Buying Car Insurance for Your Teen Driver

Do you have a new driver in your household? If you have a teenager, you probably do or soon will. They want to drive and they need the experience before they go out into the wild, wild world on their own. I know from experience that not shopping around can be an expensive mistake. 

When our first son started to drive five years ago we just called up our agent and told them to add him to our policy. He had his own little car and it was completely paid off. Even though he had his own vehicle, he was listed as the primary driver on our most expensive vehicle to insure- and it wasn’t his. When he dodged a deer and ended up upside-down in a ditch, our rates went through the roof, because he was listed on our more expensive vehicle with full coverage. Because the car was older and paid for, it only had liability coverage on it; they didn’t have to pay out anything, but it didn’t matter. He was given a citation for losing control of his car. He replaced it with an even less expensive and much older car that someone on a cell phone rear-ended while he was waiting to turn- not three months after he had bought it; back to the old yellow limousine to get to school. Up went our rates again (although slightly this time) even though it was clearly the other guy at fault. In his excitement at getting a nice little truck (and his first loan) he went a tad over the speed limit. You guessed it-up went my rates-this time on his truck because more was owed on it than my car and being a minor, I had to co-sign the note. He lived at our residence, so we could not get him on a separate policy. I love my son dearly, but I have to say I was glad to see him go off to college and off of my policy.