16 yo and car insurance

[Bob B.]

My oldest will be 16, and licensed to drive in about a month. I'm looking for advice on saving money on auto insurance.

Maybe it's variable state to state, and there's no boilerplate advice, but I thought I'd try here.

FWIW - I live in Michigan.

Thanks.

[disneysteve]

Best advice is to get plenty of quotes and seek out every discount you can find.

If he took driver's ed, that may get you a discount. If he didn't, having him take a class may be worth it for the savings.

If he has good grades, that often gets a discount.

Which car he is listed on as the primary driver matters, so speak to your agent about that.

Make sure you are already getting every discount you can for safety equipment, anti-theft devices, etc.

And at least once a year, re-shop the policy.

In a couple of years if he goes away to college and doesn't bring a car, that can get you a reduced rate.

[jacklpalmer]

Try to find an independent agent. Captive agents like a State Farm agent can only show you one option. It's good to speak to them too. But you should have at least one independent in the mix.

[Gailete]

My kids weren't allowed to drive until they could help pay for their insurance themselves. I know many parents can cover it themselves, but this is one of those big steps into adulthood and that is paying for car insurance.

[snafu]

We too expected our DSs to contribute to the differential between costs of vehicle insurance with 1st one and then two 16 y/o drivers. Young teens don't have much opportunity to earn, they cut grass, painted fences, hauled stuff to . GW, and we paid for all the bigger jobs at home like landscaping, clean garage, set up and take down for painting.

They eventually got themselves dinner shift, washing dishes at small neighbourhood chain restaurant. I was horrified and reluctantly gave consent. It was hugely influential because the guys on permanent staff made it clear to these lazy learners they could end up as Dishwashers permenantly if they didn't make the marks to get themselves into a good university program a few years future.

You need to work in a restaurant kitchen to understand what a stinky, wet, unpleasant environment is part of a busy, family type restaurant. We suddenly had 'scholars,' the last 2 years of high school.

[Drake3287]

3 kids and I just last week got the last one off my insurance policy although they've been paying me back for years anyways. I had all 3 of my kids on my AAA policy and at least with AAA, if they completed a AAA online driver safety course they got an additional discount which I of course made them do.

No tickets or accidents is the only way of surviving teenage drivers insurance. My kids knew that if they screwed up and got a ticket or had an at fault accident they would be paying the insurance increase, not me.


I consider myself lucky, I had only have one minor at fault accident with one of them and luckily AAA didn't raise the rates.

[TexasHusker]

One trick is to buy a car that is cheap enough so that you only carry liability. That saves you a bundle.

On my son's first truck, I think we spent $8500 on it. To be safe, I put full coverage on it for the first six months. Teens are much more likely to have an accident in the first six months of driving.

After the six months, I dropped to liability only.

Obviously you only want to go "liability only" on a car that you are willing to be self-insured on, because if they have an at-fault accident, the policy only pays to fix the car they crashed into.

[Bob B.]

Thanks everyone for your responses.

[Drake3287]

And one other BIG thing. Make sure you purchase an Umbrella policy of at least a million dollars now that you child is driving. No normal amount of car insurance will cover you if he/she actually hurts anyone seriously.

Although I could find it cheaper somewhere else, I have a million dollar policy with AAA for $340. a year. You'll sleep better at night.

[sblatner]

Well, we have State Farm...they allowed us to not add the kids because they were occasional drivers and didn't have their own cars. For maybe two years, our oldest drove to the community center twice a week and maybe to a friends house once or twice a week. Our youngest drove more but not a lot. We saved a ton. We did add them when they started driving more. Our youngest is insured on our 1995 Geo Prism so he is a lot cheaper then he would be on the car he normally drives.

FWIW, everyone is insured to drive your car. State Farm said as long as they remained accident free, we didn't need to insure them. Once they had an accident, we would insure them. They would be insured for the accident and going forward.

[MonkeyMama]

The one thing I didn't see mentioned is that the type of car insured can also significantly affect insurance rates.

I have a co-worker who bought very low mileage/older model cars for her kids and keeps their cars in immaculate condition. (Which is generally how we buy our cars ~ find a low miles car that is in immaculate condition). Anyway, I inquired about it when they were selling their son's car. He graduated college and needs a more practical vehicle for his new home in the mountains. It's moot because is more than we want to pay at this point, but she looked at me like I was crazy and told me it was a 2-seater sports car. (I didn't know). She was like, "We didn't buy that car until he was 18 or 19." I gathered that 2-seater sports car are kind of insane to insure for 16yo new drivers.

My older co-worker who has 3 adult kids keeps telling me the insurance isn't bad if we just let them drive our cars. (Agreeing with sblatner's comment). The rest of us all kind of roll our eyes every time he says this. Yes, because that's the most practical way to go about things. I mean, it's true and good advice, but kind of useless I guess to those of us who collect cars (my other co-worker) or who were very independent as teenagers (us). I am looking forward to my kids getting jobs and driving themselves to school, etc. So we will definitely be experiencing some increased insurance premiums. (Even if they pay their own insurance, which is certainly the plan, all of our auto insurance premiums should rise).

We've got grandparents who are handing down an old car. I hadn't thought too much about the old/unassuming vehicle having cheaper insurance, but I guess that's a perk. I was more thinking that I wanted the kids to learn on a car that can get a few dents and wouldn't need collision insurance. (Our overall plan is to aim for a nicer vehicle when they turn 18, but they may be able to save up the money and buy themselves at that point).

Good Luck Bob! I am right behind you. In two years I will have two teen male drivers. Ack!