For those of you with teenagers who are beginning to drive....insurance

[mjr24]

What are you doing? Are you putting them on your insurance or making them get their own policy?

What can one expect to pay for insurance for a 16 year old right now given the current insurance climate where it seems premiums are going way up. My teenager just finished his online classes but hasn’t actually started behind the wheel (not really sure I want him learning to drive in my M8 or our X7, either).

[dgoldenz]

RIP to your wallet

[RTPenland]

Originally Posted by mjr24

What are you doing? Are you putting them on your insurance or making them get their own policy?

For me the cost was much less adding them to my policy - at the same time I made sure my umbrella policy ($1M+) was in place

That said my children when they hit 18 pay for their portion of the policy

[jkoral]

Originally Posted by mjr24

Are you putting them on your insurance or making them get their own policy?

They are all on my policy because all the cars are in my name. To get their own policy, car must be registered and titled in their name (at least in MA).

Originally Posted by mjr24

What can one expect to pay for insurance for a 16 year old right now given the current insurance climate where it seems premiums are going way up.

Insurance is so locale and policy specific, but I will share my teenager costs.

In MA, if you have 3 cars and 3 licensed drivers (i.e. 2 adults and 1 teen), the teen has to be listed as the primary driver of one of the cars.

I bought a new car for my son, so adding car/new driver to policy was $2979 (in 2021). When my daughter got licensed in 2022, adding her to the policy alone was $1321. So we have 5 drivers and 4 cars. If we added a 5th car, my daughter would have to be listed as primary driver.

YMMV. These figures are 1-2 years old, but I just got the renewal for my policy and it only went up 8%.

[Davil]

Register the car in your own name and insure under your name with them as a nominated driver. It still adds a lot to your premium but insuring under their name (if you are even able to do it) is a massive premium.

[XutvJet]

We have 2011 Cayman, 2015 Outback, 2016 M235, 2020 4Runner, and a 2020 Mazda 3.

I've got a 19 y/o son and a 15 y/o daughter who will be 16 soon. In Kansas, you can get a restricted to drive to school and work at 15 so as long as you pass the written and driving tests.

We have State Farm and this is how it works for us:

1) Teen drivers don't need to be listed as a primary until they are 16 and there is a car that doesn't have a primary driver. For example, if you're married and you've got 3 cars, one car will require the teen to be listed as the primary.

2) When my son got his restricted back in 2020, he got the Outback but there was no insurance increase. When he turned 16, we named him as the primary on the Outback and as a driver on all cars in the household. The Outback's annual premium essentially doubled. All other auto premiums were not affected.

3) We get about a $200/yr discount because he took a 80hr defensive driver course when he was 15.

4) My son now has the Mazda 3 though he remains the primary on the Outback. My daughter drives the Outback.

5) When my daughter turns 16, she'll be named as the primary on the Outback and my son as the primary on Mazda 3. I do not expect much rate change on the Outback. The Mazda 3 premium will likely come close to doubling.

6) We also carry a $1M umbrella policy which is cheap.


I've seen the arguments about making your kids get their own policies for legal protection purposes, but I've also read arguments from attorneys also claiming if the kids are still in your household, you're really not protected financially if the S really hits the fan.

If my kids were irresponsible, wild, big risk takers, etc., I probably would have made them get their own policies and hope for the best.

[Mavus]

Originally Posted by mjr24

What are you doing? Are you putting them on your insurance or making them get their own policy?

What can one expect to pay for insurance for a 16 year old right now given the current insurance climate where it seems premiums are going way up. My teenager just finished his online classes but hasn’t actually started behind the wheel (not really sure I want him learning to drive in my M8 or our X7, either).

added our teenager to fam ins policy with multiple discounts $3200. Also limits bumped to $500k and have $1M umbrella. welcome to the club!

stand alone ins policy would be $6700.