Car Insurance Hot Zone

Car Insurance Hot Zone

If you’re under 25 years of age as a driver (or you’re the parent of an under-25 driver), you probably know that you can have some definite sticker shock when it comes to insuring your young person behind the wheel. Young person insurance rates, especially for males, can literally triple the family car insurance bill. This is especially true if the driver is added to the insurance of a new car with comprehensive coverage and not just liability coverage. Why? Because demographically speaking, young people, and especially males under the age of 25, have the most accidents overall (and the most fatal and serious accidents) of any age group. Therefore, this means that that group’s insurance rates go up, regardless of how responsible the individual driver is.

Doesn’t sound fair, does it? But that’s the way the insurance industry works. However, there are some things you can do as a parent (or that you can do as an under-25-year-old driver) to help lower your insurance bill. Let’s take a look at a few of them.

Be a student with good grades

If you’re still in school, get good grades. You don’t have a driving record yet (and your insurance rates aren’t going to take a decent drop on their own until you’re 25, assuming you stay a good driver), but insurance companies like responsible young people; to that end, they like giving them a break on their insurance, too. And you look responsible when you get good grades. Usually, if you get a B or better average, your insurance company will be happy to give you a discount for being a good student.

Take an accredited driver safety course

Okay, so you might think you’re Joe (or Jane) Cool behind the wheel; you passed your driver’s test, right? Nobody can tell you what to do. However, if you want a break on your car insurance, be willing to hunker down and take an accredited driver safety class. They’re proven to reduce accidents, and many insurance companies will give you a discount if you can prove you’ve taken one. Check with your current insurance company; if it doesn’t offer you a “safe driver class” discount, look for one that does.

Shop around

That brings us to our third point. No matter how long you’ve been with your current insurance company, if it’s not going to give you a good rate, shop around. The Internet makes it easy to do, and you might be able to get a better rate at another company. At the very least, you can find another company that’s willing to give you the better rate and then bring that back to your current company and ask them if they’ll match the offer. Chances are, they will.

Do you have more than one policy with the same company? Ask for a multi-policy discount

This is a given. Most companies will give you a discount on your policy premiums if you have your home insurance, car insurance and student driver insurance, etc., all with the same company. If they haven’t given you discount, they should. So be sure to ask.

Consider driving a “beater”

No, I’m not talking about a broken down jalopy that’s not going to get you from point A to point B. However, I am talking about a safe car that’s not new and that you can simply put liability insurance on instead of comprehensive. This alone is going to get you better rates, because you’re not covering as much. However, combined with the other tips, you might just find you’re not paying all that much insurance, after all.

Give these tips a try (and use more than one if you can)!

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008 at 5:30 pm and is filed under Car Insurance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.