Auto Insurance for new driver (child)

[Spendit]

Anybody been through this recently - best route to go: on his own, under parents policy.....?

Boy turns 16 end of this month - passed all his tests, now to get his actual license and get him some insurance.

[eriksat1]

I had 2 kids now 23 and 20 best cheapest way is add them onto your policy. It doesn't hurt to shop around. Progressive, Geico, etc. My 20 year old is still on my policy.

[karpbuster]

Add on to your policy. I use USAA, but I believe Farmers has great rates for kids with good grade discounts and others.

[Phil T]

After you add them to your policy, make it clear that they pay for anything they do that causes your rates to increase.

[Burr]

Just adding them to your policy will absolutely be cheapest as long as they never get into an accident, or have a claim.

If you think like me, that a new driver WILL be in a fender bender, they are best off with an inexpensive vehicle, and a high limit liability policy, in their own name. If they bend a fender, either scrap the car and get another, or fix it with the pocket in the jeans your wearing. Nothing says you have to carry collision if the vehicle is not financed.

Worst possible scenario is they drive too expensive, too new, fully insured vehicle, get in an accident, and you learn that the rate increase is on every policy you have with that insurer, including your homeowners. I've seen it happen.

[Mike W1]

When my son was added with his own car naturally the rates went up. What really angered me was I found out much later they also had him on wifes and my car which he NEVER drove. Should have looked at the paperwork better than I did. There's got to be a way around that particular problem I'd think.

Been there, still there for another few years w/2 kids, youngest is now 18. With State Farm, when the kid/s are added to one car, they are covered to drive all of them.

The type of car that they are added-to or "rated" on will make a big difference. I had a 12 yr. old Jeep Wrangler that I was going to put my son on for the insurance. It was going to cost an additional $1,000/year. Instead, I added him to the 10 yr. old Impala with 100K miles and the insurance only increased $400/year.

Talk to your insurance agent. Whenever we buy/sell a car we move the kids around as principal drivers to get the best rates. Insurance companies don't like kids driving Jeeps or other SUVs or new cars; Rate jumps like crazy.

Also, when/if they go off to college you can put them on as a part-time driver and the rate will drop.

[Opti-Mist]

If the new driver only drives a beater, maybe in their own name, you can take a exclusion on other vehicles provided that the new driver never drives them because there will now be no coverage for them.

[Mueller]

We have State Farm, we saved a goodly amount by having my boys take the "Steer Clear" program and have their grades at a B ave. or better.

[The Bman]

My 16 year old was added to our policy about 6 months ago. My agent changed my policy to remove my "classic car" thus getting my coverage down to 2 cars. With my wife and I put down as primary drivers my son was not considered as a primary on either car keeping the increase down quite a bit.