<p>We are getting a very old car for my 17 year old daughter (2005). I expected to pay a lot for the insurance, but I certainly didn’t expect to have the rates more than double on my husband’s and my cars. His insurance is going up from $768/yr to $1,639. Mine is going from $848/yr to $1,785. And my daughter’s car will be $1,695. I told the agent that my daughter won’t even be driving our cars. Is there a way to exclude her? My husband lives 250 miles away because he was unemployed and took a job away from us. I am trying to have him put on a separate policy. Can’t believe this. I was worried about paying for college … didn’t think we’d go from $1,616 a year to $5,120 in insurance premiums. We only paid $3,500 for the car! I can see why people are insured!</p>
<p>That sounds like a lot to me. I only pay $242/month to insure 3 cars with a 19 yr. old boy. However, the third car is registered in my H’s name and my son as an occasional driver - even though he has the car at school and school is 300 miles away. </p>
<p>However, I live in an area where auto insurance is on the low side. I know that in some places - south Florida, metro NYC, for example, auto insurance rates are much higher.</p>
<p>I pay $650/month for 4 cars (Nationwide). One of them is away at college in a small town and we get a break for that. Only ONE of my kids has the good student discount at this moment :-(.</p>
<p>^I have Nationwide, too. But our cars are all old - the youngest being 8 yrs, and the 12 yr. old car my H drives doesn’t have collision on it anymore.</p>
<p>That sounds like a lot. We are paying substantially less -under 3000- with a 17 year old with his own car. It should be less with older cars I think- not more. I would definitely call a couple of other insurance companies to get quotes. We are in So. Calif where rates are relatively high and use AAA.</p>
<p>Really consider calling Geico for a quote. When my sons started driving, our insurance (through USAA, a supposedly good company), just about doubled. I got a quote from Geico, and now we are paying less than we were before the kids started driving. They didn’t give us any BS trying to raise our rates from the initial quote (like some companies do), we’ve had a couple of minor fender benders claimed, and they haven’t raised the rates.</p>
<p>When I called USAA to ask if they could match it, the supervisor, in a moment of honesty, told me that their main competitor is Geico, and they couldn’t come close. Apparently they do NOT price up for younger drivers, as most other companies do. He said that they really should, because obviously they have more accidents, but they don’t! So that’s why their rates are lower. Definitely see what rates you can get with Geico.</p>
<p>Car insurance is a commodity and is very competitive. You can do a search online and get an instant quote from any number of companies. The company that brought flexibility to the industry was Progressive, but other small companies have followed. Check online for a quote and see what you find.</p>
<p>If you do an online quote, use a different e-mail account then your main one, otherwise you’ll be deleting dozens of e-mails a day for months after you get new insurance. I agree about checking out different companies though, we use state farm and have very good rates compared to some of our friends and we have two boys.</p>
<p>Also, check to see what kind of coverage you have on each of your cars. I think we drop comprehensive after the cars are a certain age or value. We have our youngest kid rated on our oldest car.</p>
<p>
emilybee, your rate is low because you are defrauding your insurer. And everyone else’s rates are higher because of people like you. If your kid is in an accident while at college and the insurance company discovers that the car was used there regularly, your coverage will be denied. So in addition to being dishonest, your approach is very risky.</p>
<p>Is the insurance hike only due to adding your daughter as a driver? There are some insurance companies that only hike rates when there is a change to your insurance coverage, say adding a driver or a car, and do not make changes due to inflation or whatever. </p>
<p>Our policy is like that. Our rates will increase when my daughter and her car go OFF our policy next month. The company could not increase it after my son-in-law’s accident in one of our cars a year ago, but had to wait until a policy change was made. We still had the accident-free discount on our November renewal, but now that younger sister will be on her own insurance, they can make changes to our rates.</p>
<p>“emilybee, your rate is low because you are defrauding your insurer. And everyone else’s rates are higher because of people like you. If your kid is in an accident while at college and the insurance company discovers that the car was used there regularly, your coverage will be denied. So in addition to being dishonest, your approach is very risky.”</p>
<p>I am not defrauding anyone. I called my insurer and informed them we were buying a third for our son that he would have at college. I was told by my insurer to register the car in our name and was asked how far away his college was. I told her 300 miles away and my agent told me would be considered an occasional driver. </p>
<p>He has already had a minor accident and there was no problem. My insurance paid for the other car’s damage.</p>
<p>MommaJ raises an excellent point. You should notify your insurer that your son has possession of the car as a regular user BEFORE an accident occurs. </p>
<p>We did not realize that when my daughter’s fianc</p>
<p>I recall when my boys started driving it was actually less expensive to buy an old car for the boy(s) to use and have him insured on that one vehicle than to just add him to ours, so in our case the insurance on our 2 existing cars only went up slightly when we added a 3rd car for the new driver.</p>
<p>“MommaJ raises an excellent point. You should notify your insurer that your son has possession of the car as a regular user BEFORE an accident occurs.”</p>
<p>I gave all the pertinent information to my insurance agent. We were paying $137/mo for 2 cars and my son as an occasional driver when he was in high school. After we bought the 3rd car my rate went up to $292/mo. After we dropped the collision on my husband’s car, my rate went down to $242 a month.</p>
<p>My auto insurance sky rocketed when I added teenage boys. This was about 8 years ago. I was very pleased when I recently added my D. $400/yr for her car (2004 Grand Prix). That was just adding the car before she got her license. ~$400/yr for adding her her to the policy. Way less than it was for boys.</p>
<p>I shopped around a lot a couple of years ago and Liberty Mutual was cheapest for cars and house. We had full on our trucks then, have since dropped to liability only. Had a large hail roof claim and the process was smooth, easy and they paid quickly.</p>
<p>we pay less than $2,800/yr, 3 cars(2 full coverage) with a 19 yr old and 17 yr old…Allstate</p>
<p>Here’s a couple things I’m learning:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Buy a car with the base engine. A larger engine can cost a great deal in insurance premiums.</p></li>
<li><p>Compare the cost of collision and comprehensive insurance coverage to the cost of the replacing the car. Usually, if a car is over 6 years old, it is worth cancelling the collision and comprehensive coverage, and putting the savings into an emergency fund in case you need to replace the car. </p></li>
<li><p>If your student will have a car at college, the location of the college may cause a huge difference in costs. If the student has a car in a major city, the insurance costs may be dramatically higher than if they attend a college in a small town or rural area. Insurance costs also vary by state. If a student attends college in a big city, to avoid excessive costs, it may be necessary that they leave their car at home, and rely upon mass transit and zipcar when needed.</p></li>
<li><p>Increase the deductible to $500 or $1000. Small deductibles are not worth the price. However, if you have a car loan, the finance company will control how large a deductible is allowed. </p></li>
<li><p>Buy a boring car, as opposed to a sporty car. The insurance companies assume people who buy sporty looking cars are more likely to speed and have accidents. One source also said that cars with a great deal of fiberglass (such as sporty cars) are more expensive to fix than cars that are primary constructed of metal. </p></li>
<li><p>Buy a car with side air bags, ABS and traction control, if possible, which typically results in lower insurance costs (and much greater safety).</p></li>
<li><p>Keep the title of a college student’s car in a parent’s name and on the parent’s policy. I’ve read that if a student has the title of their car in their own name, they can’t be put on the parent’s policy.</p></li>
<li><p>Before you put a deposit down on a car, find out if the insurance will be affordable. I heard of one car dealership that kept selling the same sports car over and over to different young people. The young people would naively put down a non-refundable deposit and then find out they couldn’t afford the insurance.</p></li>
<li><p>Insurance companies vary their rates with the credit rating of the customer. Try to improve your credit score.</p></li>
<li><p>Most insurance companies give a discount if the student does not take the car to college and the college is more than a certain mileage away. I’ve read some companies give a discount if the student has the car at college and the student lives less than 3 miles from the college.</p></li>
<li><p>Most insurance companies give a discount to students with good grades. It is renewed each school year. As an incentive, make your kids pay the extra cost if they don’t get good enough grades for the discount.</p></li>
<li><p>Be very careful about speeding, which can cost a fortune in insurance. If you get two speeding tickets in one calendar year, you are really screwed, so be extra careful if you get one. If you get pulled over, and are really really nice to the cop, he may give you a warning, or write the ticket up in a way that will not be reported to insurance. (In PA, this involves a ticket for “failure to obey traffic control devices” for violating a speed limit, instead of a real speeding ticket… uhmm, so I’ve been told.)</p></li>
<li><p>Let your kids know that if they get a DUI, they can forget about driving, because the insurance costs and the fines will be so high. A second DUI will cause fire and brimstone to rain down - the penalties get much more severe.</p></li>
<li><p>If you are male, have a sex change operation to save on your insurance.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>^^a lot easier and less painful than a sex change operation is to just get a quote from Geico, though I hate their commercials.</p>
<p>Wow. Those numbers are shocking to me. As a 24 year old, I have an 11 year old truck (Silverado 4x4) and pay about $430 every six months for comprehensive insurance. I can’t imagine paying what some of you talk about paying in car insurance!</p>
<p>We pay $3200 for four cars and three drivers. All of our cars have collision as well. </p>
<p>When our teenage son was added to our policy, I called the company because I was SURE there had been a premium error. The woman was funny. She said “oh…you added a teen boy. After you got your bill, we’re you still breathing?”</p>