For adults, driving is mostly a chore. We drive to work every morning and we drive back home every evening. Most of the time, we have to deal with traffic, which makes driving not only a chore, but an annoyance. And of course, having a car also involves a set of expenses, like insurance, gas, maintenance, and repairs.
For teens, it’s different. A car symbolizes freedom and movement. It’s an adventure. It’s looking “cool” in front of the girls. It’s having a way to go to the party. It’s independence and lack of restrictions. Unfortunately, it’s never safety or insurance fees.
However, insurance companies do take teens into consideration, and they react by increasing their fees.
I’m going to be honest here. If you’re considering giving a car to your teenager or buying a car for him, don’t. There is a reason why insurance companies raise their fees for teen drivers. They really are a risk on the highway. You may turn on the radio to listen to music. A teen driver will listen to his iPod, send a text message to his friend, play races with others, turn his head around 100% degrees to look at that cute girl in the mini-skirt, change music on his MP3 player, etc.
By not allowing your teenage son or daughter to drive, you’ll keep him safer and avoid increasing insurance fees.
However, if you do decide to let him or her drive, you should contact your insurance company and find out if they use driver averaging. If they don’t, then you may reduce your fees by letting junior drive only the old and used car and cover it for liabilities only. That way, you won’t get any increases on the newer and more expensive cars that you have, and for which you want better insurance protection.
If your insurance company uses driver averaging, then this scheme won’t work and your insurance rates will go up anyway. In that case, you can either look for another insurance company that doesn’t use driver averaging, or just inform your teenager son or daughter that they aren’t allowed to drive.
One last piece of advice. At the very least, make sure that your teen child somehow earns the right to drive. A teenager that works hard to ear his car or his right to use yours will appreciate it better than one that has a car handed to him. In turn, these teen drivers will be more careful when driving, as they will know how hard it is to get a car.