As the parent of a teenage driver, you want your child to be protected when they are behind the wheel. While the cost of properly insuring your child is expensive, don’t make the mistake of putting the finances ahead of obtaining full protection.
Steps to Insuring Your Teenage Driver
In just a few simple steps, you can make sure all the drivers in your family—including your new teenage drivers—are fully covered by your car insurance policy. Here are the steps for adding a teen to your car insurance policy:
- Call your insurance agent to discuss adding a member to your existing policy prior to your teenager obtaining a learner’s permit.
- Bring your teenager with you to meet the insurance agent in person.
- During this meeting, discuss coverage levels with your insurance agent. For policies covering teenagers, it is a good idea to have full coverage, including uninsured and underinsured motorist protection. You might also want to increase your liability insurance.
- Consider raising your deductible to save on your insurance premium.
- Ask about driver discounts based on driving training, good grades, or anything else that could save you some money.
- Pay the updated insurance fees for your underage driver.
Important Insurance Coverage Considerations for Teen Drivers
Auto insurance for teen drivers should be looked at a little differently than for adults. Adults tend to have more experience behind the wheel, and with that experience comes a much lower risk of being involved in a collision. However, when you are insuring a teen driver, you should account for the fact that the roadway risks associated with a teen driver will result in a premium cost for coverages. Please don’t be tempted to take shortcuts with insurance. Read more about this below.
It is also important to discuss the different types of insurance coverages that you should consider with your agent as your teen is just getting ready to take on the challenge of driving. Here are a few of the coverage options that parents should consider:
- Bodily Injury Liability Coverage: This coverage protects a legally liable driver in an accident that results in an injury or death to others, including passengers.
- Property Damage Liability Coverage: Protect your teen in the event that they are legally liable in an accident in which another person’s vehicle or property is damaged.
- Uninsured Motorists Coverage: The insurance helps protect drivers and passengers injured or killed by an uninsured driver.
- Underinsured Motorists Coverage: Adding underinsured motorists coverage protects drivers and passengers who are injured or killed by an underinsured driver.
- Collision Coverage: This type of coverage covers an insured vehicle’s damage due to a collision with another vehicle or object.
- Comprehensive Coverage: Comprehensive coverage helps protect drivers if their vehicles are stolen or damaged due to a “non-collision” loss, such as falling objects, vandalism, or fire.
Full-coverage insurance for your teen is your best bet to protecting them on the road. Full-coverage insurance generally means you have a policy that includes:
- $100,000 in liability for injuries to others, with up to $300,000 in coverage per accident
- $100,000 for vehicle and property damage
- Comprehensive coverage that includes damage from hail, flooding, fire, theft, and animal strikes
- Collision coverage to pay for your vehicle’s damage in the event of an accident
Insurance for teen drivers should be of the utmost importance for parents. Young drivers must be insured before they ever get behind the wheel. As the parent, it is your responsibility to get your teen added to your insurance policy. Protect your teen with added coverages like the ones listed above.
What to Expect When Insuring Your Teen Driver
According to carinsurance.com, adding a teenager to your policy, on average, increases your insurance cost by 130%. This can cost an additional $2,000 per year. This dramatic cost increase is due to the fact that teenagers are among the most dangerous drivers on the road, causing a higher number of accidents than an average driver.
Insuring your teen as the primary driver of the cheapest car on your policy will save you some money on your insurance bill. However, you want to make sure your teenager is driving a safe, reliable vehicle.
By bringing your teenager to your meeting with your automobile insurance agent, you can have the agent talk about the importance of safe driving and go over what to do in the event of an accident to emphasize everything you have already discussed about driving safety.
It is important to mention that adding a teen driver to your existing policy is almost always significantly cheaper than getting your teen their own policy. In cases where your teen has a learner’s permit, your current insurance policy will likely cover them at no additional cost. However, once your teen graduates to a less-restricted license.
Concluding Note: As you pay the high premiums for your child to have the privilege to drive legally, make sure you are constant in reminding your teen drivers to drive alert, buckled, cautious, and defensive. This means driving with their eyes on the road at all times, within the speed limits. Remind them always to use the turn signal when turning or to change lanes.
Periodically drive with them so that you can evaluate their driving and never be hesitant to suspend driving privileges if your child is not always taking a safe approach to driving. Beware of the dangers associated with late-night driving. You can learn more about teen driving safety with the other blogs in our series:
Drive By Example: Show Your Teens How to Drive Safely
Teen Driver Safety: Protect Your Teen from a Car Crash
Why So Many People Aren’t Wearing Seat Belts
Why Glove Boxing the Phone Is the Best Example a Parent Can Set
Why Defensive Driving is the Best Thing Parents Can Teach Their Teen Drivers
Teach Your Teen Driver About These 5 Hidden Dangers
Enforce the Missouri GDL Law for Your Teen Drivers
Make Safe Driving a Household Priority
