If you have a teenager already driving, or getting ready to get behind the wheel, you may be cringing. You may also be singing the blues if you are a teenager that is going to be paying for your own car insurance. The fact is that insurance for teenagers is quite costly. So much so that the Insurance Information Institute (III) reports that adding a teenage driver to a policy can increase the premium rates as much as 50 to 100 percent.
For many, this is a rate they simply cannot afford at this time. Before you hang up the idea of getting your teen behind the wheel and being a little more independent, keep discounts in mind. You can receive student driver discounts that can make your rates much more affordable.
Good Grades Leads to Savings
The first thing you have to consider is why the rates for teenagers are so much higher. It is because they pose such risks behind the wheel. They have higher accident rates and this in turn ends up costing the insurance companies a lot of money in filed clams. But insurance companies realize that not all teenagers are created equal and that some are much more responsible than others. Because of this, they tend to offer discounts to those students that are responsible and are good students.
The III refers to the student driver discounts as The Good Student Discount, citing that it has been implemented to allow savings to those students who do well in school. This is just one more reason why it pays to get good grades. With savings as much as 15 percent or more, it can really add up each year, and be the difference between affordable and not, for many families.
In order to get the discounts, students usually have to meet some eligibility requirements, which vary by insurance company, including:
- Be an unmarried full time student, between the ages of 16-24.
- Have a B average, or 3.0 GPA, for the semester that was immediately before initiating the policy.
- Be placed on the Honor Roll or Dean’s List.
- Show PSAT or SAT scores that prove they are in the top 20 percent.
There are also discounts available for homeschooled students. They will just need to show standardized test results to qualify.
Finding a Plan
Getting your teenager, or yourself if you are one, insured can be a bit daunting when you see the rates. But if you are a good student it has been made much more affordable. Just start by gathering quotes from several companies and asking what good student requirements they have. Taking a few minutes now to gather the necessary paperwork and get quotes can make your insurance rates much more affordable.
