Cost to add teenager to car insurance

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If you have a teen who is learning to drive, start preparing your budget for a car insurance rate increase: Adding a teen driver to a parent’s policy typically increases the bill by 44 percent – and that’s for a one-car family, according to data from Insurance.com.

If you’re a two car-two family, adding a teen driver will increase your auto insurance quotes by an average of 58 percent, and a three-car family would be looking at an average increase of 62 percent.

Teen drivers are among the “riskiest” group to insure. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, drivers ages 15 to 19 are four times more likely to crash than older drivers, making car crashes the No. 1 cause of death for teens.

Even teens with clean accident records will face high car insurance rates for several years due to their lack of driving experience. At age 25, rates typically begin to decline, and middle-aged drivers enjoy the best rates. It isn’t until about age 65 that rates begin to creep back up again (see chart below).

Average Auto Insurance Rates By Age of Driver

Source: Insurance.com. Rates shown above are for a one-person policy. Average rates are shown for a policy with coverage of $100,000 bodily injury per person per accident, $300,000 bodily injury for accident, $100,000 property damage per accident. Collision and comprehensive coverage was not included.

Lowering Car Insurance Premiums for Teenage Drivers

There are ways to reduce auto insurance rates for a teen driver, but buying a car for the teen and putting him on his own policy isn’t one of them. The average annual rate quoted for a teen driver is $2,267. (This average includes all liability coverage levels.) Compare that to an average cost increase of $621 for adding a teen to the parents’ policy — that means you’ll pay 365 percent more by putting the teen on his or her own policy.

Instead, compare car insurance quotes from multiple companies.

If your teen has a good grade point average in school, ask if your car insurance company offers a good student discount. If you’re adding a vehicle to your household for the teen to drive, look for a car with safety features that can lead to low car insurance quotes, such as anti-lock brakes and anti-theft devices.

Your insurance company may also offer discounts if your teen takes certain driver-training classes or installs a monitoring device in the car. But the best way to hold rates down is to make sure your teen keeps a clean driving record.

Adding a teen to your insurance policy will no doubt increase your rates, but there are things you can do to offset the new costs and lower your car expenses.

How much does your insurance go up after adding a teenager is a question we get all the time. If you’re a parent of a teenage driver then you know it’s expensive! We’re going to talk about how expensive it is and give some tips on how to lower your car insurance premium for young teenage drivers. 

• How Much is Teenage Car Insurance?
• How Much Does It Cost To Add a 16 Year Old To Car Insurance?
• How Much Is Car Insurance For a 17 Year Old?
  • How Much Is Car Insurance For a 17 Year Old Female?
  • How Much Is Insurance For a 17 Year Old Male?
  • How Much Is Insurance For a 16 Year Old State Farm?
• Do I Have To Add My Teenager To My Insurance?
• Should My Teenager Get Their Own Insurance Policy?
• Compare Quotes With an Independent Agent

How Much is Teenage Car Insurance?

Adding a teenager to your insurance policy can increase the price by 125% to 200% or $1800 to $2,600 a year. This is a lot of money! Let’s talk about why it costs so much and what you can do to help decrease the amount of car insurance you pay for your young teenage driver.

Everyone says the magic age is 21. 21 is the age where rates will start to drop. This is true in the fact that rates will start to get better at this age; However, you wont be completely out of the weeds until age 24 or 25. By this age, they are older and more mature and they also have many years of driving history so the insurance company can better know how risky they are and how likely they are to have an accident.

Start the process early, shop around.

How Much Does It Cost To Add a 16 Year Old To Car Insurance?

As mentioned above, it can cost a lot of money to add your 16 year old to your car insurance. However, there are few things you can do to make sure you’re not over paying.

Take advantage of the few discounts available to young drivers.

Good Student Discount– Generally a 3.0 or better GPA will qualify you for this discount. This can save you anywhere from 3% to 15%.

Driver Training– This discount is not available with as many insurance companies as it used to be. But it can still be a sizeable discount and it’s still a valuable course for your young driver to take.

Monitoring App/Device– Most every insurance company has the option to add a monitoring device. These devices monitor driving habits such as miles driven, speed, hard breaks, etc and give discounts depending on how the driver performs. Since a young driver does not have a driving history, this is the best way to quickly learn driving habits and adjust the insurance rate accordingly.

Older Car– Unless you are wanting to pay an insane amount for your teenagers car insurance, don’t go buy them a brand new car. An older car, that doesn’t need full coverage, will be the best priced car for your young driver.

How Much Is Car Insurance For a 17 Year Old?

While it’s true that car insurance for a 17 year old is very expensive, it’s not nearly as bad as a 16 year old with no driving experience! As you get older each year your car insurance premiums will continue to drop. It will still be expensive for the first few years, but as you get older and establish more of a driving record (hopefully a good one) your rates will start to go down. There is a difference in cost between male and female drivers. Let’s take a look.

How Much Is Car Insurance For a 17 Year Old Female?

Young female drivers will cost less to insure than 17 year old male’s. Most every type of insurance sets their rates based off of data. If a certain risk is higher, then the rates will be higher. If a certain risk is not as great, then the rates for that insurance policy will be less. When it comes to 17 year old females, the data shows that they are better drivers than 17 year old males. Females tend to get in less accidents and tend to get less tickets. Because of this it costs less to insure a 17 year old female.

How Much Is Insurance For a 17 Year Old Male?

Male drivers, especially young male drivers, tend to have higher rates for car insurance. This is simply because 17 year old males tend to have more accidents and are riskier drivers. Insurance companies know they will most likely end up paying out money for the accident the 17 year old male is going to have, so they charge higher rates.

How Much Is Insurance For a 16 Year Old State Farm?

State Farm is a captive company. This means they have one rate to offer and that is it. They can sometimes have good rates for 16 year olds, but they can also sometimes have bad rates for car insurance. The way to combat this problem is by using an independent broker. Someone who can look at dozens of different companies and find the best rate for your 16 year old. Don’t rely on just one company, make sure you shop to find the best rate. No one wants to pay more money on car insurance for their teenager than they have to!

Do I Have To Add My Teenager To My Insurance?

Yes, you must add all drivers of your vehicles to your car insurance policy. There is a bad rumor out there where a lot of agents are stating that you don’t need to add young drivers to your car insurance policy. These agents state that the young drivers are covered under the “Permissive Use” clause in the insurance contract. This is completely false and these agents are setting up these people to have a horrible claim experience where things are covered. Permissive use is for those people that would drive your vehicle that do NOT live in your house and do not drive your vehicle on a regular basis. If someone lives in your house or drives your car on a regular basis (at least once a month) then they need to be added to your policy as a driver. In many cases, if a teenage driver crashes your vehicle and they are not listed on your policy as a driver then there would not be coverage!

Should My Teenager Get Their Own Insurance Policy?

No, your teenage driver should not get their own insurance. They should be insured under your policy. This is the case so long as they are living in your house and driving your car. Not only is it more cost efficient to add your teenager to your car insurance but it also ensures you have the correct coverage. Getting your teenager their own car insurance policy while they are living in your house creates all kinds of coverage issues that may affect you at the time of a claim.

Compare Quotes With an Independent Agent

Every insurance company is different. Some companies want certain types of policies but don’t want other types of policies. So some insurance companies will have really good pricing for teen drivers, because they want that type of business whereas other car insurance companies will have really high rates on teenage drivers because that type of policy is not what they want. So until you shop around and check with many different companies, you can’t be sure you’re getting the best rates. To check rates with an independent agent, click here.