My fifteen year old just got her learner’s permit. I know that I (or another responsible adult) has to be with her whenever she’s operating a vehicle, but does she still have to have auto insurance?

C.J

Yes, she does.

I know that most of the time taking out an auto insurance policy is considered to be something that you do when you own a car and, obviously, when you already have your license, but it goes a lot farther than that. There are people who have to insure their vehicles even when they are broken down and on wood blocks in the backyard, so it makes sense that someone who is actively driving a car should be insured, even if they don’t qualify for their full license yet.

It’s extremely important to get car insurance for the student driver as soon as your teenager is driving in some way, shape, or form, whether they go straight to their full driver’s license or whether they start out with their learner’s permit. Having car insurance is a big deal for new drivers because they need it more than anyone else. Having less experience, they are more prone to make mistakes and be less able to react to emergency situations. For this reason, having a car insurance policy there to back them up is really important.

Not every car insurance company is going to give you coverage for somebody who does not have their driver’s license yet, but you still need to get it, even if it means looking around for a little bit or getting some free car insurance quotes online. Compare companies and their rates so that you can get the cheapest car insurance for the student driver, and it should not be that hard at all to find somebody who will cover your child while she still has her learner’s, even if it will cost a lot. The cost is something that you mostly have to accept as a parent insuring his or her child, although there are ways to diminish it.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.

I pay for my teenager’s car insurance, and it is SO expensive! I know that I can’t just not have it, but it is such a pressure to pay that expense every month especially when I have a hard time paying my bills as it is. Is there anything I can do to ease the expense?

Jack

Tell your kid to get a job.

Just kidding. That is one option, though, if you want. But it’s not a definite option for anybody, because some people have different ideas about that as it concerns parenting. Some want ther kid to get a job, others want them to wait until they’re out of high school. Either way, it isn’t the only solution to getting the high cost of car insurance for the student driver off of your own back. There are discounts for everything, and for student drivers as well.

One of the things that you should always encourage in a child is the importance of paying good attention to his or her studies. Doing well, or at least doing your best, in school is one of the easiest ways to get ahead in life. Sometimes people get lucky and are able to get a job without schooling to back them up, but otherwise it’s normally a lot of hard work. Schooling doesn’t guarantee you, but it certainly helps.

One great way to help promote this value with your teenager is by making sure they pull good grades before allowing them to drive. It helps to keep your kid on track while at the same time giving you an easier way of getting student car insurance. How is that? Well, most auto insurance companies offer a wide range of discounts for various types of drivers, and one of the ones that can benefit you directly is the good student discount. The good student discount generally applies to students in high school or college who make Bs or above on their report cards, and you can sometimes get as much as 15% off of their portion of the car insurance payment just with that.

All you need for your kid to get the good student car insurance discount is a report card or, if the school year just ended, a transcript. Some companies don’t go by letter grades, but instead by grade point average, so it might be a little more difficult to get documentation of that, but a lot less difficult than paying all that money for your teenager’s car insurance policy.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.

We’ve already discussed the good student car insurance discount, which is one of the easiest ways to get a break on the amount you are paying on your auto insurance for your teenager (or for yourself, if you are that teenager). As a recap, what that involves is a discount of between five and ten percent on your insurance policy if you have a B average or better or, in some cases, make a 3.0 or better. This is not the only way for student’s to get discounted car insurance, though.

One of the reasons that students have to pay so much to begin with is because, since they are new drivers and thus less experienced, they aare statistically more likely to get into an accident that will require a claim to be filed. They are also statistically more likely to cause the accident, and to have mre serious ones. How do you prove to the car insurance company that you’re not like that? By keeping a good driving record. This doesn’t mean you’ll automatically start paying the same amount as someone older than 25 with a good record, but it will take a lot off of the normal young person price.

There will be a different requirement for your driving record depending on where you go, so make sure you ask around and maybe go online to get some free quotes. Some companies are okay with a year’s worth of clean record to get the discount, so you could get it as young as 16 or 17. However, some require five years, so you’ll have to wait until you’re halfway through college already. Either way, it helps you save on car insurance while you’re a student and much longer.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.

My son is now driving age and we want to get him car for his sixteenth birthday. He wants a convertible, but that’s not only out of our price range, but we know we’ll already be paying a lot for his car insurance even without such a car. How do we choose a car that he likes but that will still get us cheap car insurance rates?

Millie

There’s always a way.

Yikes! A convertible, eh? Getting a convertible is a bad idea for anyone, of any age, who wants to save money on their car insurance. I still want one, though. It’s good to see that you understand that and are willing to take the time and energy out to make a good decision on your son’s car in terms of how much the insurance costs, and it’s also nice to see that you’re very willing to take his own desires into your decision as well. Many parents eithe will just get their kid whatever car they want to get him, without considering feelings, or get the kid any car they want. People should know that there is a better, safer alternative to getting a student car with cheap driver insurance.

There are several qualities to a car that you buy for your teenager that will make it look better in the eyes of the car insurance company. You don’t have to adhere to all of them because, let’s face it, not everybody wants that one kind of car. Just because you go with most of the aspects but leave one out does not mean that you will be paying half of your annual income on student driver insurance. Here are a few factors that should go into your decision for buying your teen a good car for cheap driver insurance.

• Safety. Car insurance companies love safe cars, and there are many ways to make this happen. Having plenty of airbags is one, as well as having a lot of those modern safety features such as stability control, antilock disc brakes, and rollover sensing ability. The safety of the drivers and passengers isn’t the only thing that the car insurance company considers, either. Having theft protection installed is a great way to get cheaper rate quotes.
• Size. This is also a factor of the safety aspect. Bigger is not always better, and neither is smaler. Many parents get their kid a bigger car because they think it is safer, and many get their kid a smaller car because they think it is cheaper and more fuel efficient. However, the safest car for both its driver and everybody else on the road is a midsized vehicle.
• Car facts. Knowing about how the vehicle rates in various areas is a good way to insure that you will get a good car insurance quote. Did it do well on safety tests? Is it considered the type of car that is likely to get stolen? If it’s in good standing here, then it will also be with your car insurance company.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.

My son is in high school and he is buying his first car with the money he makes from his part time after school job. However, he doesn’t make enough to pay for both the car note and the insurance, so his dad and I will be paying for that and we are trying to find out good ways to save. I know that if a car is likely to be stolen, then it costs more to get car insurance. How do we find out that if the car he is buying is one of these?

Jan

Great question.

It looks like you have been doing your research, but even if you spend hour after hour looking up information online or anywhere else, sometimes there are gaps that you can’t seem to find anywhere. I’m glad you came here to ask, because I can help you. You’re right that car insurance companies will take a look how a car does on theft rates when you’re trying to get a cheap student car with cheap driver insurance. This is one of the main factors that will affect your rates, because if a car gets stolen the insurance company will be putting out a whole lot more money to replace the whole thing than to just fix it up a bit if it gets dinged.

There are several ways to find out about how your car rates on theft rates. There are some ways to tell if a car insurance company will charge you more due to theft possibility on a certain kind of car just by looking at it, although this is obviously the most unreliable method. Take a look at your kid’s car and think to yourself–is it flashy, expensive, does it have a convertible top, does it have lots of expensive equipment?

The answer to all or most of that is probably no, considering that your son is paying for his car with the money he makes from a part time job, which usually won’t get you an expensive car, especially if you don’t have credit history. However, what might surprise some people is that flashy cars aren’t the ones that are most likely to get stolen.

Actually, some of the cars that get stolen the most are the Jeep Wrangler and the Acura Integra. Now, there are a lot of cars that get stolen and it’s hard to take in all of that information at once, so I’ll give you a better way to figure it out and all you need to know is the make, model, and year of the cars that your son is thinking about buying. The Naional Highway Traffic Safety Administration offers this simple way to figure out how your car rates when it comes to theft rates. Enjoy!

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.

If we overdo the safety, can I get my daughter a student car with cheap driver insurance? Is cheap student insurance even possible?

Ellis

I’d say no.

That is to say, getting cheap cheap cheap insurance rates for a person under the age of twenty five isn’t really possible unless you redefine the word cheap. I’d say cheap is about fifty dollars a month, but then it might be cheaper than that. I don’t know. It will be a few years before I get to see the cheap side of driver insurance. However, what you can do if the person you are insuring is under 25 is save a lot of money on car insurance, even if it wouldn’t necessarily be cheap by your own standards. You have to put things in different groups. If you get your kid a safe student car, cheap driver insurance can be a very possible reality, if you define cheap as…cheaper than incredibly expensive.

I’m not here to lie to you. That’s just the reality about student driver insurance. There are plenty of ways to save money though, one of which is to get your kid a good student discount if they make a B average or higher in school. Another very popular way is to make sure you have the right kind of car to insure your kid on. Then, not only are you protecting your child’s interests, but you’re saving money as well.

Here are some guidelines for buying a student car:

• Keep it safe. Things like plenty of safety features and good crash test scores make insurance agents see gold. Statistically, cars that take less damage and cause less injury are going to be involved in fewer claims. However, remember that just because government crash test results say one thing that doesn’t mean that you will pay a cheaper rate for that car. Many insurance companies go on individual experience rather than outside information.
• Keep it low key. Flashy sports cars with lots of luxury equipment are more likely to get stolen or vandalized, and also are more expensive to replace, so you’ll be paying out more.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.