22-Sep-2014

When Your Teen Begins To Drive

 For a parent those words in the same sentence can be extremely scary on many levels. Maybe your kids are still very young and the thought of them driving is a distant nightmare or they are now grown with kids of their own and you can look back at the time and be thankful it is over.  Then there is the group that is currently facing that situation or will be in the very near future. Somehow, I must have entered a time warp and I’m now in that last group. My son will be 16 this coming February and my stepson will turn 16 in March, a double whammy. So what does a parent who has been in the insurance industry for 20 years do in this situation? What every parent should do – try to use all of the available information out there to make certain the teen driver is as prepared as possible and receiving every discount they possibly can on their car insurance.

Finding the Right Insurance for Your Teen

There are many discounts offered by a multitude of insurance companies to help ease the pain of insuring that teen driver.  A Good Student Discount is offered by many companies and is based on the teen’s grades. Often if the teen has a B or better average they are eligible for the discount. Driver’s training is another discount offered by many companies to teen drivers. Although paying for a driver’s training course can be expensive it can offer a variety of benefits including earlier accesses to a full adult license and professional training as well as the discount for the car insurance. The Accident Prevention Course/Defensive Driving is another discount the teen driver may be eligible for. 

Questions for your Independent Agent & Planning Ahead

It’s important to check with your insurance agent to find out what discounts your insurance company has available for the teen drivers as well as how they rate for the driver.  Does the insurance company automatically put the young driver on the most expensive vehicle or on the vehicle they are actually driving?  Are your liability limits high enough to protect you if your teen driver is involved in a serious accident? Does the vehicle your teen will be driving having physical damage coverage? What about the effect of adding the driver to your Personal Umbrella Insurance policy?

Car insurance, the costs and coverage can easily be overlooked in the excitement of a teen turning 16 and then obtaining a driver’s license.  Planning ahead can help ease the headaches, hopefully preventing an enormous bill that can’t be paid, maybe giving the teen a glimpse of the real world and the responsibilities that come with the privilege of a driver’s license.  I have talked to my insured’s about it for the last 20 years, now I get to experience it myself, lucky me.

– Leslie Miller, Service Manager