DS turning 16 and car insurance tips needed

[barkley]

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.

very much the case. laws are state regulated and can be very different.

in Washington state until the actual license is received the person doesn't have to be added to the policy (HAS to be once licensed-unless you provide proof to your insurance company that they have separate coverage while living in your home that includes them driving your cars b/c the assumption is they are in the home/the cars are there and they may drive one at some point).

we had our dd wait until she turned 19 to her license b/c it cut the decrease in premiums by over 50%. as a 19 year old female who took the expanded driver safety course through one of the companies approved by our department of licensing (not required after the age of 18 but makes a big discount difference), carries over a B average, contractually agreed with our insurance company to drive under a set amount of miles annually AND took the insurance company's on-line safety course-it costs us about $75 a month to insure her (the quote if she had been younger than 19-$160 per month). this is with a company we already get safe driver, no claims in last 3 years, multi car, low mileage and multi policy discounts through (auto, homeowners, life and atv). our insurance agent is good with multi vehicles about looking to where each driver should be assigned/rated to keep rates lower.

check with your insurance company-but also call around b/c you may find that depending on what conditions others have with their policies you can be get greater savings now and down the line. as an example-the insurance company we had required proof of grades every quarter-if the kid dropped below 3.0 the premiums went up. our current company requires the current grades once per year-but if that happens to fall during a quarter the grades drop below 3.0 while the premiums will increase we can bring the next quarter's in and it will get adjusted back down. also-the insurance company we had would have increased our premiums when dd went to college if she took the car (rated based on the area the college was in), our current says so long as her permanent home is still ours (weather she lives in dorms or private housing near campus) she can still be rated under our lower cost area of residence.

 

[Colleen27]

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?

Not sure about every state but it isn't entirely true for every insurance company. Progressive and one other that we got quotes from (can't remember which) asked for information about every 15+yo in the household, even if unlicensed, and charges a higher rate if you have non-licensed teens in the household. Not as high as you'd pay with a licensed teen, but higher than without teens in the household. AAA and State Farm, on the other hand, only care about licensed drivers and don't adjust premiums based on the ages of unlicensed children.

 

[usd2bmd]

Is this true in every state?

It is in New York. I have Allstate and my Agent actualll told me when my daughter first got her license that we didn't have to add her until she got a car. They will find them eventually because when the policy comes up to renew they sometimes (not at every renewal) will run the address to see how many license drivers shwo in your household.

Our policy (and I believe most do) have a permissive use clause. You are giving him/her permissive use when you give them the keys so the insurance covers them as if they were listed on the policy.

When she got her car we listed the car on our policy and and her as a driver it didn't go up that much (about 40/month).

 

[3boymthr]

It is in New York. I have Allstate and my Agent actualll told me when my daughter first got her license that we didn't have to add her until she got a car. They will find them eventually because when the policy comes up to renew they sometimes (not at every renewal) will run the address to see how many license drivers shwo in your household.

Our policy (and I believe most do) have a permissive use clause. You are giving him/her permissive use when you give them the keys so the insurance covers them as if they were listed on the policy.

When she got her car we listed the car on our policy and and her as a driver it didn't go up that much (about 40/month).

I wish, I wish, I wish this were true in MA.

 

[Charleneluvsdisney]

I didn't read through everything already posted, but wanted to say that I just went through this. My son picked up his car yesterday!

My biggest advice is before buying anything, give the make/model/year to your agent to price for you. There is such a difference in cars! We ended up with a 2007 Ford Escape. Stay away from Chevy Cobalt as it is one of the most expensive cars to insure! The cost of a 2009 Cobalt was almost $400 more than the Escape and just because we were curious, we also priced out a 2007 Mustang that was cheaper than that Cobalt! Funny thing too, was that Cobalt was a base model - it had crank windows etc. I know it was newer than the others, but didn't think it would be that much more!

Also ask about good student discounts, defensive driving course and increasing the deductible. These will all lower the cost. My agent actually gave me the 3 pricing points for each discount so we could see the savings.

Last, we put the car in my husbands name, but added my son as the driver of the vehicle, which helped also.

Good Luck!

 

[tvguy]

Also ask about good student discounts

Flashing back to the one semester in high school I qualified for a good student discount and Allstate had eliminated it because their research found good students not only drive more, but crash more.

 

[Charleneluvsdisney]

Flashing back to the one semester in high school I qualified for a good student discount and Allstate had eliminated it because their research found good students not only drive more, but crash more.

Allstate teen drivers must be doing better now because that is the carrier that we have with the discount!

 

[4HOLIDAYS]

We did not need to put DS18 on the ins until he had his actual license. He was covered on our ins with a permit. Got lic once he turned 18.

We bought a 2007 explorer for him. We also already have 2 explorers. So he was third car, 3rd driver. We also have good, full coverage.

Switched from progressive to Geico. We checked a bunch of companies but no one was even close. I mean they were literally less than half of the others quotes. Our ins on the other 2 cars also went down as well with the switch.

I will say that those who have smaller, more compact cars will pay less than having an SUV. Told that by GEICO and my agents.

 

[HopperFan]

I don't know that a 16 year old can enter a contract aka insurance policy, I think they can at 18. But some insurance companies let adults children have their own policy linked to parents for multi-car discounts etc, that is what we have. We also have a $1,000,000 umbrella policy and home via the same company.

What we did:
- Driver's Education Classes - Discounted insurance
- Defensive Driving Class (classroom and intense on closed course training where they tested them in some scary situations) that both kids swear they have used and glad they took. This gave us a large discount on their insurance.
- Both had a meeting with our agent who explained all about insurance, points, accidents, responsibility etc. Think they both listened intently.
- B Average - Discounted insurance
- Made them drive a lot on their learner's permit
- Made them drive during long distance trips
- Provided car (and older model volvo, very safe) but they paid for car insurance. They knew a ticket or accident their costs went up, not mine. DS opted to wait extra 6 mos for a parking spot at school. He said why pay for a car he can't drive to school. I liked he got 6 mos more practice.
- Now 25 and 21 - no points ever put on licenses and both accident free
- Now one has a 2007 (he paid off) and one a new 2014 paying off herself
- Both now have own policy but attached to ours
- Both have very competitive rates due to their good records

 

[angwill]

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?

I have State Farm with multiple policies with them so get discounts on those. When my son got his permit I actually made him drive on his permit till it was just about to expire because then you don't have to pay for him to be on insurance. I was told at 16 expect your policy on the car you put him on to triple. The least expensive car is the one to put him on and I would get full coverage unless you can afford a new car if he totals it. My son totaled his first car in 2 weeks and thank God we had full coverage on it and that we got a great deal and he ended up getting a bigger payout for it than he paid.

When we added my son to our insurance we also got a discount for him taking a safety course State Farm offers so see if they have that. It consisted of a CD and book with a test and then keeping track of his driving hours while on permit. He also got a good student discount and those really helped with the cost. Our policy on only the car he drove went up then when he got his own car it was in his name and so was the policy incase he got in an accident it would not effect us. He did still get a multi policy discount for living at our address and the other discounts and it cost half the price of other companies. If you put him on your policy I would suggest you get an umbrella policy and check that your payout limits are high enough. Good luck.

 

[danygirl]

The smartest thing we did was to get the learners as soon as possible. One of the kids had one for a year so when she got her lisc they covered her as having one year experirnce

 

[abmitch01]

I lucked out- my son decided to spend most of his custody time with dad, so the insurance bill fell on him. the only lucky part of having my son less