Lower Car Insurance Rates For Teens
Reader’s Question:
I’m a new driver (I’m only 17 y/o) and they told me that my car insurance here in Minnesota is going to be expensive. Why is it so and how can I make it lower?
Gerald
Brooklyn Park, MN
There are a number of reasons why teen car insurance is more expensive than car insurance 
for other age bracket. The first on the list is that these young drivers don’t have much experience in driving yet, which makes them higher risk to car insurance companies. One other reason is the age itself as car insurance premiums for teens are expected to be rather high. Typically, car insurance premiums are higher for young male drivers than the females, since men are perceived as higher risk to car insurance companies.
When teens start driving, they experience freedom that they always wanted and it’s also the start of their responsibility. Most parents encourage their teens to be confident while driving to avoid any anxiety and prevent any traffic mishaps. Any kind of traffic mishaps can result in having a ridiculous increase on their car insurance. As a young driver, if you are going to have your own car, make sure that you choose a less expensive car since it is more likely to have lower car insurance premiums.
Most importantly, you have to know that you need to keep a good driving record so as not to pay expensive car insurance premiums. Being a safe driver not only keep you away from trouble but also manage to keep your car insurance premiums in Minnesota low.
Cheap Teenager Car Insurance Rates – Simple Tips
Reader’s Question:
How can I get cheap car insurance for my teens? Please help. What are the ways to lower the rates I will pay?
Jim
Anaheim, CA
Teenagers, being a new driver, are most likely to get one of the highest premium rates, practically because insurers find them to be more at risk when driving. They are still considered inexperienced, given a short time period to managing the road, as compared to older ones.
Here are some of the ways you can get cheap teenager car insurance premium:
1. Keep a good driving record. There are some insurance companies who give out discounts and/or benefits for those who keep a good driving history.
2. Try to get good grades in school. Inquire for the average grade required to obtain possible discount and make sure to submit documents or proof of grades on a specified deadline or period demanded. Typically you should maintain a grade point average of B or higher to be eligible on the good student discount.
3. Compare car insurance deals from various companies. The key is to evaluate from apples to apples. Determine the compensation your teenager major needs and choose among the multiple rates the most practical premium cost offered
4. The parents may try to share the same policy with their teenager than when they are to insure their own. It is much cheaper if a parent add their teen to their policy than getting a separate policy for teens.
5. Choose a higher deductible.
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”.
16 Year Old Teen Car Insurance in Wyoming
Reader’s Question:
I have a 16 year old teen and she wants to start driving but I can’t afford car insurance so can she drive a car that is under my name and her mother’s name if she gets her license. Does she need to have insurance right when she obtains her license in Wyoming?
Jim
Cheyenne, WY
According to the Wyoming’s mandatory auto liability insurance law, anyone operating a motor vehicle must satisfy the state’s financial responsibility limits of 25/50/20.
In addition to that, under the Wyoming financial responsibility law, liability policy means an owner’s or an operator’s policy of liability insurance, certified as proof of financial responsibility, and issued by an insurance company authorized to do business in this state, to or for the benefit of the individual named as insured.
Plus, when your teen daughter is getting a license, since she is under 18, you as the parents will need to sign a minor’s release form. Part of this form may include being responsible for the minor while he is operating a vehicle or keeping insurance coverage so find out from the WY DOT exactly what the release form states.
Teen Auto Insurance Discount For Females
Reader’s Question:
I want to know , what is the average auto insurance rate for a 16 year old teenager female?
May
Great Falls, MT
A 16 year old, On average, can expect to pay 2.52 times the base rate for their auto insurance. So for example, if your parents pay $500 for a year of auto insurance, then adding a 16 year old can expect to pay $1260 for a year of auto insurance.
You have to be rated with various factors to provide an accurate rate. In New Jersey a 16 year old may pay 3.2 times the base rate, however in Montana they pay 1.9 times the base rate.
There are things a 16 year old teenager can do to bring down the cost of their car insurance premium. Generally, it is cheaper to be added to your parent’s insurance policy than for you to buy your own. Most carriers will give discounts for getting at least a “B” average in school. This is often referred to as good student discount. Taking a recognized defensive driving courses or driver’s educational program may also help to lower a teenager’s insurance rate.
Why Are Teen Auto Insurance Rates So High?
Reader’s Question:
Why are teenager’s car insurance rates high?
Therese
Good Question Therese.
Insurance rates are usually based on statistics. According to statistics, teens more likely get involved in an accident. Teenagers have a very high rates of fatal and nonfatal crashes compared to adult drivers. Whether the rates are based on total number of teenagers or miles driven, teens have more crashes in cars. When the crash involvement is based on the number of licensed drivers instead of the total population, the fatality rate of the teenagers are more extreme compared to drivers age 20 or older.
Here are some tips that may be able to help you lower insurance rate for teens.
1. If you stay on your parents policy, you could save money. This would increase your parents premiums, but it is much cheaper compared from you starting anew policy. Discounts may be available if you have driving experience.
2. Discounts from some insurance companies like getting good grades or taking driving class may be available for you. But this does not mean that you will get lower insurance premiums than an adult with more driving experience already.
3. Your rates will drop as you get older. You will notice a drop as much as 28% at the age of 19. An additional 31% may drop at the age of 21 in your insurance premiums.
Lastly, try to maintain a good credit history and a clean driving record so you can be eligible for more discounts in the future.
Goodluck!
MariCAR
How Old Do I Need To Be To Drive a Car In Virginia?
Reader’s Question:
How old should I be to be able to drive in the state of Virginia?
Albert
Thank you for asking.
You must a resident of the Commonwealth of Virginia and should be at least 16 years and 3 months of age before you can obtain a drivers license in Virginia. This is according to the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicle. If you want to get a learner’s permit, you must be at least 15 years and six months of age.
If you are under 18, you need a written consent from your parents or guardian unless you are married or emancipated. You need to complete a state approved driver’s education program if you are under the age of 19.
If you have never held a license issued by the state of Virginia, or foreign country, Us territory and unable to show proof that you had a license and is 19 years old and older, you must show proof that:
1. you passed an approved driver’s education course
2. you have a Virginia’s learners permit at least 30 days before taking the Department of Motor Vehicle road skill test.
You may call the Department of Motor Vehicle in Virginia to get more information on how to obtain Virginia’s driver’s license or permit.
Goodluck!
MariCAR
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.
What Student Driver Auto Insurance Discounts Are Available?
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.
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