DS turning 16 and car insurance tips needed

[Sandy61]

DS will be turning 16 in a few months and we need to start planning to put him on our car insurance. We will probably get another vehicle for him to drive to school but will keep it in our name for "control". Or maybe buy a car for ourselves and let him drive the old one.

Should we get the insurance in his name or add him to ours? Which is cheaper?

Should we get "liability-only" for our older car and let him drive that one?

Any helpful tips to keep the cost down?

 

[eliza61]

DS will be turning 16 in a few months and we need to start planning to put him on our car insurance. We will probably get another vehicle for him to drive to school but will keep it in our name for "control". Or maybe buy a car for ourselves and let him drive the old one.

Should we get the insurance in his name or add him to ours? Which is cheaper?

Should we get "liability-only" for our older car and let him drive that one?

Any helpful tips to keep the cost down?

LOL, Have him walk!!!

a lot depends on where you live. Now I have allstate and we had issues with trying to get our older son his own insurance. first, the car must also be in his name effectively "his" car. next, even when we did that my insurance rate went up because my son still "lived" in my house so they figure at some point he would drive other cars.

we got discounts for him taking drivers ed and we also got a gizmo that connects to the car, that gives us discounts for driving un 75mph, driving during the day hours and stuff like that.

My house, kids always got the hand me downs.

 

[ceecee]

I gave DD my old car (5yr old Honda CRV) and got a newer one. She had to be on her own policy since it was the 3rd car and 3 drivers. Insurance agent told me Ohio law states all people in the same household have the same insurance (?). You can get liability only if the car isn't worth a lot, ours was so we had to get full coverage. They offered a good student discount as well as multiple policy discount and it is still $1500 a year! What she failed to mention was that DH and my policies went up $200 a year because she may drive one of our cars.

 

[kymom99]

This was a long time ago, but when my step daughter started driving, I wanted to put a car in her name and the rep from the insurance company begged me not to do that. I was concerned about my own liability if she had an accident since my dad was sued years ago when my brother had an accident that was his fault. The insurance person told me her rates would be way higher if the car was in her name. I would imagine having a group policy would save some money as well, as we get multi-car discounts, etc.

 

[MinnieForMe]

Hi,
We were advised last month (in New Hampshire) to put the additional car in our name and add our son onto our insurance with the stipulation (with the insurance company) that he is only insured on that vehicle. We were told that the year of the vehicle didn't matter but for the best savings we should not get a car that we would want collision on. He ended up purchasing a $3200 car yesterday and will only have liability on it.

Still at 16 1/2 in NH, liability will still run him around $1500 for the year. Thankfully, he works during the summer and will be paying for it himself.

 

[cvjw]

We have an 18 year old DS and have done both - liability only coverage on an older car and full coverage on a new car. When he turned 16, we gave him my DH's old car and purchased liability only coverage for him. With $500,000 worth of coverage, his liability only coverage was about $1100 per year with State Farm.

After an accident that wasn't his fault, but the other guy has tried to sue us for over a year, we decided that $500,000 wasn't enough coverage.

When he graduated from high school, we bought him a 2014 Mazda 6 and have full coverage on it. For $1,000,000 worth of coverage, his insurance is $2200 per year. We put his Mazda in my name, and the insurance policy is in my name. My insurance agent suggested we do it this way.

Supposedly, when he turns 24 (without any tickets or wrecks), his premiums will come down to a lower level.

 

[lovewdwdvc]

I second the walking option. We are going through this with our 4th teen. Talk to multiple agents and take the best deal and the best advise.

 

[HM]

You don't have to add him until he has his actual drivers license. No need while on learners permit.

 

[sherry7]

Call your insurance company and ask about possible discounts for teen drivers. We have State Farm, and my DS got discounts for having at least a B average, for driving school, and for the Steer Clear program. The Steer Clear program was simply a booklet we had to fill out, and the discount is still with him even though he's 24 now. (He's still on our policy.) The discount for the driving school is still with him as well. We had to pay for driving school since our school district doesn't offer it, but it more than paid for itself with the discount we got over the years.

 

[MillauFr]

You don't have to add him until he has his actual drivers license. No need while on learners permit.

That is what I was told as well.

 

[florep1]

I was a loyal Progressive customer for 20 some years with no claims on my coverage until my twin daughters started driving. Two 16 year olds was very expensive. I got quotes from Progressive, Farmers(who I have home owners insurance with), and AAA. In the end, AAA was the cheapest, almost half the price of all three. Check them out.

 

[3boymthr]

You don't have to add him until he has his actual drivers license. No need while on learners permit.

Same in MA.

It really really varies by where you live. Where we live insurance is regulated and PRICEY. The hard thing is in MA they add the worst drive to the most expensive car. You have no choice in this.Adding DS added $1,000 to our policy but we were told that if he were to have his own car it would be even more. We were told it could cost upwards of $3,000 - 5,000 because MA has required insurance and the only thing we could drop would be fire theft and collision and since it wouldn't make a difference in the cost on DH's new truck as DS is listed as primary driver would still be if he had his own car it still wouldn't save us that much money. We could possibly get him his own policy with a different carrier but again - regulated pricing - earlier this year when I priced insurance costs with different companies the only savings was by cutting our coverage.

 

[Sadie22]

Call your insurance company and ask about possible discounts for teen drivers. We have State Farm, and my DS got discounts for having at least a B average, for driving school, and for the Steer Clear program. The Steer Clear program was simply a booklet we had to fill out, and the discount is still with him even though he's 24 now. (He's still on our policy.) The discount for the driving school is still with him as well. We had to pay for driving school since our school district doesn't offer it, but it more than paid for itself with the discount we got over the years.

We were in no rush for ours to get their licenses. They drove us around on the learners' permits for a long time. When they did get their licenses, they were each in turn rated on the oldest car we had at the time, but could drive any household vehicle. The Steer Clear program was a meeting with our agent and a booklet to be completed. The good grades discount lasted until age 25, I think, through graduate school. If they had been over 250 miles away, the premium would have been even less. We have multi-car discounts, multi-policy discounts, and accident-free discounts.

 

[Southernmiss]

Our insurance is bundled. Home and auto with same company. We live in a hurricane prone area and it was the only way to get homeowners ins.

As soon as our kids get their license they are added as drivers. They are added to the highest valued auto automatically. We had a newer van and an older Camry at the time ds#1started driving.

Once we got a third auto, he became the primary driver on the oldest auto. We only carried liability on that one.

After he bought his own truck, I asked about his own individual policy. It was considerably cheaper for him to remain in our comprehensive policy than for him to have his own.

Our insurance doubled for the year just adding one male under 25. And the kids get good student discounts, even in college.

We get to add a second teen male driver this year (yay us) and one next year, too. Woo hoo! Sarcasm smiley.

 

[tvguy]

This was a long time ago, but when my step daughter started driving, I wanted to put a car in her name and the rep from the insurance company begged me not to do that. I was concerned about my own liability if she had an accident since my dad was sued years ago when my brother had an accident that was his fault. The insurance person told me her rates would be way higher if the car was in her name. I would imagine having a group policy would save some money as well, as we get multi-car discounts, etc.

This may be unique to California, but if you get a license before age 18, you have to have your parents permission, and in granting permission the parent is accepting liability until the driver turns 18, not matter how the car is registered or insured.
And legally a minor can not sign any contract, like that to buy a car without someone over 18 co-signing.
We have had a spare car for 28 years now, insurance would not allow us to say our teen driver was only a part time driver since with DS on the policy we had 3 cars and 3 drivers.
If you are buying a car for a teen, I would do what I did and have the insurance company tell me which vehicles would be the least expensive to insure for a 16 year old. 11 years ago the answer was Ford Crown Victoria, Buick LeSabre, Chevy Impala and Mercury Grand Marquis. Amazingly, a Crown Victoria Police Interceptor was no more expensive than a plain Crown Vic to insure, and that's a car that can hit 140 mph.
I elected to buy myself a new car and give him y 13 year old Mercury Sable.

 

[McKelly]

You don't have to add him until he has his actual drivers license. No need while on learners permit.

Is this true in every state?

 

[MinnieForMe]

Is this true in every state?

True in New Hampshire!

 

[HM]

Is this true in every state?

I don't know for sure, but I believe so.

 

[amcnj]

Is this true in every state?

It is always best to call your insurance company and ask what is going to happen. I called mine at the time a child was going to get a permit, and was told they did not have to be added at that time. That was in NJ. A lot of insurance laws/regulations are state-based.

 

[Green Tea]

The biggest jump in price will be when you add a third car in a 3 driver family.

We have all cars insured on one policy. Each family member is listed as the primary driver of a specific car but we can all drive any of them.