Teenage Drivers, every parent fears the day their teenager begins driving.

The time has come for your teenager to start driving and you have heard from all your friends how expensive it is. Here is everything you need to know about when, why and how much it cost to add a teenage driver.

What is the difference between permitted driver and licensed driver?

• The Permit allows your teen to practice driving with an adult while they are learning to drive.
• The license allows the teen to drive without an adult and alone.

Is my teenager automatically covered on my policy?

• The safe answer is no. The best thing to do is add your teen to the policy when they get their Permit.

What does it cost to insure a permitted driver?

• There is no cost to having a permitted driver on the policy. It is best to add the teen to the insurance policy when they are permitted as it notifies the insurance carrier that there is a permitted driver in case there is an accident or other incident, the incident will be covered by insurance.

What does it cost to insure a licensed Driver?

• There are several factors to consider regarding cost. The parents insurance history plays a big part into the rating as statistics show that teens will drive like their parents. The better the parents record, the lower the premium will be. Once the teen starts driving, the better they drive, the rates will stay low as well. In general, you can expect your insurance premium to increase anywhere from $50-$300/month when adding that first teen.

What can we do to keep costs down?

• There are several things that can be done to minimize the cost of insuring a teenage driver including:
  • Maintaining good grades – Keeping an A/B average in school will provide a discount.
  • Participate in telematics program. This is a driving app that helps monitor driving habits and as a parent, it also allows you to monitor what your teenage driver is doing.
  • No Claims and No Tickets – This is the most obvious but also the most important aspect to keeping insurance costs down.

What about permitted use drivers?

• We hear all the time that if you “permit/allow” someone to drive your car, then they are covered in the event of an accident so why wouldn’t this apply to my teen driver since they only drive periodically? The answer is pretty simple, there is a clause in all insurance policies that state that permitted use driving does not apply to any licensed driver that lives in the household and has regular access to the keys of the vehicles.

Does the price of insurance decrease at 25 years old?

• This is an old rule of thumb and no longer accurate. In today’s market, the cost of insuring teens decreases each year thru the 25^th year assuming there have been no incidents to prevent this.

About Lifelong Insurance Agency: We are an independent agency that focuses on 3 things:

• 1. Properly Insuring our clients.
• 2. Insuring our clients at the best value.
• 3. Providing the best service to our clients.

Call us today at 469-606-4590 or click here to send us a note to see how we can help you with all your insurance needs.