The statistics regarding teenage drivers are disturbing. A recent study shows that a 16-year old gets caught into street accident almost 6 times more often than the drivers of age 30 to 60. Naturally, the insurance premiums are quite high for this age group.
The guiding principle to remember when you go shopping for insurance is: “Greater the amount of risk, higher the cost of insurance premiums”. Following are the eight suggestions that will help you lower the premiums and secure your teenager’s license against violations.
1. Help make them learn the law: The best way to lower car insurance is to keep their driving record clean. Make it a family habit to drive safely and responsibly. Some states have strict laws for new drivers, so make sure both you and your teenager knows them properly.
2. Extend your policy to your teenager: Rather than setting up an independent policy, its best to extend your own auto insurance policy to an additional driver- to your teenager. This ensures all the discounts pass onto him automatically.
3. Be someone to look after to: Children are natural imitators. If you yourself don’t follow simple traffic rules, yell at other drivers, don’t expect your children to automatically become ‘good drivers’ simply because you ‘told’ them so. Observe how you drive when they are with you as they will look after you and try to imitate your style unconsciously.
4. Don’t invest in sports cars and just value safety. In the starting years of his learning, it is wise to concentrate more on safety. This will also lower your premiums.
5. Enlist them for driving course: Check which driving school the insurance company covers and enroll him/her into one of them to get great discounts.
6. Gift them for good grades: If your teenager gets 3.0 or higher GPA, it reduces your insurance premium by 10%. You can gift your teenager with the saved money and thus motivate them to keep up the good grades.
7. Direct talk with them: Teenagers are not dumb and actually well understand the situation if spoken directly. Discuss your premiums with them and show them how much money can be saved if they support you. They will surely like the feeling of you treating them as adults.
8. Discuss drugs and alcohol! It is always better to strike a conversation about these touchy topics before it gets too late.
