Who ever heard of an insurance company trying to help your Minneapolis teen driver improve their driving skills? American Family insurance has done just that, by creating a program called the Teen Safe Driver Program, also known as DriveCam, which allows parents to monitor reckless driving behavior in their teens and help in the learning process to prevent further accidents and Minneapolis teen driver insurance claims. Best of all, it’s free for one year to all American Family Insurance policy holders who have a Minneapolis teen driver in their house.

If you want to become involved in this safety program for your Minneapolis teen driver, they will send you the driver cam, which can be installed in around half an hour. This camera will record the interior and exterior of the vehicle, but it will not record where your Minneapolis teen driver is at, so it can only be used for monitoring reckless teen driving and not for monitoring your teenager’s whereabouts.

There are certain types of reckless driving that the camera will pick up. For examples, if your Minneapolis teen driver swerves, hits the brakes too suddenly, starts going too fast too suddenly, or, of course, if they get into a car accident. The camera transfers the recorded footage to the Analysis Center at DriveCam, where they look at the footage and then send an analysis to you, along with a comparison between your Minneapolis teen driver and other teen drivers. You can use this great system together with what you see your Minneapolis teen driver do to ensure the best driving and thus the lowest car insurance costs. This program has resulted in a thirty percent decrease in dangerous accidents.

Reader question:

What kind of discounts can a student get on her teen driver insurance?

Ruth

Thanks for asking, Ruth.

Being a full time student and having to pay the much higher teen driver insurance prices would be difficult for everyone, but if you take advantage of all of the teen driver insurance discounts that are available to you, you could get your rates down to something lower even than your parents. All you need to do is pick the right company that has the highest discount percentages, the best service, and the best quotes.

• Are you a good student?

Most teen driver insurance companies will offer a discount for those students who make good grades in school. The requirements differ, but what is more often than not required is that the teen be a full time student and be able to provide either a transcript or a report card proving the good grades.

Then there are the requirements that vary depending on the teen driver insurance company. Some will require that you have been driving for at least a year and a half; others that be over sixteen but under the age of twenty five if unmarried, twenty one if married. The grade requirement is usually a B average, and between a 3.0 and 3.5 grade point average.

Some companies give better discounts than others. Farmers insurance, for example, has more restrictions, but the teen driver insurance discount for good students is 25%, whereas the same discount with GEICO is only ten to fifteen percent.

• Do you need a car anyway?

If you have teen driver insurance on your parent’s policy, then it might be good for both them and you if you leave your car at home when you go away to college. This depends on where you’re going, of course. Most companies only give out this teen driver insurance discount if you will be going to school one hundred or more miles away.

You’ll still be insured when you’re at home, and while you’re at school it’s a lot easier to get by without a car if you’re living on campus. It can also save you guys a good chunk of change on your teen driver insurance premium.

This video right here is about a great program for the Ohio teen driver that has driven down Ohio teen driver car insurance rates and made the road safer for those who haven’t been long on the road. The graduated licensing program has been adopted in several states, and it places restrictions on the licenses of each Ohio teen driver for the first few years that they have them. Instead of allowing teens the immediate and unfettered freedom of the road, this leaves much less room for mistakes.

Here is a break down of the Ohio teen driver graduated licensing program.

• You start off with a temporary permit.

This would be what in most states is called the learner’s permit, and it can be gotten when the Ohio teen driver turns fifteen and a half. Whenever the Ohio teen driver drives with this license, they have to have a parent or a guardian who is also licensed with them. After they are sixteen, but before they get the next license up, the restrictions loosen to allow any licensed passenger over twenty one and sober to sit in for the parent or guardian. Unless they have a parent or guardian with them, they can’t drive between midnight and 6 a.m., even after they turn sixteen, and there can’t be more people in the car than there are seat belts.

• Then you get a probationary license.

This license is received by the Ohio teen driver when he or she is between the age of sixteen and seventeen. Like with the former permit, the Ohio teen driver with a probationary license can’t driver between midnight and six a.m. There are a few cases when this is allowed, though, such as for emergencies, when the student is going to school or something sponsored by the school, or when the Ohio teen driver is going to or returning from work.

For passengers, only one person that is not related to the Ohio teen driver can accompany them, unless the parent or guardian is with them.

Once the driver turns seventeen, they will be eligible for fewer restrictions, although the type of license will be the same. The restricted hour area becomes smaller, with the period being between one and five a.m., and the same exceptions as above applying.

Why do I have a video about Goldilocks on a post for safe cars for a teen driver? Well, Goldilocks in general because I think the theme behind buying a safe car for a teen driver is to buy the car that is, as Goldilocks would say, juuuuust riiiight. This video in particular because I love Roald Dahl, and it takes me back to when I was six years old and reading his revolting rhymes.

I wouldn’t show it to your teen driver, though. They might think you’re crazy.

Your teen driver is more at risk than any other kind of driver for fatal car crashes, or even just a car crash involving an injury. While six thousand teens die every year in car accidents, over three hundred thousand are seriously injured. This is among the main reasons for why teen driver car insurance rates are so high. In order to lower your teen driver car insurance rates, you have to comply with the car insurance company by lowering the risk of your teen driver. And how do you lower the risk? There are a lot of ways, but a good place to start is by buying your teen driver the right car, which is what many parents do before their kid starts driving on their own.

When picking a car for your teen driver, you should…

• Be a parent, not a friend.

Your teen driver wants the convertible or the sports car. Don’t give in, even if you have the money for the higher premium an the car note. It’s been documented that high performance vehicles are more likely to be involved in car accidents, and having a teen driver in a car that goes very fast is a recipe for disaster. You don’t have to buy your teen driver a station wagon, but practice your firm use of the word “NO” before you go with them to the car dealer ship.

• Pick a stable car.

While SUVs are generally larger and seem to be safer, they aren’t a good option for your teen driver, either. Not even the smaller ones that seem like a good compromise. The reason for this is that they have a low center of gravity, which means they are more likely to skid and roll over, even with safety devices that protect against this. The bumpers are usually not made of the strongest material, and crumple quickly while causing significant damage to the other car.

• Look for crash worthiness.

That doesn’t even sound like a word, but it’s one that gets thrown around a lot in the car insurance business. A crash worthy car is one hat has passed crash tests in flying colors.

• Remember that size is important.

You shouldn’t let your teen driver have a large vehicle, because if they drive recklessly then they could cause a lot of damage. Neither should you allow them to drive a smaller car, because those receive a lot of damage. The best way to go is juuust riiight. Get a mid sized car that is crash worthy.

• Not buy ancient.

Older cars are cheap, and most of us drove a piece of junk when we were young, but if you have the option not to, you should avoiding buying a car that is over ten years old for your teen driver. In fact, again you should get the car whose age is juuust riiight. A new car will have higher teen driver car insurance rates, and an older car won’t have the popular safety features. Buy a car that’s a few years old, but not too old, and you’ll have a match.

There is a new trend in America, Drunk Teen Drivers. Are you allowing your teen driver to get behind the wheel when she or he is drunk? You might want to quickly answer that question with a firm “NO” but statistics show that most parents are unaware of the problem and if their teen driver is driving drunk or not.

Interesting video helps shed some light on the problem…..before it becomes a bigger problem.

Great information found by our reader David T. on how to train your teen driver and what to do to get lower rates on teen car insurance.