Don’t be too disheartened though, there ways to get discounts if you know what to do.

Insuring your teenager to drive could lead to your insurance rates doubling or even tripling, for the simple fact that they are more likely to be involved in an accident at that age. Statistics show us that a young person under 20 years old is three times more likely to be involved in an accident that someone over the age of 20. Our insurance rates are reduced when we reach 25 for a good reason; we are more mature then, and we are more aware of the risks involved with driving, which makes us safer drivers.

Teenagers just starting out make a lot of mistakes, and as the amount you pay for your insurance is directly related to the level of risk you pose, so they end up paying very high insurance rates. There are ways you can reduce the amount you have to pay; if your teenager attends an accredited drivers school or drivers education class, they can get a 10% to 20% discount with their pass certificate.

In the United States, insurance companies will also look at giving a discount to good students, if you have a ‘B’ average or better, you should be able to get another 20% discount on your policy. Keeping a clean drivers license will also help your teenager find even lower rates.

Taking some time to explain to your son or daughter exactly why car insurance rates for teenagers are so high might just save you some money, but more importantly, it might just keep them safer on the road.

When I asked my insurance agent why my payments were so high, he said “it’s because they know where you live”. Was this a threat?, Because it sounded like one, “Should I be scared? – Do I need to find a lawyer?” I asked him, would they be sending someone round in the middle of the night to check that my tyre pressures were correct or worse still my oil level?

Why should where I live affect what I pay for my car insurance? When I first realized that it did make a difference, it didn’t make any sense at all; surely my 2 bed apartment couldn’t be held responsible if I decided to run a red light. It doesn’t affect how I drive or whether I was going to have an accident today.

Well, it soon turned out that it isn’t the fact that I live in a 2 bed apartment; it’s where that apartment is that makes the difference. Bottom line is, you will always get cheaper Car Insurance For Young Driver if you live in a rural location rather than a big town or city like me.

Why Is That?

If you live in a rural area, the chances are that the traffic levels are much less where you live. This translates into less chance of having an accident, which I guess makes sense, if there are fewer other drivers on the road, there are less people for you to run in to.

As well as lower levels of traffic in rural areas, there is, generally speaking, less crime. That means less chance of having your car stolen, less chance you will become the victim of vandalism, and less chance of your car being damaged while it’s parked out front at night.

What Can You Do?

Car Insurance For Teenagers can be very expensive, but moving your entire family just to save some money is probably a little drastic. If you live in a rural location then you’re lucky, you will more than likely pay much less than your city-dwelling cousin. If you don’t, and you live in the city like me, you will have to work extra hard on the other things that influence the price of your insurance to bring your payments down.

Teenage drivers have always found it difficult and expensive to get car insurance, but in recent years things have definitely taken a turn for the worst. The reason behind this is that statistically the young drivers age group are far more likely to be involved in an accident because they drive faster, have less experience in risky situations, and they make more night journeys which is a time when more accidents occur.

An insurance company only looks at the level of risk you present as a driver, they do this by looking at the statistic averages for your age group, where you live, your gender and the type of car you drive. If you are a teenage boy living in a big city, you will fall in to the highest risk category which is why you will sometimes be asked to pay 5 or 10 more than your vehicle cost just to insure it for 1 year.

Why so much to insure a car that only cost a few hundred? Well, just say you cause an accident with a top of the range BMW, Mercedes or Jaguar, and your car is only slightly dented but the other car is totalled. The insurance company’s liability isn’t limited to fixing your dents, it will also have to replace the other car and that will cost tens of thousands.

There are a few things you can do to minimise the cost of insurance, such as buy a car with a small engine, keep a clean license, don’t modify your car in any way and pass an accredited advanced drivers course. These things won’t make your young driver motor insurance cheap, but they will reduce that cost by as much as possible.

Many people believe that if their teenage son or daughter wants to drive, they should at the very least be made to pay for their own car insurance policy. The reason behind this is that, as they have sole responsibility over the factors that determine the costs of their insurance, they will be incentivised to take measures to make themselves safer drivers and so reduce the costs they pay – to me this makes perfect sense.

There are a number of other things they can do to keep costs down:

1. Make sure any car they buy is equipped with modern safety features. Cars today fitted with ABS, airbags and crumple zones are much safer than they have ever been. Cars with these features have a much higher safety rating and this can help lower insurance rates.

2. Drive less – I know that might sound crazy, but the more miles you drive the higher your rates will be, so cut out any unnecessary journeys.

3. Take an advanced driving course – Programs like Pass Plus or a defensive driving course can mean a 10% saving and will make you a better driver.

4. Buy cheap used cars – when you first start driving, choose a car that is cheap to repair or replace if it ever gets damaged. Typically an expensive car will cost more to fix, so the insurance company will want more to insure it.

5. Use a number of Internet comparison websites to get as many quotes as possible. There are insurers who have a lot experience in the uk car insurance for young drivers market who should be able to offer you a better price than the high street agents.

Historically young drivers (particularly males) have paid big premiums to drive even the smallest cars, and many would argue that this situation is fair as this age group of drivers is statistically the worst, and present much higher levels of risk that the motor insurance companies have to carry. However, there a voices in the government who think it is unfair that the insurance companies automatically dump everyone under the age of 21 in to this group of ‘risky drivers’, despite the fact that under 21 year olds account for almost 20% of motoring convictions and are responsible for over 30% of dangerous driving offences.

The proposed bill is not aimed directly at the car insurance industry, but is designed to root out inequality in whichever industry it is found. There’s no doubt though that car insurance for teenagers is one area where it could potentially have a huge impact.

At the moment these are just proposals, but if they become law I foresee one of two possible outcomes:

1. Car insurance companies – such as Albany Car Insurance – will stop offering insurance to certain sectors of society which could actually make the situation worse for today’s young drivers. It might be expensive to get auto insurance at the moment, but at least it is available and young people can drive legally. If the companies clamp down, how will a young person ever establish themselves as a safe driver for insurance purposes? Unless of course the government force companies to accept young drivers as customers………

2. …….In which case we will probably all lose out. Insurance companies look solely at risk, but if they are prevented in some way from charging an appropriate amount for that level of risk from one group of customers, the cost of that risk will have to be met some other way. You guessed it; we will all end up paying more – I can assure you that it won’t be the insurance companies that lose out!

If this bill becomes law and is adopted by other governments, we will certainly see a big shake up in the teenage drivers insurance market, whether it will be for the better or not only time will tell.

In ‘The Causes Of Rocketing Car Insurance For Teenagers – Part 1′ we looked at how the type of car you drive can have a huge influence on the cost of Car Insurance For Young Driver and why choosing a brand new car might be the best option for you.

This article will look at how driving history will affect what young drivers end up paying for their car insurance.

Imagine You Are An Insurance Company

Your job is to make profits for your stock holders, and the way you do that is by charging as much as you can for the insurance you sell, but also by limiting the amount you pay out in claims.

Now think what you would do if you were contacted by two different young drivers looking for insurance. They were both born on the same day; both drive exactly the same car, live in the same town, and are both males. The only difference between these two guys is that Driver A has a perfect driving history, no speeding tickets or traffic violations, while Driver B has been stopped twice for speeding and once for running a red light.

If they were exactly the same in all five criteria, the cost of their insurance would more than likely be exactly the same. But remember what I said about “limiting the amount of money you pay out in claims”, which one of these drivers is more likely to have an accident and will most likely cost you more in payouts?

It’s Driver B obviously, which is why you would make him pay extra for his insurance, if you wanted to make a profit. It’s not unfair, it’s not personal, it’s just what they do.

Insurance companies assess risk, they are very good at it, but to calculate the risk they need information. This information comes from you, about yourself, and from national statistics. Unfortunately national statistics say that teenage drivers, especially males, are up to ten times more likely to have an accident than someone over 30.

What Does All This Mean For You?

It’s simple really, if you want to get insurance, and you want to get it at an affordable cost, you must keep your drivers licence clean. It’s not easy I know, but think about how different you drive if you have your parents in the car to how you drive if your friends are in your car. I know when I was younger my friends would always encourage me to go faster, and I did, but I was lucky I didn’t get caught. You might not be as lucky as I was, and while your friends might laugh at you if you keep to the speed limit, they will laugh even more when they see you walking to the mall or even worse catching the BUS!

• The type of vehicle the teenager is looking to insure.

• The teenagers driving history.

• The location of where the driver lives.

• The age of the driver looking for insurance.

• The sex of the driver looking for insurance – Are they male or female?

This article will be looking at the types of vehicle best suited to a new driver, but we will be covering the other four factors in subsequent articles. In order to get the cheapest car insurance for young driver available, it would be advisable work your way through the list to see if you can make any changes.

There’s a real dilemma when it comes to choosing a teen’s first car. On one hand, the teenager would like to buy the coolest car they can find, whether that’s a performance type car or one that’s been heavily modified – this would certainly impress their friends and would probably make them the most popular kid on the block. The parents on the other hand, want everything in a car that is alien to a teenager, low running costs, stability, and above everything else safety!

Whether you’re a parent reading this or a teenager, there’s more than likely going to be an element of negotiation about buying the first car. For parents, you know your teen best, so you are best placed to decide just how sensible they will be when they first start to drive solo. For teenagers, your parents want to hear maturity from you – it will give them more confidence to buy you a car that better suits your needs than theirs. One word of caution though, don’t make promises you have no intention of keeping – if you promise not to speed and you get a speeding ticket straight away, you will lose their trust and may end up losing your car!

If you can afford it, your smartest choice is probably buying a brand new medium sized car. This offers the best balance between safety, image and low running costs (insurance premiums). New cars today are much safer to drive than cars were ten years ago; they are packed with safety features such as airbags, anti-lock braking systems, and driver protection systems. So opting for a new vehicle might turn out to be one of the best decisions you ever make.