<p>bandit thanks.</p>
<p>patsmom, my son will also be a part of the sans car club.</p>
<p>Er…you think $1500 or $2000 is expensive for insurance? </p>
<p>This year my insurance on my personal car (a 2006 Scion) plus my surcharge just for existing on my parent’s policy totalled $3300. Even with carefully manipulating the policy based on when I’m home and when I’m at school (my car is coming with me this year) We were only able to get it down to about $2700.</p>
<p>That’s my responsibility to pay, and it hurts. Thank you, massachusetts, for your stupid insurance monopoly. I really enjoy paying for all the uninsured motorists and idiot drivers.</p>
<p>my 17 year old sister pays about 900 for her Civic, I pay about 1100 for my Mirage, and my parents both pay roughly 500 for their cars. I can’t wait till I turn 24 so my rate can drop to 500 too :)</p>
<p>$1500 or $2000 in NJ is almost a bargin…I couldn’t figure out how to get mine any lower than $3000 and I just have an average small sedan. I know my insurance company has some kind of an away-at-school policy but I don’t go to school far enough away to qualify for it, so my parents are stuck paying $3k a year for me to drive it once a month or so. They originally deemed it my responsibility to pay the insurance but changed their minds once they realized that I never actually made enough money in a year to do that.</p>
<p>Yes, Massachusetts is horrible.</p>
<p>I went from $1,200/year ($1,600/year that had dropped a few months prior) to $630/year when I moved down South and got Geico. My rates are now $584/year. </p>
<p>I simply cannot understand why anyone would charge someone with a perfect driving record $1,600 to insure a car worth about $5,000. It’s absolutely insane.</p>
<p>they didn’t need to add me back over vacation (i think was the policy) I was covered while I was at home, guest driver designation sounds like what my parents told me (i know have a car at school so am on the insurance as a primary driver i think). The minimum miles away wasn’t very far, if it existed as I live in northern nj and go to princeton. We have usaa.</p>
<p>MA, FL, and NJ rates are high for pretty much any type of insurance. </p>
<p>Drivers in FL are horrible. We rented a van and drove down to Miami during college and somebody hit it while it was parked. Yes, parked.</p>
<p>And Yeah I agree to what Aries said… i had a friend in NJ who was paying 1800 a year for a 92 taurus. The thing isn’t even worth 1800. Then, someone hit him and his rate went up to like 2400.</p>
<p>Thanks ec.</p>
<p>fendergirl, There are bad drivers everywhere. I would guess that rates have more to do with congestion leading to a higher risk of an accident, and the amount of litigation from those accidents, and insurance payouts as a result of litigation.</p>
<p>Yeah, there are bad drivers everywhere… however a very large majority of them move to FL 
</p>
<p>(as told to me by the owner of a bowling alley in Daytona Beach )</p>
<p>…“under our old policy with allstate you didn’t have to be on the policy to drive the car, but you had to have somebody on the policy with you in the car… so maybe your company is like that… maybe your son can drive your cars and not be on the policy but maybe you have to accompany him…”</p>
<p>In PA you don’t have to be named to the policy unless the company sends that dreaded questionnaire which happens to be mailed every so often.
I’ve never heard the part that you have to have someone in the vehicle with you…
We got our son a policy separate from ours through Progressive. Lower rates.</p>
<p>maybe i was wrong about that.</p>
<p>i’m thinking back to when i had my permit and my parents didn’t have to add me onto the policy until i officially had my license and would be driving the car on my own without one of the insureds in the car with me. however with erie who we have now, my little sister had to be added to the insurance the day she got her permit.</p>
<p>FL may have high rates because of the drivers there. The highest per-mile accident rates are for those over the age of 80. I imagine that FL has more than its share of those people.</p>
<p>Furthermore, some states have high rates because of that state’s laws. For example, Massachusetts has a very specific rate system and limited competition. It, for the large part, has good drivers subsidize the bad ones; if your driving record is beyond dismal, your MA rates won’t be too bad. Some states allow people to drive uninsured and then add a surcharge to everyone else’s insurance to cover them. (Some of these states charge a fee for being an uninsured driver.) As a fair amount of insurance does go to health care costs in case of an accident, a state’s health care expenses are another factor (MA being one of the highest in the nation).</p>
<p>FL has high rates because of the drivers there and because of their Laws. Same thing with MA and NJ. Those three states health insurance premiums are high too.</p>
<p>don’t even REMIND me about how much my private health insurance costs- still, I gripe a lot less about that, because it came in really handy when I had a $24,000 emergency surgery. Paying only $500 of that made the thousands of dollars a month pretty worth it. And that one was cheap as far as surgeries go. </p>
<p>Car insurance I don’t see as being as useful as health insurance. By and large, what I’m paying for is protection from an overly litigous society, bad or unliscensed drivers, and a huge surcharge simply for being under 24. I know I will be glad I have it if god forbid I hit someone and cause them permanent harm- but right now it seems completely rediculous. However, in the insurance company’s defense, I am carrying very high coverage limits in order to safeguard my parent’s assets if I screw up.</p>
<p>I used to carry high limits to safeguard my parents if I screw up (or just look like a good target, even if I’m not at fault); now that I don’t live at home, I carry high limits in case something bad but not too bad happens. Sick as it is, the worst thing that can happen, money-wise, is for people to be really, really hurt, but not to die. A hundred grand per person should cover almost any medical bill. What I’m really worried about, insurance-wise, is someone being paralyzed, not someone dying.</p>