When is the Right Time to get Car Insurance for a Teenager?
Car insurance for a teenager is a hassle that every parent faces. Do not wait for the dreadful day for too long. It is always better to plan this before hand and discuss the insurance details with your company as well as your child. The more you prolong it, the costlier it would prove.
Has your child acquired the learners permit yet? Has he started driving your car? If yes, then you must add your child to your auto insurance policy with immediate effect. This will protect you and cover you, should anything go wrong during those dreaded lessons that your son takes. The more you put it off; more you will find your self in trouble. Further more, you should update your policy again when your child gets his permanent driving license.
Teen drivers are categorized in the high risk premium status. Records have shown time and time again that they are involved with the maximum number of at fault accidents. Thus, car insurance for you teenage child will affect your pocket more than you anticipated. Whether you add him to your existing policy or get a new one for her, you will have to shell out a good amount of money. However, there are certain strategies which might help you to save money on your premium.
If you tie driving privileges to his school performance, you will find yourself in a better position in more ways than one. First, your child would be motivated to do well. She would be eager to lay his hands on your steering wheel and thus aim for better grades. Secondly and more importantly, you could easily get 10%-25% discount on the auto insurance premium from most companies if you child manages to keep a grade above B.
You also could manage to grab another 10 to 15% discount from the insurance company by asking your child to go ahead with more drivers’ education. The more the number of supervised driving hours your child takes, the better the deal you might be able to get. This will leave you in a healthy financial state and also ensure that you are less anxious parent!
If you are presently reaping the benefits of safe driver discounts or multi-policy discounts then you must opt for adding your child to the existing policy instead of going for a new one. A separate policy would prove to be more expensive while you can draw more coverage benefits from your current policy. Also, if you are getting a new car for your child to drive, then your insurer might give you better coverage and multi car discounts. However, if you have a very expensive car, consolidating insurance policies might not be much beneficial.
Another way of offsetting some of the additional expense on your car insurance policy is by increasing your deductibles. Higher deductibles lead to lowering of the premium amounts. Do keep in mind that you might end up paying more out of the pocket money in case an accident occurs in this tenure.
Before you buy new cars for your child, consult the insurance company. Less expensive cars lead to lower premiums.
Last but not the least, additional insurance for your teenage child is bound to be expensive, no matter what. Yet, you may make positive attempts to scale it down a little.
