Insuring Your Teen

By Author: Norris Rios
Total Articles: 572
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There used to be only two certainties in life, at least according to Benjamin Franklin, namely death and taxes. Margaret Mitchell then added a third in Gone With the Wind, i.e. childbirth. Following birth, those adorable little bundles of joy start to grow and, before you can say, "Jack Robinson", they're teenagers and the fourth certainty hits you straight between the eyes. Every teen expects to drive. No matter how much you try to deny this reality, it's unavoidable and the results will threaten your family budget. With the recession showing no sign of going away anytime soon, everyone is living with the threat of unemployment. If the pay checks stop coming in, keeping up the mortgage or rent is going to be a challenge. So, when you have any spare cash, you're paying down your debts. The more flexibility you have on the credit cards or with the bank, the better. Except, there's this inescapable fact. If you get quotes for adding your teen to your own insurance policy, your rates are going to take off like a rocket with escape velocity to reach the moon.

If you're really lucky with where you live and have a perfect safety ...
... record, the rate might only go up by 50%. That means you live in the middle of a flat prairie with straight roads and only a few trees and fences to aim for. With little traffic on the roads, the chances of an accident are small. Nevertheless, teen drivers rapidly develop a flair for exploring off the side of roads or entering unofficial demolition derbies. Now think about those parents who live in cities and their ZIP code is not the best in the world. With such an address, you can find your premium rates going up by as much as 200%. Yes, this is unfair but it also reflects the hard reality that traffic accidents are the biggest cause of death among teens. No disease can match the lethal quality of collisions. Hundreds of thousands of our young are killed or injured every year and the insurance premiums reflect this. So what can you do to reduce the cost?

The best place to start is with a safety course approved by your current insurer. Except, this is going to be a battle. Teens tend to believe they have superpowers and cannot be injured in an accident. They will be hostile to the idea of a course when it has some twenty to thirty hours in a classroom plus time with an instructor. The longer the one-to-one time with an instruction, the higher the course fee. The most expensive are around $500. But, if your teen is certified as doing well on the course, you can expect a reasonable discount on the premium rate. So, let's say your current premium is $1,500 a year and it will increase by 50% to $2,250 but you earn a discount of 15%, i.e. $337.50. Any course fee less than that pays for itself within the first year. This may not be cheap auto insurance, but it will hopefully help your teen drive more safely. When you get the auto insurance quotes, check out which courses are approved and what discounts are available.