Insurance tips for teen?

So, we're in the process of adding our son to our insurance plan.

Or we WERE.

Coverage for my wife and I for the entire year is $1300 or so - $500 deductible, 100/200/100, etc.

Adding my son to our current vehicles (2022 4Runner, 2020 Tundra) raises it to $4000.



Aside from buying him a hoopty (I'm thinking of a 10-15 year old Civic or something), any suggestions on how to limit the damage to our bank account? lol

 

I feel your pain! Similar situation; bought a 10 yr old VW Jetta for my 16yo son a couple of years ago. Added him and the car (full coverage) to the policy at the same time and bill went up $3000/yr. He pays that difference. Sounds like you're not even adding an additional vehicle at this point. Thought it would go down this year now that he's 18 and has no tickets/accidents...nope!

Our agent did shop it around at the time and that's the best we could do. Bundled with home and umbrella policy as well...

Someone's gotta pay for all the uninsured drivers and fraud I guess!

 

Evidently so.

Right now he's not working - well, sort of. I've told him "Right now, school is your focus because you have enough issues keeping your grades above a C." LOL

He'll be working this summer as a camp counselor. My plan is to buy a car *for him to use.* Depending on the next year or two, how he conducts himself, etc., I'll either sell it to him or give it to him.

So, I don't 'mind' paying for the car, and the increased insurance cost...but if I can limit the damage, I would. lol

 

Unfortunately, nope.
And it is not just targeting your teen, but in-experience drivers as a whole, that's why newest drivers get hit the heaviest with rates.
I posted somewhere else, oversea parents and kid (in US college) for 6 month is like $1400-$1500, not great but manageable. But just kid alone is like $14K.... or something in that proximity.... which is insane.
If situation allows, and this might not even be possible for some, is to NOT have the kid drive for a few years while s/he obtains the license, and just ride it out a bit. Insurance does not really care if you drive or not, but how long you have the license for, because to insurance, more years = more experienced, not sure how true that is.... but anyway

Oh, I know some would like to get their kid a nicer newer car for the safety tech, but just know that the higher replacement value it is, harder it is gonna hit on your bank account.
A beater, once checked out and secure, would be ideal for a couple of years, and once they have a few years (can't remember how many, each company is different, but I think 5?) the rates should drop, if no accidents or claims.

Also, your rates are pretty good, mine are 100/300/100, $250 deductible is $1032/6 months for 2021 Tundra and 2024 Venza.
Maybe I should up my deductible to $500 and see if that can drop me under $1000/6 months since my renewal is coming right up April 1st.....

 

USAA?
Happened to us too. Hoopty won't help (both girls are in 12+ year old Soobs).

I did read about putting the vehicles (Soopty Hoobs) in their names, insurance in their name, etc can lower things a bit depending on the state. Lots of hoops to jump through in NY in order to do that so I just lube up every 6 months and write the check.

 

I pay $11,000 for 4 cars, 2 teens. Beat that The difference between a beater 2011 Honda Pilot (but still rock solid) and a brand new 2025 CRV was $1000 so we went for the new Honda CRV for me daughter. Me son drives my older 2013 Tundra. And for my BMW 850 I pay Hagerty $1200/year collectible cars insurance for a $100,000 replaceable value. Overall, cars insurance is killing me. Don't even start me with the house

I should do what the illegals are doing here in Texas. Get insurance for a month, register the car and then drop it

 

My son actually started working the summer before (@ 15), so he had some $$ saved up. There was no way he was going to be able to buy a car and afford insurance, and I did not want him driving either of our vehicles regularly. I actually came out ahead buying a $6K car and him paying the insurance increase across the whole policy!

IMO, you'll have more 'leverage' with the car being yours. I also intend to turn it over to him once he's done with trade school in a couple of years. He's proven to be pretty responsible with it, and is a hard-working kid so I don't mind giving him that little head start. It's not as easy as it was when I started out many years ago; don't know how kids are going to be able to do it nowadays.

 

We have Erie. They are excellent but they're a regional insurance company (e.g., I can't get them in Missouri where we used to live).

 

Or try just quoting kid alone with a car and see how much that comes out to?
Having the car titled to "you" and lending it to said kid on a part time basis (even we know better they drive it full time) does help a tad with some insurance companies. Because we are "older" and should be more "responsible" blah blah blah...... some days I just hate car insurance....lol

 

Are you suggesting he have 'his own' insurance policy that we pay for (instead of him being a rider on our policy)?

 

You could try and see how much that is, and see if the difference would make sense.
This being in two folds, your original policy does not change, and he's on his own.

Oh, I am not sure if you have ample time, but you might want to reach out to an insurance broker to see if s/he can do the legwork for you, comparing with multiple companies at the same time, different packages and different settings, such as kid(s) with you vs kid(s) alone.
Sometime broker has some better pricing you can't get by doing it yourself, might be worth it to try.

 

Both my kids got roughly $10K "beaters" for their first cars. My son still has his 10 years later. (2005 Scion TC)
Purchased by the bank of Mom and Dad with the intention that they would repay at least 50%. (Both have.)
Titled in my name and insured with them as the primary driver. Comp only. No Collision. U smash it, U fix it.
Still our insurance, but not having them listed as drivers on our other (nice) cars/trucks saved us a bunch.
Paid their insurance until they had full time jobs.
Sold car to them for $1.00 (Essentially "gifted.") and transferred title at that time also.

 

Good to know; sounds like that's the way to go.

 

Just as a quick note, check your state requirement on that.
Some don't care if you sell it for $1.00 but will charge you the tax on presumed actual value.
I think NJ has this (but it was a while back, so no idea if it changed or I mistaken this for something else)

 

I'm the same


4 cars.
2 <25yr kids <college>

and we tried to put them on their own policy....no go in TX

GEICO kept increasing us, switched to Progressive and saved about half.



the '34 Ford hot rod is $880 a year. Hagerty.


your comment on illegals(uninsured) is spot on.

 

One other thing I noticed, if your policy has ever claimed against someone else, i.e. Progressive, I have noticed that when I quote Progressive, it is way more expensive than others.
No proof, but I guess insurance is like, look at that sucker that took money from us, let's get it back from them by quoting them sky high....

 

I have two tundras, a 2002 forerunner and a 2002 BMW wagon. My teenage kids have the forerunner and the wagon. Straight A’s , I pay the insurance , it works. Also, they just have liability and theft not full comprehensive coverage , that saves quite a bit. Just pray they don’t crash them ever.

 

If your kid gets into a small fender bender, don’t let them give your insurance information to the other driver. Just give them your phone number and decide after you see the estimate.

My daughter slightly rubbed the car next to her in a parking lot. Damage was like $1200 but the other driver made a claim to my insurance. Once the claim was submitted she got a point and it stays on her record for 3 years. That raised my insurance $300 a month. So instead of just paying the $1200 out of pocket, it’s gonna cost me $10k more. So ridiculous.

 

That also goes for adults, too.
Sometimes a fender bender can be fixed, even if it is above your deductible, the general rate increase over the next 3 - 5 years would sometimes cancel out the benefit of claiming against it.
Now, if even just "one" airbags went off, claim it like you stole it....

 

In MA sales and excise tax are based on Blue Book

 

Check rates on a Civic before you buy one. I sold a 2017 Fiat 124 Abarth and bought a Civic and my rates doubled plus. My agent said at least I didn't buy a CRV since they are higher. WTF! I sold a car I drove like a wild man with a smashed bag and sold it to buy a boring, slow as molasses Civic.

 

Was the Civic a newer model?
Depending on the trim, some insurance are viewing the Civics are "race car" types, mainly the Type R and sometimes, Si
Those are high rate of wreck and pain/expensive to repair/replace....

 

I'd imagine that has to do with replacement value / high resale value. Much like some Toyotas. Costly to replace in the event of a totaling.

 

California wont charge sales tax if you transfer to a relative (Moved a truck to wife's name once and found out). Def varies by state

 

If there is a transfer within family (Spouse, Son, Daughter, Mother, Father, Sister, Brother) a form MVU-26 can be completed for exemption of the sales tax, in full, even if it was not gifted. (bigger picture: not just for kids, but think elders involved with MassHealth as well)

Super easy form to complete and just gets handed in at the time of re-registering the vehicle under the "new" ownership (when sales tax would be due).

 

It was a hatchback sport. CVT too. The most boring car ever made. I believe my agent was uninformed when she told me the rates we so high because there were so many Civic. Instead of the ratio of cars to claims. I can understand why the Fiat was so affordable. They are less commonly used as daily drivers.

 

But yea, insurance rates are always on the increase, so it will be your best interest to be shopping every 6 months/12 months/whichever terms your current insurance is at.
Same goes for both auto and home insurance.
Shop around, or get a broker to do the legwork for you, it is free service, we broker get paid by insurance companies based on commission earned.

 

Good advice. I deal with a local agent for home, auto and Medicare supplement. Our agent called this past November with a better Plan D option without us even asking. Ended up saving us money.

 

I had no idea they charged that much for a teen, unreal.

 

As a 19 year old that’s still on my mom’s insurance, that owns three cars, here’s my experience:

1. The discounts that insurance companies offer for good grades, extra driving courses, or the gps monitoring are huge. I have two younger brothers who also drive, and all of us taking those courses and getting good grades has been huge. Took off 1/3 of our bill.

2. I’m not positive if this is the same in all states and with all companies, but the teen driver doesn’t need to be on all vehicles if he/she doesn’t drive them consistently. My brothers and I rarely drive my mom’s car- so none of us are listed as primary drivers on it. Checked with our insurance company, (State Farm), and they said that was fine.

3. Car values. There are plenty of very safe cars out there that offer many of the safety features that brand new cars offer for a fraction of the price. This is another thing that has brought down our insurance cost significantly, especially because it allows us to have liability only insurance. Which brings me to my next thing-

4. Liability only has been another huge thing. Since the vehicles my brothers and I drive are (relatively) inexpensive, we aren’t paying for collision. This is mostly because even in the case of an accident, we probably wouldn’t file a claim.

5. Not filing claims! A buddy of mine in high school got into an avoidable fender bender in his shitty Accord, and his insurance increased $380/mo. He hasn’t driven since, he can’t afford to. As others have mentioned, it can be so much more cost effective to pay for repairs out of pocket than go through insurance.

6. However, this is all avoided by not getting into accidents, of course. My brothers and I spent a LOT of time with our parents in the car before they decided if we could get our licenses. We spent hours driving in the snow, the rain, the ice, at night. Other people thought it was very much overkill, and it sure felt like it was, but my brothers and I have all been in multiple near-accident scenarios that we have successfully and safely avoided. We all know what to do when driving my truck without ABS, we’re trained to hover over the brake pedal around blind corners, or look both ways at intersections, even if the light is green. I drive nearly 20k miles a year, and doing this has been unbelievably beneficial and I know for a fact have saved us money and kept us safer. I am frequently driven around by other people my age, and rarely do they exhibit safe driving practices the way my brothers and I do. Just simply driving safely is so huge, and if it wasn’t for my parents being very insistent on making my brothers and I go through all the effort, I’m sure that I wouldn’t have a clean driving record.

Sorry, that was quite long winded. But it’s saved my mom thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars. Not to mentioned the aspect that can’t be valued- our safety.