Teenagers and car insurance?

Ok my friends with teenagers ~ can you help me out with an car insurance question ... does your vehicles insurance automatically go up if you have a 16 year old with a drivers license living in your home? Or does it only go up if you actually put them onto your vehicle as a 'permitted secondary driver'?

I have never had to deal with this as I left home before 16 so was late getting my license and my friends parents all permitted and encouraged them to get their license ... but to me if your kid is never allowed to drive your car than your insurance should not be affected but my stepson has been 'forbidden' to get his license by his stepmother because she does not want her insurance going up and that just does not seem right to me.

I am just trying to figure it out if we can support him getting his license without affecting her ~ going to call my insurance company tomorrow to see how it would affect ours if we let him drive when here ... but just wanted others experience in case it is 'company' specific how this is handled?

Thanks

I am not sure how insurance works where you live but where I live here in the U.S, as soon as someone in the household gets their license, your insurance goes up. It doesn't matter if they drive your car or not. The cost increase for us though was very minimal.

When I was first with my now DH way back when....he had lost his license due to too many tickets and MY insurance went sky high. When I called my agent and asked why MY insurance was effected when we weren't even married yet, I was told it was because he lived in the same household so it mattered. It sucked because I had never even had a ticket for anything (still have never).

I am betting your stepson's mom is right but like I said, I am unsure of what the laws are where you live.

Thanks Serendipity .... a few of my FB friends responded to my question as well and they live in my province and currently have teenagers and with their insurance they had the option to have a policy that only covered persons over 25 years of age to drive the vehilce ... therefore their teenage children could get the license but were not able to drive the vehicle cause they would not be insured than if they wanted them insured than they could lift the all drives of vehicle must be over 25 provision and than 'add' the teenager to the policy as an occassional / secondary driver and pay the extra premium associated with that which is only like $30-40 a month as long as his record is 'clean' which we would pay on ours no problem so he could get experience driving and help to lower his premium when he is old enough to get his own ... just going to call to double check myself in the morning but am thinking my stepson should be able to get his license than without their permission or affecting their insurance ~ they just have to not 'add' him to the policy and ensure he does not drive their car.

We just added our 17 year old daughter as a driver to our vehicles. Cost is around 40 more per month but she is fully insured to drive either of our cars. His first year of learning she was automatically covered under our insurance with no increase as we had to be in the car with her. It wasn't until she was full licensed to drive on her own did we get the increase. I am in Ontario too.

The increase is generally cheaper if they take a driver's ed course too to start.

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Originally Posted by playfelt

The increase is generally cheaper if they take a driver's ed course too to start.

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Yes ~ I still get a 10% discount on mine for having taken drivers ed and that was over 12 years ago :laugh:

From what I understand the person is insured not the vehicle so if you added him to your insurgence and paid the premiums he would also be insured on his moms vehicle .... My friend is divorced and her ex wanted her to pay a portion of his insurance that covered the child .... She refused..... Unless you can find a special policy (and I have not searched for one ) if he has a liscence but no vehicle of his own then yes your rates will go up. And significantly because he is male .... My daughter was able to be added as an occasional for $250 extra a year but son was significantly more.

Oh gosh, guess I better check into this again!!!!

I called my insurance company over a year ago when my daughter got her G1 to get her on our vehicles. My insurance didn't go up, they indicated all they needed was her drivers licence once she had her G2. I don't think I asked about what would happen when she got her license and then drove our vehicles. I inquired about the cost of insurance with us having 3 drivers and 3 vehicles and the cost was $1100 a year. We haven't put the 3rd vehicle on the road and never thought to inquire about the cost just to have 3 drivers with 2 vehicles.

Hubby is going on tour soon so we put the 3rd vehicle into storage for the year and a half and she is just going to use hubby's car. So we will still have 2 drivers and 2 cars, but the driver switches ... eeks.

$40 seems extreme to insure a teen on your vehicle when a teen can fully insure their own vehicle for under $100 (unless it a boy and then it is double). My daughter only uses the car to drive 10 minutes to school and back in the winter and then to cadets on Thursdays.

My son was quoted $4000 .... To insure his own vehicle and that's with drivers ed !

Oiye Crayola kiddies!!! That is a lot of money! I'm sure my daughter's quote is fairly accurate because they had the car info and we've had it with minimal insurance and stored for the last 5 years. Could it be because my daughter's car is older? i think her car is an 04.

No it's probably because your daughter is a girl .... Boys always have higher rates ... They are considered a bigger risk.... A bit of discrimination but statistics are that teenage boys will write of at least one car before they are 20 .... My nephew wrote off two ; )

i'm in Ontario. we notified our insurance when my daughter got her license and it went up about 50 dollars a month. However, as much as the stepmother is forbidding him to get his license it is his right to do so and does not need permission. I dont think that her insurance would go up unless she tells them he is driving her car. They would have no way of knowing.

There was minimal change when they were "just learning" and driving sporadically on teh vvehicles but it did go up when they actually got their license and were allowed to drive with no adult present. The assumption being too the vehicle was being driven twice as often as compared to them both in the car together. And yes was higher to put Shawn on than Jennifer. $4000 a year for a boy to have their own car/insurance is about right.

I must have been really lucky because when we put Carissia on our insurace because she was driving both vehicles when she had her G1 our insurance didn't go up at all. They just gave us a warning that if she does have an accident it goes against our licence and insurance. Which was fine and to be expected.

I wonder if it matters what type of insurance you have. We never put the no one under 25 can drive our vehicles, truthfully not sure why, our insurance have never been anymore than what the average person pay. Even now with 3 vehicles insured (1 full covered and 2 just the basics) we pay less than $200 a month and that was with them knowing Carissia was driving the vehicle. They told us as long as we didn't put the 3rd vehicle on the road our insurance wouldn't go up. BUT as soon as the 3rd vehicle went back on the road then it would go up somewhere around $90-100.

I think though I better call again just in case the rep mistunderstood me or I missunderstood her. I would hate for Carissia to be driving our vehicle over the next year and it not be covered.

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Originally Posted by gramma

....However, as much as the stepmother is forbidding him to get his license it is his right to do so and does not need permission. ...

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Opps my bad I made a typo ~ it is MOTHER that is forbidding him to get his license ... his father (my spouse) and I (his step mother) both feel it is in his best interest to get it now so that he can have a clean recorder longer and therefore his insurance when he finally gets it will be 'lower' hopefully cause he will have had a license but no accidents or what not cause he would be driving 'minimally' at this point has he would only have access to a vehicle when at our house as she does not want him driving at all!

I left a message with my insurance agent just waiting to hear back.