With the twins looking at turning 16 in a little over a month, the topic of driver education, driver license and cars has taken it’s position front and center of 99% of our family discussions.
Having three teenage boys – one year apart, I’m frightened to even ask what insurance is going to run on three teens.
I’ve heard of parents buying a junkie old car to insure their kids with while I’ve listened to others talk about how much their insurance went up as the result of adding the teen to their existing policy.
I tend to be a person who does everything by the book because the moment I think I can get away with not, that’s when something happens to teach me I was wrong.
Questions:
Now, if I get an old beater car to insure the kids on, does that mean they can only drive that car or will they be able to drive mine too?
Living in Indiana and having to pay SO much for license plates on newer models, I’m guessing insurance works much the same way. I wonder just how old a car has to be before it’s considered a “beater” and will provide affordable insurance for a teen?
There’s got to be parent bloggers out there who have already been where I’m headed. I would love to learn from your lessons and mistakes. This whole thing scares me because I know if I screw up on any level, it’s going to be one giant and costly mistake.
Image credit: Stock.xchg
From my experience, in the state of Colorado, the insurance follows the car, not the driver. That being said, every person who has a driver’s license and is of legal age has to be added to the household policy. Which means that it doesn’t matter which car they drive, because they will be covered under the policy, which will likely include all cars, because you usually get a discount when you have multiple cars on one policy.
Here are a few ways to get discounts: Scouts – when boys in particular are a part of scouting, there are some pretty nice discounts depending on the company. Grades – typically insurance companies will give discounts based on a GPA. Multiple cars – if you buy a beater car for the kiddos to drive, just add it into your existing policy, and ask about a multiple car discount. Other types of insurance – usually when you put all of your insurance into one company you’ll get a discount. Things like life insurance, multiple cars, homeowners, renter’s, or whatever kind of insurance you need can add up, and when you add them all together with one agent/company usually there are discounts. Driving class – a lot of times teens can get a discount when they participate in a safe driving class that is approved by the insurance company.
Because of the laws here, when my stepdaughter turned 16 and got her license, even though she didn’t have a car and wasn’t really driving yet (because of her grades) we still had to add her to the policy and pay for that.
Hope that helps… you might benefit from emailing some insurance agents. Let them know the types of insurance that you’re looking for (even if you already have the types, make them believe you’re shopping around) and get the information from them, because the laws are SO different from state to state.
~B