How to Insure Your Teen Driver

Many parents face a bewildering mix of emotions at every stage of their child’s development, but none is as strong as the mix of fear, pride, excitement and dread they face as their child turns sixteen. For your child, this is a wondrous age that allows them an important insight into what real freedom is as they get their license and start driving. For you, sixteen is a thrilling age because you get to watch as your child starts to grow into a responsible adult and all the effort you put into raising them creates a intelligent, well-adjusted though very inexperienced teenage driver. It is at this point that a little bit of the fear and dread start to sneak in.

While insuring your new teen driver on your insurance policy is a simple matter, there are some things you should think about before you do.

Your Teen’s Coverages should differ from Yours

When you add your teen driver to your insurance policy, do not give them the coverage same you have. Determine who will be paying their deductibles and what that person can afford and what the value of their automobile. Most teens begin with a second-hand automobile which might not be valuable as the automobile you drive and a lower limit will be best. Furthermore, while you might not carry collision coverage on your own automobile, carrying it on a new teen driver is a necessity

How to Save Money on Your Teen Driver

Your teen driver’s insurance is steep but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to reduce the premiums. Here are three tips on how to lower those premiums.

1. Take your teen for defensive driving lessons.
2. Increase your deductibles - make sure you and your teen can still afford them.
3. Buy a safe, used model which will be cheaper to insure.

You can also save money and prevent your teen’s premiums from increasing, by practicing the following suggestions while you are insured:

• Don’t run every minor accident claim through your insurer. Agree to a cost with the other driver and pay out-of-pocket instead. Make sure there are no injuries and that you are certain of all the damage before you agree. Once you come to an agreement you’ll no longer be able to involve the insurance company if you find out the situation was more serious than you originally thought.
• Restrict the number of passengers your teen is allowed drive with. More passengers equal more distractions which increases the chances of an accident.
• Ban cell phones in the car. The dangers of texting and cell phone use while driving may be difficult to communicate to a teenager so try this experiment.  Take them to the local arcade and having them “drive” a video game while chatting and talking see how they cope.