When I think of teen car insurance, my mind immediately jumps Top gear Episode in which the unhappy middle-aged hosts are tasked with buying a car and Insurance as a 17 year old.
Pretty soon they are amazed when they notice that Most of their budget is used for the latter.
This is true; Car insurance for teenagers isn’t cheap. If you’re 18 or younger, it can cost around $ 2,500 a year to put yourself and your car on your parent’s policy. If you’re male or want a policy independent of your people, the prices are even higher.
All in all, it’s about twice as expensive to insure a teen as it is an adult … unless you shop wisely. In this article, I’ll cover the following:
- Why car insurance is so expensive for teenagers.
- How you can lower your prices significantly.
- Which car insurers offer sweet perks for teenagers.
Let’s examine car insurance for teenagers.
Overview of the best car insurance for teenagers
If you want to make a list of insurers to get quotes from online, here’s a good list to start with.
| providers | Best for | Average premium (Monthly price for 18 year old women Driving a 12er Corolla without previous accidents) |
|---|---|---|
| Progressive | Compare shopping | $ 216.74 |
| Farmers | Bundling with tenant insurance | $ 381.40 |
| Allstate | College students | $ 206 |
| Metromile | Low mileage | $ 89.59 + $ 0.15 per mile |
| Esurance | Family discounts | N / A |
| Liberty Mutual | Perks | $ 281.50 |
| GEICO | (Probably) low premiums | $ 177.67 |
| District farm | Good students | $ 262.49 |
| USAA | Military personnel | Varies (but very competitive) |
Above average premiums
The average premiums were calculated using the following dummy profile:
- Kayla, 18 years old, is single, a student with good grades and has no previous accidents.
- She drives her parents’ old 2012 Toyota Corolla.
- She lives with her parents at Richmond, VA, ZIP Code 23225.
- She buys her own insurance policy separately from her parents.
- She secures every logical discount and opts for telematics programs (Progressive Snapshot, etc.).
The reason I chose to use an 18 year old woman for her own plan, separate from her parents ‘plan, is that her quotes would be somewhere between two extremes: a teenage girl on her parents’ plan (am cheapest) and a teenage boy on his own plan (most expensive).
That being said, unless your profile matches Kayla’s PerfectTheir offers vary. Every insurer sees every situation differently, so you may pay a lot more or even less than Kayla.
The only way to be sure which provider is offering the best prices is to get quotes from as many providers as possible. You can do it too, as everyone has an online wizard that can create a quote in under five minutes!
Progressive
At first I thought Progressive was part of the new wave of modern insurers like Esurance and Metromile. But no, it turns out that they are older than Sir Patrick Stewart (and got just as old).
Progressive is on the Fortune 100 list and offers highly competitive pricing on multiple policy discounts, a teen-friendly telematics program called Snapshot, and possibly two online shopping tools to simplify the process of getting a quote.
First, there’s the Name Your Price® tool which, as the name suggests, lets you tell Progressives what you can afford to pay for auto insurance so they can customize a plan to suit your budget. Next up is the price comparison tool. Once you get an offer from them online, Progressive will show you similar offers from competitors with a respectable level of accuracy.
For these reasons, Progressive is both a great starting point and a safe place to end your shopping process.
Learn more about Progressive or read our full review.
Farmers
While many mistakenly assume that Farmers is aimed at a more rural population (I mean, you can blame them), the company is actually a thoroughly modern insurer with a good website, app, and perks targeting urban youth judge.
Farmers are unique in their business model in that they have devoured niche insurers over the past few decades. For example, through its subsidiary Foremost Insurance, they can insure special properties such as RVs and snowmobiles (ideal for teenagers in winter sports).
If you have a side gig with expensive gear you want to protect, Farmers might be a great choice.
Find out more about farmers or read our full review.
Allstate
I like to call Allstate the goal of auto insurance. You pay a little more for better service, better products and an overall “premium” experience.
Allstate’s premiums tend to start a little high but are quickly cut down with discounts. Allstate goes a step further and offers a huge discount for completing the TeenSMART® Driver Program, which includes safe driving and online coursework. If you plan on leaving your car at home while you’re at least 100 miles away in college or boarding school, they have a big discount for that too.
For these reasons, Allstate is probably the best provider for teenagers entering college ready to do a little extra coursework and leave their car at home.
Learn more about Allstate or read our full review.
Metromile
Most providers charge you the same premium whether you drive 5,000 or 25,000 miles per year. However, the industrial disruptor Metromile follows a fairly simple logic. When you drive less, you deserve to pay less.
Metromile is a pay-per-mile insurer that charges you a very low base rate plus pennies for every mile you travel. They may be an excellent choice for teenagers as their low prices are budget-friendly and the mileage allowance is an excellent barrier to redundant driving.
Defects? They don’t offer discounts on multiple policies and are currently only available in nine states (AZ, CA, IL, NJ, OR, PA, VA, and WA). Even so, getting a quote is totally worth it as a teen who barely drives can save a lot of money.
Learn more about Metromile or read our full review.
Esurance
Esurance is a sub-brand of Allstate that eschews live agents in favor of a sleeker, more affordable online experience. While their brand is generally more geared towards young adults, they do offer a cunning perk that could make the move worthwhile for entire families.
Although they seem to have withdrawn their Switch and Save discount, their exhaustive list of other discounts certainly carries the spirit of the former. Here’s the kicker: when the whole family switches to a multi-insurance plan with Esurance, many of your parents’ discounts apply to you too. For example, if your people are already paying for roadside assistance elsewhere, you will Save 5% on your premium.
Scroll through the Esurance discount list with your parents. If you qualify for several, you could all save a lot of money on one switch.
Learn more about Esurance or read our full review.
Liberty Mutual
Every auto insurer has a page of teen driving tips and most are red regurgitations, probably written by a conspicuous intern. Credit where it is due, Liberty Mutuals is incredibly robust, full of useful resources, and most interestingly done working with the HowStuffWorks team.
Liberty Mutual’s guidelines support their excellent website copy and are also youth and family friendly. Similar to Allstate, Liberty Mutual rewards start high and are cut with generous discounts. Your competitive advantage lies in the form of discounts. All Liberty Mutual auto policies include round-the-clock breakdown assistance and compensation, as well as replacement and lifetime repair warranties for new vehicles. The former will completely replace a completely new car under 15,000 miles, and the latter is a lifetime guarantee on all repairs made in Liberty Mutual approved facilities.
For these reasons, Liberty Mutual is an excellent choice for teenagers looking to buy a new car and drive their parents’ new car. or Drive an unreliable clunker that may strand you and need to fix you!
Learn more about Liberty Mutual or read our full review.
GEICO
When Allstate is Target, GEICO is Aldi. For those of you who haven’t discovered my favorite German grocery store yet, Aldi doesn’t really play around with confusing sales and discounts. They have it all, cheap. Really cheap.
As you may have read in the article above, I take the professional stance on this Premiums vary depending on the provider, no one is objectively the cheapest. But if you put a gun to my head and let me say a name, I would probably tearfully say GEICO. They are a great choice for teenagers or others as they simply have very competitive prices.
GEICO’s low pricing is backed by industry-leading customer service and top-notch insurance app on the App Store that makes it easy to file claims and even find cheap gas. For these reasons, GEICO is easy to recommend to teenagers.
Learn more about GEICO or read our full report here.
District farm
State Farm is the largest auto insurer in America. From my observations, they tend to monitor what discounts the competition is bringing in and replicate them quickly. This is not a criticism. That’s good business.
All of the discounts you’ve seen on this list are likely to offer them: the “Keep your car at home while away from college” discount, discounts on multiple insurance policies, a no-claims discount. They are impressive both a driver course and an ongoing telematics program known as Steer Clear and Drive Safe and Save.
But their most impressive discount is for good students. Maintain a B average and you’ll save up to a whopping one 25% on your premium: the highest in the industry.
Because of this, it’s easy to recommend State Farm to the learners among us.
Learn more about State Farm or read our full review.
USAA
I will make it easy for myself. If your parents are USAA members, it’s probably best to just bet on their insurance. USAA is a very exclusive organization that supports active and retired military personnel and their families. When you qualify for their auto insurance, the perks and rates are hard to beat.
In addition to competitive pricing and strong customer service, USAA is offering teenage policyholders an instant 10% discount on Family Legacy as well as many others above (good student, good driver, multi-policy, etc.).
Additionally, building a good relationship with a USAA agent pays off (literally) in the future as the banking options lead the industry.
Learn more about USAA or read our full review.
Summary of the best car insurance for teenagers
| providers | Notable youth friendly trait | Discounts |
|---|---|---|
| Progressive | Name your Price® Tool | Multi-policy, teen driver, good student, distant student, online listing, safe driver and more |
| Farmers | Switch tenant insurance | Multicar, ePolicy, Safe Driver, Remote Student, Adolescent Driver, Good Student, Shared Family Car and more |
| Allstate | Smart student discount | Good driver, safety, smart student, multi policy, new car and more |
| Metromile | Odometer | Multi car |
| Esurance | Families share discounts | Good student, green vehicle, low mileage, military, claim free and more |
| Liberty Mutual | New car replacement | Military, good student, student out of school, safety features, accident free and more |
| GEICO | The GEICO app | Good driver, new vehicle, good student, military, multi-vehicle and more |
| District farm | 25% good student discount | Safe driver, driver training, good student, multi policy and more |
| USAA | Family legacy discount | Safe driver, good student, new vehicle, family, driver training and more |
Which auto insurer offers the lowest rates for teenagers?
It is impossible to tell. Every insurer calculates the premiums using proprietary and complex algorithms, which typically involve thousands of variables ranging from the average temperature near your home to the magazines you subscribe to (seriously).
As a result, no insurer is definitely the cheapest in all cases. To illustrate, I needed insurance for my recently purchased 2001 Mazda Miata a few years ago. The first three online listings I received were $ 2,994, $ 1,743, and $ 384 per year.
While the premiums vary widely from case to case, there are some universal truths. Certain providers offer an attractive mix of money-saving perks, incentives for safe driving, and generally cheaper tariffs, all of which are ideal for teenagers. Hence, the list of vendors above is an excellent place to start collecting offers.
How I came up with this list
To compile my list of the best teen auto insurance companies, it took a concerted, competitive effort by providers to make the premiums more affordable for teenagers. These can be:
- Youth-oriented discounts (good student, safe driving / telematics, etc.).
- Advantages for inexperienced drivers (breakdown assistance, replacement of new cars).
- Generous incentives to stick with family plans (multiple discounts, etc.).
To make this list, each of the vendors must have average or higher customer service and an A.M. Best ratings (their likelihood of paying claims).
For these reasons, each of the providers on this list is at least a for sure Bet for teenagers.
Why is car insurance so expensive for teenagers?
Auto insurance companies calculate premiums (also known as your rates) based on hundreds, sometimes thousands, of factors. You’re trying to figure out how risky They need to insure and, as a result, what they need to charge you with premiums to offset this risk.
In general, they are trying to find out two things:
- How likely are you to file a claim?
- How expensive should the claim be?
The two come together to create your “risk profile”. For example, people who drive expensive cars and drivers with poor records (tickets / DUIs / accidents) have a high risk profile and have to pay more for insurance. People who have never had an accident and drive old Camrys below the speed limit tend to fall into a low-risk profile and pay less.
With that in mind, your driving history is an important factor in your risk profile (no pun intended). In high school, I drove blindfolded like Evil Knievel, so my rates were astronomical. BUT I haven’t had an accident or ticket in seven years, so my insurance is pretty cheap now.
The problem with insuring yourself and other teenagers is that you have little to nothing Driving history. Missing data for She, Insurers see the big picture (and it’s bleak):
This is why insurers place young people in a high risk profile by default.
How can I lower my prices?
As a teenager, there are two ways you can keep your prices within reason (and four digits):
Borrow your parents’ car instead of buying one
Insurance companies assign “lead drivers” to every vehicle in a household; H. Assume who drives it the most. The first two cars are assigned to your parents, and the third car is automatically assigned to the next oldest member of the household with a license. that’s usually you
As a teenager, it is incredibly expensive to be the lead driver of a car insurance. However, one is secondary Driver on your Parents’ Cars cost about half as much. You also save all of the other Cost of owning a car.
I know that having your own car is fantastic. But it is also like that extremely expensive. If you can bear to borrow cars, take trips, and use public transportation for a few years, you can save thousands Tens by the thousands you will be glad to have in your 20s.
Perform a clean driving recording
The more you can avoid accidents, quotes, and other violations, the faster you will escape the high risk category and lower your rates dramatically. If you can avoid accidents or quotations, you can expect your rates to drop by about 30% by your 20th birthday and by 50% by your 25th.
I cannot stress enough that as a teenager you need to drive extremely safely. A single DUI in high school could cost you tens of thousands more in rewards over the next decade.
Take part in telematics programs
Many major insurers have devices that you can put in your car to monitor your driving behavior in real time and to reward good behavior with lower premiums. These programs are especially handy for teenage drivers as the telematics offers more instant rewards than a clean driving shot.
Get good grades
Some insurance gurus once calculated that good students submit fewer claims. Therefore, most insurers now of course offer parents and young people incentives with a good discount on bank notes.
Allstate, For example, if you are a full-time student who is maintaining a B average, you will save 20% on your premiums.
Find a deal
Teen auto insurance is like any other commodity in a free market; There is a ton of competition so it’s worth (literally) looking around. Fortunately, shopping for insurance can be done quickly online without speaking to an agent. Pretty much every insurer has an online quote tool.
How should I search for auto insurance deals online?
If you’re buying a single policy, it’s pretty easy. Just get lots of online quotes from the companies I talked about above.
If you are planning to join your parents’ plan it will be a little tougher, but the payout can be much higher. Since you want to compare offers on a plan with multiple policies, including yourself and your parents, there are a few additional steps:
Talk to your parents about joining their plan
As mentioned above, joining your parents’ auto insurance should start with a transparent family conversation.
Find out what your parents are currently paying and how much it would cost to join
Your parents may not switch to another provider just because it’s cheaper for you. Find out what they are paying right now and What would it cost you to take part?
With these numbers you can compare offers online more precisely. If they can find a better deal for you and your parents, you are going to do them a great favor.
Work with your parents to find competing offers online for multi-policy plans
You will need to fill in some information about yourself, their cars, and their driving history from your parents to get an accurate quote on multiple policies. With their permission, you may be able to record some of this information so that you can continue to seek online quotes without them. However, be extremely careful about who you share your and your parents’ information with online.
Yes, it sounds boring and it is. However, a few extra hours of online shopping could save you and Your people thousands of dollars for years to come.
Summary
Car insurance isn’t cheap for teenagers. But with a little patience, conscientious and thorough purchasing of quotes, and transparent communication with your parents, you can save big on your policy and get some sweet perks and benefits for everyone involved.
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