If the thought of putting a teenager on your car insurance has you holding on to your wallet a little tighter, you can relax. Car insurance for teens does not have to be as costly as you may have heard. While it is true that teenagers as a whole are a riskier group to insure, there are ways – some you may not have heard of – that can make teen car insurance more affordable. Continue reading to learn our tricks of the trade for making teen car insurance a better fit for your budget.
1. Take a Safe Driving Course
Teenagers are classified as a high-risk group based on their inexperience behind the wheel. In fact, teens are three times more likely to be in a fatal crash between the ages of 16 and 19 than at any other time in their lives. To help reduce some of those risks, some Wisconsin car insurers will offer teenagers a discount of up to 10 percent simply for voluntarily enrolling in a safe driver course. These courses focus strictly on improving skills behind the wheel, including appropriate responses to dangerous situations.
2. Crack Open the Books
Teens may not realize it, but getting good grades in school does much more than get them into a good college. Many insurance companies believe that teenagers who show responsibility in school will also show responsibility on the road. In some cases, getting good grades – typically a B average or higher – can score discounts of as much as 25 percent of more on teen car insurance. The even better news is that insurance companies tend to offer these discounts all the way through the end of college when most young adults start to see a natural decrease in their insurance premiums.
3. Grade Your Teen’s Driving
Tests are no fun for anyone, but willingly submitting to one could land safe-driving teens an extra discount on car insurance. There are multiple insurers who allow families to install electronic devices that accumulate data about the way their teenagers drive. The devices tell insurance companies how fast teens are driving, how often they drive, and how hard they are braking.
4. Send Your Teen Away to College…and Leave the Car at Home
Many teens here in Wisconsin attend college out of state. If your teen gets into the University of Chicago – a campus less than 3 hours away from us here in Waukesha – you might qualify for a discount on car insurance. When a student is away at a school more than 100 miles away, regardless of the state, insurers tend to offer lower rates when they leave the car at home.
5. Get an Older Car…but Not Too Old
The newest model vehicles are almost always more expensive to insure than used ones. That is because new cars tend to cost more to repair or replace if your teen is in an accident. Look for an older model vehicle that is not a high horse-powered sports car or luxury vehicle. Keep in mind, however, that vehicles made in 2011 or later are subject to more stringent crash test rating system from the federal government due to the implementation of a major safety feature known as electronic stability control (ESC). Technologically advanced features like this one and others on late model vehicles can help prevent collisions and even save a life.
