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.

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.

The transition from childhood to adulthood is tough enough for teenagers; they’re dealing with school, relationships and spots amongst many other things, so is it time we started to give them a break when they first start out as a young car driver?

I’d love to answer yes here, and I can honestly say that when I was a teenage driver I desperately wanted things happen more easily, but when I look back on it, all the hassle and financial hardship associated with teenage driving probably did me more good than harm.

There’s no escaping the fact that it is expensive for young drivers to afford to buy a car and arrange car insurance for teenagers, but it kind of has to be like that for a couple of very good reasons.

Imagine as an 18 year old you could easily afford to insure any car you wanted. I can say without any hesitation that my driving history would have began with a Ferrari, it would have impressed the hell out of my friends, made me really popular with girls, and probably have killed me within a month of me owning it!

Safety is the biggest factor we need to contend with when we consider young drivers; as a group they are inexperienced, they drive too fast and they cause more accidents than any other age group (not all of them, but statistically as a group they do). So there is a need for them to serve a driving apprenticeship in a cheap, safe and preferably slow vehicle.

I don’t believe for one second that young drivers are bad drivers, far from it, I just believe they make some poor choices when they are behind the wheel and I will write more about this in my next article.

Also, what sort of life lesson would it have taught me if I’d been allowed to buy a Ferrari as my first car? No need to save to get what I want, no need to set a goal and work towards it and enjoy the satisfaction of achieving it (I have never owned a Ferrari, I grew out of that phase).

I know that when I was a young car driver I would have totally disagreed with every word of this article, but just think what I’d have missed out on!