Car Insurance For Young Drivers
Reader’s Question:
Why is the insurance cost for young drivers so high? Is there something we can do about it?
Lewis
Denver, CO
There are many reasons why car insurance for young drivers is expensive. Study shows that the chance of a young driver getting killed in a crash is three times than a driver who is 25 to 60 years old. Not only that, the leading cause of children dying of ages 15 to 20 was and still car accidents. With that said, you can’t blame car insurance company from raising the insurance cost of young drivers.
Still, getting those expensive car insurance for young drivers to drop is still possible. Try to compare if which one will be cheaper, adding your teen on your policy or is it cheaper to buy a 2nd vehicle and insuring it under your teens name. You know why? Because in most cases, adding a teen in their parents insurance policy will jack up the insurance cost up to 95% that’s why I want you to try the two approach.
Inexpensive car insurance for young drivers can also be acquired if you’re a good student. But this doesn’t mean that the “A” student is much safer than those students who are getting “C” grades. Still, having a good grade can acquire you 10 to 25 percent discount because they think of them as more responsible and can also be seen as “future risk”.
Cheaper Auto Insurance For Young Drivers in Nebraska
Reader’s Question:
Why is insurance for young drivers too expensive? My daughter is applying for one and all the insurance quotes she’s getting reveals too high rates for her taste. Thanks
Marjorie
Omaha, NE
Insurance for young drivers has traditionally been more expensive compared to those of elder drivers. Insurance companies have been strict when it comes to rating insurance for teenage drivers since young drivers are more prone to committing mistakes on the road that can result to car accidents, injuries and damages.
Another reason why insurance for young drivers is expensive is because young drivers do not have a lengthy driving record to speak of. This is a result, of course, of the short time they have as drivers. But since automobile insurance companies put premium on the driving tendencies and skills of their policy holders, young drivers are at the raw end of the deal, and thus have to pay more for their vehicle insurance.
Yet another factor which contributes to higher insurance rates for young drivers is the fact that they usually drive unsafe vehicles like sports cars. It is not surprising that car insurance companies charge highly on their insurance coverage since sports cars are known to be involved in a lot of road accidents.
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.
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 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.
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.
Teen Driver Auto Insurance Rates?
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 just riight. 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.
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