How to Keep Insurance Costs Low With a Teen Driver

Having a teenager on your insurance policy can inflate your annual cost through the roof! Take a look at the most expensive and inexpensive states, plus helpful tips that could lower your insurance rates.

It’s known that teens are the most dangerous drivers on the road.  Per mile that’s driven, teens between the ages 16-19 are three times more likely than drivers aged 20 to be involved in a fatal crash, according to Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).  Therefore, it is not surprising that adding teens to a car insurance policy would eventually result to an increase in policy cost.

The most surprising is how much the policy increase varies from state to state.

When adding a teen driver to an insurance policy, the annual premium can increase by 84 percent (about $2,000) on average.  But that number can be much lower and higher depending on where you live.

To add a teen driver to an existing policy increased the most in the following five states: Arkansas (116 percent increase), Utah (115 percent), Wyoming (112 percent), Alabama (111 percent), and Idaho (107 percent).

However, the following five states listed showed the smallest percentage increased: Hawaii (18 percent increase), North Carolina (59 percent), New York (62 percent), Massachusetts (65.9 percent), and Montana (66.06 percent).

Hawaii policy structure is a little different.  Their unique law disallows insurance companies to consider age, gender, or length of the driver’s experience, when determining the insurance premium.

Insurance industry experts were surprised by the findings and explained that the reasons for the differences in premium increases were many and nuanced. They stem from many factors, according to Mike Barry, spokesman for the nonprofit Insurance Information Institute, including state geography, local driving patterns, and how insurance is regulated in each respective state.

Parents looking to keep insurance costs down can take a few different actions. These include buying your teen driver an older car, ensuring your teen has a safe car and taking advantage of the numerous discounts offered by the major insurance companies.

Continue reading about policy rates and ways to find insurance discounts: http://aol.it/12zJpoI