Good grades can lower teens' auto insurance rates
By Brahm Resnik
The Arizona Republic
Teenage drivers pay a price for their youth with hefty car insurance rates. The best advice for young drivers who want to lower their payments: Hit the books before you hit the brakes. Major auto insurers give some of their largest discounts to students who pull down A's and B's.
For more tips on safe driving and cutting teen drivers' insurance rates:
According to the Insurance Information Institute, a teenage daughter will raise your insurance premiums as much as 50 percent. Teenage sons behind the wheel will double your insurance. Unfair you say? Studies show 16-year-old drivers are 10 times more likely than 35-year-olds to get in an accident.
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Still, there are ways to lower those premiums:
- Driver's education from an accredited course is worth a flat 9 percent or 10 percent off. That course is a given for almost all drivers, so it's built into the price of insurance.
- Some insurers have special programs for teens. State Farm, the country's largest auto insurer, has a program called "Steer Clear." It looks at the entire household's accident history for the past three years, and also requires teens to keep a driving log book and review safety videos. The potential saving: 18 percent to 28 percent.
- The other large discounts are reserved for the best students. At State Farm, a B average or better earns a 10 percent to 24 percent discount on rates.
Allstate, the No. 2 insurer, knocks as much as 15 percent off premiums. "Statistical information indicates that students who have good grades also have fewer accidents," says LuWanna Nielsen, a spokeswoman for State Farm.
One last piece of penny-pinching advice about the cars teens drive: The best insurance choice for a car: a four-door family sedan.
