Buying Cheap Car Insurance for Teens
Question: How does one go about obtaining vehicle insurance for a 17 year old driver in California, without paying an arm and a leg?
Comment: I think this is a super question to inquire about your teen driver. At 17 years of age this teenage driver can not legally enter a contract since they are not considered an adult. I would assume that most teenage drivers would be considered “safe” drivers they are still not old enough to sign the insurance contract.
I would also assume that most insurance companies would require a parent and or a legal guardian to sign the contract and to be financially responsible for the vehicle and the driver’s actions.
I would start off your investigation by making a few phone calls the local insurance carriers in your area and get their opinion on this question.
I really do not see why you could not get decent coverage for your teen driver, but a better question might be are you going to be able to afford this type of coverage?
California Auto Insurance Claim Denied Because of Teen Driver?
Reader question:
I heard that you can get a claim denied if your teenager is on your California auto insurance policy. Is that true?
Phillip
Thank you for your question, Phillip.
I’m not sure where you heard that, Phillip, but it’s definitely not true that your California auto insurance company will deny your claim just because you have a teenager on your policy. Heck, you’ll probably get your claim denied if you decide not to add your teenager to your insurance policy, because if you don’t provide such important information, then your auto insurance company is unable to adjust your car insurance premium to fit the amount of risk you pose to the company.
One thing that I think you might be thinking about is the recent report done on parents whose claims were denied because they had claimed themselves to be the main drivers on vehicles of which their high risk teenagers were actually the main drivers. I think this might be the result of a bit of miscommunication.
Many people who deal out auto insurance advice, myself included, have urged parents to make sure that car insurance companies don’t automatically add the teenagers to the most expensive and costly to insure vehicle on their policy. This is definitely something that you should worry about, since car insurance companies tend to, if not told otherwise, put the highest risk driver with the highest risk car, even if the driver in question never touches the car.
However, making sure that your teenager’s name isn’t added to a car that they don’t drive isn’t the same as deliberately putting your teenager’s name on a car that they don’t drive. This is called fronting, and is considered fraud, so I advise every parent thinking about doing this on their California auto insurance policy to think again. The truth is that most parents who do this don’t even know they’re committing fraud, at least according to sixty percent of the parents in the report.
Make sure that you give accurate information and that your insurance company follows it when rating your policy, but giving inaccurate information yourself could land you in trouble.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarram.
California Teenage Driver Car Insurance Rate Quotes
- 11,177: teen drivers killed in car accidents between 1995 and 2004
- 3/4: portion of those accidents involving teen drivers in which the fatalities were suffered by the passengers of the teen’s car
- 5.6%: decline in the number of teen traffic deaths after the introduction of graduated licensing laws in 46 states
Some of the statistics sound frightening, but in the end things seem to be getting better, thanks to new laws on the books in most states that refrain from giving young drivers full licenses until certain benchmarks have been met. While this is, indeed, much of the reason for the decline in fatalities, other factors should not be left out.
Looking at the numbers, even after the decline, can make any parent shake at the thought of sending their teen out on the road, and it’s no wonder with these numbers that the average CA car insurance rate is so high. However, if you take the proper precautions, such as working with your child on their driving skills even after the license has obtained, and buying the best car for your teen, you can ensure to an extent that they have a safe driving experience, and you can save a lot of money on car insurance.
So what should the perfect teen car look like, the one that will garner the very best CA car insurance rate? Here are some rules to go by.
- Size matters.
The impact of a car’s size on its CA car insurance rate is often distorted in the public’s mind. Some notions that might seem to be common sense at first, really aren’t. For example, we all know that the insurance provider will give you a cheap CA car insurance rate if you have a safe car, and vehicles such as SUVs are very safe, right?
Yes and no.
SUVs can be safe for the driver, but car insurance companies have to take more than just you into mind when they are deciding on your CA car insurance rate. SUVs are very safe for the people inside them, but they cause quite a bit of damage. Part of this is because of their size, but some comes from the fact that their bumpers are on a different level than the bumpers of other vehicles, so instead of hitting the other car’s bumper and absorbing some of the impact, the bumper of an SUV will rip through the other vehicle’s body, causing more damage to the vehicle and more fatalities within.
Another common misconception is that a small car will get you a good car insurance rate. Also not true, for just the opposite reason. Small cars don’t cause a lot of damage, so your car insurance rate for your liability coverage will be cheap, but they do take a lot of damage. If you’re going to buy comprehensive or collision on your new car, then the car insurance rate is going to hit you hard there.
So…what kind of car should you get for your teen, to ensure the maximum amount of safety and the best car insurance rate? Well, we can take a little lesson from Goldilocks in this field.
- Just right.
The best car that you can choose for your teenager, in order to stay safe and get a cheap car insurance rate, is a mid-sized car. It’s also a good idea to choose a car that is a couple of years old, rather than a new one. New cars are expensive to insure, especially if the name attached to them is under 18. Picking a car that’s still around 2000 up will ensure that you get both the modern technology and safety features, while avoiding the high car insurance rate.
It should also be a given that you need to avoid getting a sports car, a convertible, or any other type of high performance car for your teen. It’s proven through various studies that these sorts of cars encourage reckless behavior, especially among young people.
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