Having a teenage driver in the house can drive your auto insurance rates through the roof if you aren't careful. If you have a teenage driver, take the following measures to minimize your auto insurance rates.
Encourage Good Educational Performance
Many auto insurance carriers give discounts to students who maintain good grades in school. Therefore, if your teenager is in school, encourage them to maintain good grades so that you can enjoy the associated discounts.
Raise Liability Limits
Teenagers are more likely to cause auto accidents than adults. This makes sense if you consider the limited experience and reckless tendencies of this age group. This means you are more likely to face a liability claim with a teenager in the house than you would be without a teenage driver.
As such, your personal assets would be at risk if your child caused multiple or expensive accidents, and you only have the minimum liability coverage. Increasing your liability coverage limits will give you more protection.
Have Strict Rules
The more traffic accidents and incidents your teenagers are involved in, the higher they will raise your auto insurance rates. One way of minimizing these accidents is to have strict rules for your teenagers. Let them know that they are not allowed to drive without belting up, break traffic laws, or drive while intoxicated. Be ready to suspend the teenager's driving privileges should they break the rules.
Match the Kid to a Cheap Car
Auto insurance companies know that teenagers are dangerous drivers. Whichever car the teenager will be driving faces a high risk of damage. Imagine then how risky it would be for your child to be the primary driver of an expensive car; the insurance carrier would definitely raise your rates due to the anticipated expensive repairs. The best thing is to list your teenager as the primary driver of an inexpensive car.
Keep the Child on Your Policy
Lastly, it would also be cheaper for you to have the child on your insurance policy instead of buying them separate coverage. That way, the child can benefit from your low rates due to your extensive driving experience and insurance history. Adding the child to your policy is particularly a good idea if you have a good driving history and your insurance carrier considers you a safe driver.
Hopefully, the tips above will help you keep your auto insurance rates reasonable. Reach out to an insurance agency, like Kesner Insurance Agency Inc, for more information.
After we purchased our first home, we realized that it might be a good idea to evaluate our insurance coverage. Although we had purchased homeowners insurance before, we had never owned a policy as large as the one we would need for our new place. Also, our new home had a trampoline and a swimming pool, which made us worried about liability. To iron out the details, I decided to meet with our insurance agent. We talked about things like monthly premiums, coverage limits, and deductibles, and it was incredible to learn more about the terminology. This blog is designed to help you with the same types of questions.