Adding teen drivers to car insurance

[trip]

For the first time in my life I have to do monthly payments on our auto insurance, and it's the SECOND highest monthly bill that I pay due to having a teen driver, $225/month (3 vehicles, all with full coverage). And that's with an insurance company that's specifically for teachers in our state, known for its low rates...

Ouch, ouch, ouch...

Terri

So $75 per driver/car combination. That's the way I had to look at it when we had 2 teen drivers. Some how it didn't seem so bad that way.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

So I thought I'd swing back in on this thread again.

We are now planning on my 17 year old getting his license in June. I called our insurance agent and for him to be just an occasional driver on the Honda Accord, our insurance rates will go from 406.00 every 6 months to 980.00 every 6 months on just the one vehicle.

And we are looking at buying my husband another newer vehicle and just letting my son drive the Honda Accord a few times a week.

Otherwise my son will be driving the SUV a few times a week and that I don't like. I don't even like it when my husband drives my SUV. He brings it back with new scratches and dings every time. Grrrrr.

 

[FLCyndi]

I had same problem with USAA, we had them for years with no claims. When I called to add my 16 year old son they wanted to add about 2K more to the policy. I got a quote with Allstate since they have our homeowners insurance and it was considerably cheaper. My son is now 19 and has had an at fault accident, we pay $936 for 6 months. We are also in Florida.

 

[Bob NC]

We have perfect credit with USAA, I've been a member since 1983, neither my husband or I have had any moving violations and we haven't had any sort of claim since 1999.

I don't know why but after you have been with a company for years and years and years they think they can just charge anything and you'll pay it.

I went thru the same thing with Nationwide 7 years ago when I added my first child to our insurance. Had been with them for 20 years, one very small claim over 10 years prior.

My wife called to inquire what it would be to add my daughter, they told her $2700. I called them 2 days later and asked them to look at my policy and tell me how much it would cost to add her, SAME answer $2700.

I went and shopped a new policy with Farm Bureau insurance. SAME policy and adding my daughter would increase it by slightly over $1100.

I went into the Nationwide office and asked once more. They repeated $2700. I said, "OK, I'd like to cancel my policies with you." Of course they were shocked and wondered why. I told them I got the same insurance elsewhere and told them the rate. They said, "Just a minute, let me get into the computer and do your rating." I waited a few minutes and low and behold their price was now coming up the same as the other company.

I said "Then why have you repeatedly given us firm quotes for $2700?"

They said, "Oh, once we rated you it wouldn't have really been $2700, it would have been this new lower price."

I told her I didn't believe her for one second.

We have been perfectly happy with Farm Bureau for the past 7 years.

 

[marcyinPA]

You are scaring me!! We also have USAA, but my DS18 doesn't have his license yet. He is going for the third try rolleyes2) on June 11. We have had USAA for years- my DH has been insured by them since he started driving at 17- and I've had it since I was about 20 (so, 25-30 years).

I was figuring an extra $100 a month. If it is more than that, we will be shopping for a new insurance company.

 

[zippingalong]

I don't know why but after you have been with a company for years and years and years they think they can just charge anything and you'll pay it.

I went thru the same thing with Nationwide 7 years ago when I added my first child to our insurance. Had been with them for 20 years, one very small claim over 10 years prior.

My wife called to inquire what it would be to add my daughter, they told her $2700. I called them 2 days later and asked them to look at my policy and tell me how much it would cost to add her, SAME answer $2700.

I went and shopped a new policy with Farm Bureau insurance. SAME policy and adding my daughter would increase it by slightly over $1100.

I went into the Nationwide office and asked once more. They repeated $2700. I said, "OK, I'd like to cancel my policies with you." Of course they were shocked and wondered why. I told them I got the same insurance elsewhere and told them the rate. They said, "Just a minute, let me get into the computer and do your rating." I waited a few minutes and low and behold their price was now coming up the same as the other company.

I said "Then why have you repeatedly given us firm quotes for $2700?"

They said, "Oh, once we rated you it wouldn't have really been $2700, it would have been this new lower price."

I told her I didn't believe her for one second.

We have been perfectly happy with Farm Bureau for the past 7 years.

Farm Bureau dropped me after several years with no claims because I live east of I-95. As far as I'm concerned, they're robbers too.

 

[Cindy B]

Just did this last week.

It was around $1100 a year to add another car and driver. We have the minimum (liability only on our cars) and we did full coverage for my son and his new (to him) car.

This was in a very expensive car insurance state in the NE- and adding a 2000 Honda Accord.

 

[okeydokey]

Do you have to add I durance when they get a lisence or when they get a learners permit?

 

[Southernmiss]

Do you have to add I durance when they get a lisence or when they get a learners permit?

For us it is license.

 

[palmbeachmom]

You are scaring me!! We also have USAA, but my DS18 doesn't have his license yet. He is going for the third try rolleyes2) on June 11. We have had USAA for years- my DH has been insured by them since he started driving at 17- and I've had it since I was about 20 (so, 25-30 years).

I was figuring an extra $100 a month. If it is more than that, we will be shopping for a new insurance company.

OP here, just thought I'd update. After a lot of back and forth with USAA, including getting bumped up to supervisors and some "special" department calling me, we cancelled our USAA and went with Allstate. The pricing was just too dramatically high with USAA. I found the conversations with the USAA supervisors very interesting... they just could not explain what the justifications were for the huge rates. They even seemed a little surprised.

One thing I learned in the whole process was that there is some sort of big database that all insurance companies use, so it was almost scary how much information they had without even asking me for it. I hate that we had to leave USAA. I'm in my late forties, and they've insured me for cars, houses, rentals for my whole adulthood.

And to whoever asked about the permit vs. license, we had to add our son on as soon as he had his permit, but we didn't pay for it. He was just listed on our policy as a driver.

 

[shortbun]

Wow! USAA sure has a high impression of themselves! I'd be shopping around for sure. Also, and this is really important, get an item by item comparison so you know you are comparing apples to apples.

 

[Pembo]

We have USAA and our rates doubled when we added ds 16. We're in Ohio.

 

[njmom47]

Ds cost us $669.80 extra a year as far as I can tell from reading our insurance policy. He drives a 97 Maxima. He got his car in January of this year.
(I was browsing around our policy information: 5 cars, one with collision, 2 drivers have points ... )

 

[nancygirl1]

I have twins. It cost us just over $2000 to add them both. We had to add them as drivers on both of our cars even though they don't drive the second one. Our insurance agent told us that it is that way in MA. We pay over $3400 a year for our car insurance. We have a high deductible and the lowest amount of coverage that we can. It's so expensive! Our oldest hasn't gotten his license yet. I'm afraid of how much that is going to add!

It really is outrageous...

 

[sbtrfly74]

We just switched to USAA and saved 1000 a year which is how much our insurance went up after adding a older teen driver. We had progressive and an agent that I've been trying to talk DH out if for five yrs telling him they weren't necessary but he felt loyal after being with them for 20+ yrs... No Ty I'd rather have the one grand in my pocket lol.

 

[merrily]

My son got his license today. I called Liberty Mutual to add him to our policy. He does not yet have a car so just adding him to drive our existing cars is $225/yr. I cannot believe some of the costs for others on this thread! Wow!

 

[Denise W]

Be really careful to find out exactly how your child is rated when you add them to the policy. If there are more drivers than cars, the young driver is rated on the highest rated car on the policy, even if they will never drive that car. It may turn out to be cheaper to buy a used car to add to the policy with liability coverage only. Make your child the principal driver on that car and it *might* be cheaper for you. This would only work if one of your cars is rated very high, like a Porsche, Mustang 302, Camaro z28, something like that.

Denise

 

[palmbeachmom]

Be really careful to find out exactly how your child is rated when you add them to the policy. If there are more drivers than cars, the young driver is rated on the highest rated car on the policy, even if they will never drive that car. It may turn out to be cheaper to buy a used car to add to the policy with liability coverage only. Make your child the principal driver on that car and it *might* be cheaper for you. This would only work if one of your cars is rated very high, like a Porsche, Mustang 302, Camaro z28, something like that.

Denise

That is very interesting! We only have 1 car, an SUV, as my husband drives a business car. I'll have to look into if buying a beater would help. My son has saved and made some good investments, (smart kid, so proud) and plans to buy his own car when he turns 18 next year, so a beater would work for a year.

 

[ceemys]

Holy cow! I sure will dread it when my daughter starts driving.