by Images_of_Money under CC BY

Car Insurance = Expensive

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We ended up purchasing him a used 2004 Chevrolet Silverado. It’s a clean, single cab pickup so he won’t be able to haul all of his friends around. Hopefully that’ll leave for a little less distractions while driving around town. He don’t know it just yet, but when he does finally turn 16 years old, he’ll be getting a vehicle (well, he kind of knows he’s getting a car, just not what). We decided on used because it just really isn’t realistic to get a first time driver a brand spanking new car, especially since I don’t have one either. Trust me, would have loved getting him a new car as most any parent would want to for their child but just didn’t feel like we’d be able to help him along the way with both a new car payment and a new insurance payment at the same time. Used isn’t bad though, it looks good, it runs good, and it has a cold air conditioner which works out really well for the climate we live in.

Now to fast-forward a bit, I stopped by today just to get a quick quote as to what our insurance policy was going to do if we simply added him to it. Just adding the truck to it with basic liability (certainly not full-coverage) and being under my name brought it out to being an additional $34 bucks a month. Not bad, I thought.

But then came the fun stuff. Let’s see what happens if we add him as the driver and keep the same level of basic coverage. A little to my surprise (well actually shock) was that adding him in with no discounts came out to more than what it costs to insure both my vehicle and my wife’s vehicle (mine at liability and hers at full-coverage). It was going to be an additional $146 a month to do this. Are you kidding me!!

Ok, well let’s say he qualifies and takes part in State Farm’s Steer Clear Drivers Program. This should definitely knock it down quite a bit since he’d be promising and following all the guidelines in the program and filling out all the documentation. Well, it helped, but not quite what I was expecting. The quoted price was still sitting at around $130 a month, still little less than thrilled.

So, we checked out one final discount, the good grades discount I’ll call it. Don’t remember what my agent called it so we’ll just go with that. Basically, she said that if he keeps his grades up (a “B” average or better), that he’d qualify for this discount. Needless to say, was still less than thrilled with the final outcome. Being in all AP classes, this could be tough for him. Not that he couldn’t do it because he certainly can, just with what’s been produced up to this point, it might be something that he’d struggle with from time to time depending on what activities he’s in and what they are teaching at the time. Yep, he comes home with C’s every once in a while, he tries hard though so we just encourage him and let him know that we expect better.

About the best deal we could come up with was actually combining the discounts listed above, so he’d have to take part in both the Steer Clear Program and the Good Grades Discount. Combining the two discounts brought the quoted price down to just over $100 a month more. Add that to what we already pay for insurance every month and I’m not really liking where we stand right now.

Think it might just be about time again to start hitting the trails and shopping for insurance to see what other companies are offering. Have you gone through this already? What’s your experience been getting insurance for your first time teenage driver? Let me know in the comments below.

I was doing some more research this weekend on getting car insurance for teenagers since mine is gonna be there soon and I ran across an interesting article out there from Tampa Bays 10. I know that my son will be getting a permit before long so I’ve got to be informed as much as possible to save where I can as I know it’s gonna be expensive due to where we live. Plus with the rising costs of everything these days we gotta be smart as consumers.

I don’t want to do anything that is going to dampen his spirits in getting his learner’s permit as it’s such an exciting time and right of passage in a teens life. I like to consider myself the “Hank Hill” to the neighborhood and he’s my “Bobby”. But this story really shocked me and is something that I’m going to be definitely following up on with my insurance company when getting car insurance for my teenager. Seems that another parent was surprised to find out that their insurance company just added their teenager to their policy simply because she turned 16, big surprise is she won’t even get her license to drive until next year. This is going to add $1,100 to their policy for just six months coverage.

Seems that insurance companies can just add car insurance for teenagers on policies whenever they see fit. Why? Well, seems that there is no statute set forth by our governing bodies regulating insurance companies as to when they can add a teen driver to a family policy. What does that mean. Simple, they can do it when they want to basically, not when you are ready.

The story then goes on to say that it simply depends on the insurance company. They viewed some of the largest carriers and found that they really have different views on the matter. Allstate will add your teen on your policy for car insurance when they get their learners permit. Progressive will add them in when they turn 16. Nationwide will also add your teen for teen car insurance when they get their permit. State Farm looks to be the most logical as they won’t add them in until they actually get their license, when one would need car insurance for a teenager, according to the report.

This is definitely a new development for me and something that I’m going to check out with my insurance carrier, I’d suggest that you do the same with yours so you don’t get any friendly “surprises” in the mail about your insurance policy and your teenager especially if you live in Florida and are looking for the best Florida car insurance rates since that is where this story originated.