It's no secret that teenaged drivers, given that they're just getting their feet wet behind the wheel, tend to be some of the riskiest drivers on the road. According to the stereotypes, they drive too fast, overlook basic safety practices and generally cause problems for the rest of the driving community.
In short, they're bad drivers.
True or not, the claims trends generally back up the stereotypes and, as a result, teens often attract sky-high rates when they go shopping for that first auto insurance policy. This usually ends up costing their parents money. A lot of it.
According to a recent report from InsuranceQuotes.com, the average married couple can expect to see their insurance rates jump by 79% when they add a teen driver to their policy. That's a lot of cheddar. Never fear, though, there are ways for parents to minimize the pain.
“A great strategy for lowering car insurance costs is to sign up for pay-as-you-drive car insurance,” said Laura Adams, senior analyst, insuranceQuotes.com. “These programs allow companies to track your driving habits and can lead to significant discounts, especially if you're a safe driver who doesn't rack up too many miles. Teens who excel in the classroom should also take advantage of good student discounts.”
Click through the following pages for some other startling trends about the impact that teen drivers have on auto insurance rates.
Sorry, guys.
According to the InsuranceQuotes.com report, teenaged males are “much more” expensive to insure than teenaged females, raising their parents' rates by 92%, compared to just 67% for females.
The “good” news is that these increases are both down from 2013, when the average annual increase was 85% overall on average — 98% for males and 73% for females.
Hawaii is the only state in the union that prohibits insurers from taking age, gender and length of driving experience into account when determining auto insurance rates. The result? Teen drivers only cost their parents' an extra 17% when added to a family policy in the Aloha State. According to InsuranceQuotes.com, that's the lowest increase in the nation “by far.”
Need more proof? New York is the state with the second-lowest increase at 53%, followed by Michigan at 57% and Montana at 61%.
Yet another reason to live in sunny Hawaii.
At the other end of the spectrum, pity the parents of New Hampshire, where teen drivers add 111% to their parents' policies on average.
New Hampshire isn't alone, however. According to the report, there are seven states where drivers can expect their premiums to more than double when adding a teen to their policy, including Rhode Island (107%), Maine (107%), Wyoming (106%), Connecticut (102%), Illinois (101%) and Oregon (101%).
It does get better, though.
New drivers tend to get safer on the road as the years go by, so their rates tend to go down annually as well.
According to InsuranceQuotes.com, average premium increases decline each year on avearge, from 96% for 16-year-olds to 58% for 19-year-olds.
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