Affordable Teen Car Insurance For Good Driver
Reader’s Question:
I’m confident that my teen daughter would be a good driver although she has just started driving on her own. Despite of that, I know that we’ll have a tough time getting cheap car insurance here in Florida for her. Before we buy her a new car, could you give me some advice that can help us find her affordable car insurance that has adequate coverage?
Bhea
Hialeah, FL
The first thing you can do to get affordable car insurance for your teen daughter is to emphasize to her how important for her to maintain a clean driving record. In time, she will be given more affordable car insurance premiums if she doesn’t have accidents, speeding tickets and traffic infractions. Also, you can opt to get higher deductible for her teen car insurance. If she has higher deductible, it means she will have lower premium for her car insurance in Florida.
Since you are buying her a new car, choose a car that has safety features installed in it and do not ever get her a sports car or any car that has higher rating because these types of car have higher car insurance premiums.
If you plan to add your daughter to your own car insurance policy, this may not be the best option to have affordable premiums for her. You can just get a separate car insurance policy for her from an insurance company that focuses in giving teen car insurance. This type of car insurance company lessens their risk for giving car insurance for teens by putting specific driving conditions. They may require your teen daughter to complete a defensive driving course, no driving at night time or several other limitations which let her to have affordable car insurance premiums.
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”.
Car Insurance For Young Drivers In Utah
Reader’s Question:
My daughter just got her driving license and I am planning to buy her a car soon. Is car insurance for young drivers relatively expensive than that of an adult because I want her to have insurance coverage also.
Lisa
Salt Lake City, UT
Safety is the number one priority we want for our teens especially when it comes to driving. Young drivers aren’t experienced and when it comes to driving, they are not good at avoiding road risk or drivers who drive recklessly.
In reality, young drivers don’t have a driving history to prove that they are responsible drivers. With that said, car insurance for young drivers tends to go high because of the majority of their peers are liable for greater claims compared to a matured driver. The rate of car insurance for young drivers can sometimes triple compared to an experienced driver, but you can start lessening its cost by doing these simple tips.
1. Prove to your insurance company that you are a responsible driver by earning good grades. Car insurance for young drivers can greatly reduce if they can maintain a good grade.
2. Get your teen a sedan for starters. Don’t’ buy them a fast or high powered cars, it will only result in high insurance cost.
3. Install safety features in your car. You can get discounts if you can prove to your car insurance company that your vehicle is safe to drive, thus reducing the chance of an insurance claim.
4. It is proved by insurers that young drivers who enrolled for a defensive driving course are less likely to get into road accident and they are giving discounts because of this.
Young Driver Auto Insurance With Traffic Tickets
Reader’s Question:
When I was 16 and before I even got my driver’s license, I got a ticket for reckless driving, another ticket for not stopping after getting involved in an accident, and another ticket for speeding. It has been five years already. I want to find out if these tickets will affect my car insurance?
Marian
Stamford, CT
For the most part, these kind of situation will not affect your quest to buy car insurance. Most of the insurance providers only research the last 3 years on your motor vehicle record. There are some insurance providers that will research the last five years on your motor vehicle record. There is an extremely small minority of insurance carriers that will research the last 7 years of your motor vehicle history. Again, that is an extremely small number of companies. You may contact your car insurance company to verify how long they check back for motor vehicle driving record
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.
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.
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.
