In some states adults may not even need a license to be listed on your policy as a driver or excluded driver. They must be listed one way or the other if they live in your home.
The bottom line is the state laws vary and the OP needs to contact several agents and comparison shop.
In general, if you have driver’s living in your house, the insurance company IME will consider them on the policy. From their standpoint, if someone is living there it is likely that they will drive one of the cars and that is risk to them (and a young,male driver is going to get hit with a big premium increase). Some companies may let you exlude a driver (I believe mine doesn’t, if you kid has a driver’s license and can be home to drive, I don’t havve to worry about it, so far my son has shown no interest in getting a license) but in that case they won’t be covered if he has an accident, and as owner of the car you could end up liable if he gets in an accident. Some insurance policies do cover guest drivers (ie if a friend is visiting, they borrow the car and get into an accident, they are covered)
Basically, the insurance carrier can decide things like the rates, who is considered covered and so forth, the only limitations they have are where the law limits what they can charge. Your best bet is to do what others have said, shop around, maybe talk to a multi company brokerage and get quotes. If your S is at school more than some amount (usually a couple of hundred miles or more) they likely will give you a decent break. You also can contact your agent for your current policy and complain, often they can help get you a better rate, if not, then shop elsewhere, you can always cancel your current insurance if someone else is better.
“Community rating” means what happens in your “neighborhood” (or town or zip) can affect your costs. It the state allows it- or it’s the company’s policy- that’s that. It’s not just your own record or his. It’s numbers.
Gotta tell you that an old car is sometimes no benefit re: liability costs. I ran into this. They can be missing some safety features or have their own issues which could contribute to an accident.
Our rates (Geico) went up a bit when Happykid got her license, but there was a “good student” discount as long as she had at least a 3.0. I think even her HS grades would have counted.
You can call Geico and get an estimate over the phone. Their representatives are very cheerful and are willing to look for different discounts that might be available. For example, we got one because of a college alumni affiliation.
I think my rates actually went up when my son got his permit.
We didn’t need addl coverage when they had the permit.
Happymom, D1 has Geico and I have to agree, they were so easy to deal with.
My rates went up,a LOT when my 17 year old SON got his license. They didn’t go up nearly as much when DD got hers.
Teenage boys are much more expensive to insure than teenage girls…or at least that was the case when my kids got their licenses.
Everything @allyphoe said is true. If your son will not drive your car at all you can have him specifically excluded from the policy. In CA you must have proof of insurance to legally drive, so driving without any insurance will lead to increased penalties in the event of accident where police actually show up (usually they don’t). Insurance goes primarily with the car, not the driver. So if someone borrows your car they are covered under your policy for that car. Any household member is considered “listed” on the policy unless explicitly excluded.
We’ve had good experiences with both Amica and Geico. Amica is consistently rated highest in customer satisfaction and their rates are low if you have no recent accidents or claims. Geico has the best online service, simple and streamlined with fast quotes and easy follow up by phone.
A lot of misinformation in this thread. First of all, while policy language has some measure of consistency company to company, it’s not always the same. Further, insurance is regulated by states - meaning there are 50 different auto insurance regulators.
The OP has an 18 YO male in the household. That’s a major exposure, and it should be charged. The fact that there isn’t an individual car assigned to him doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be charged. That makes no sense. There are cars in the house he has access to and he has a license. He’s an exposure and exposure costs money. You can debate how much he should be charged, but remember, 18 YO male drivers as a class don’t exactly have a good history. Depending on the company and policy, sometimes as little as 100 miles away at school will get you a reduction, but generally not a removal from paying.
As far as driver exclusion, some states allow, some do not. Without it, the kid is a family member which often makes him an insured under the policy. If he’s has a driver’s license, the company is right to charge a premium for the exposure.
At the end of the day, there are hundreds of carriers who offer insurance. Shop around if you’re not happy with your current situation. You may or may not like what you find.
Bottom line, read the terms of your policy. Our insurer was Liberty Mutual and said our kids didn’t need to be added to policy when they got licenses but were attending college 2500 miles away. Once S got in an accident, they were VERY unhappy, but still paid and our premiums didn’t go up much. We did have independent agent scout around and find us a new and better insurer, lowering our premiums and not giving us conflicting answers.
We sent cars to our kids their SR year in college, titling it in their name and getting separate policies for them (our insurer only operated in HI).
Getting the good student discount and driver’s ed discount were a BIG help.
You need to call your insurance carrier and find out what the rules are in your state. Find out if there are other options. And call other insurance companies to find out if they can cover you cheaper.
For us, we were able to list S as an “occasional” driver since he was away at college hundreds of miles away. He had been covered under our policy as he did have a car when he lived at home - our rates dropped significantly when we went from a “named” driver to an “occasional” driver.
But it’s all about laws in your state.
ALL of this is state law. There are no national insurance policies, just state by state.
Even within a company like All State or Nationwide, the policies are state approved, the premiums are approved by the state, the terms vary. The company may want to keep the policies as standard as possible, but each term has to be approved by the state insurance commissioner, and must comply with law. Some states have ‘no fault’, some have uninsured driver’s premiums, some have injury insurance requirements while others allow you to use your health insurance. When I moved from California to Florida with the same car and same driver (me) my premium went up by more than $1000/yr. In Florida, it was $3000 for my two teen drivers, so I excluded them and they DID NOT DRIVE MY CAR. Now I’ve moved again and to have two college students on my policy, both more than 150 miles away, it is something like an extra $300/yr. Again, they rarely drive my car (well, one never drives it because it’s a manual and she doesn’t know how to drive it) but that doesn’t matter to the insurance company. This company does not allow drivers who live with you who do not have their own insurance to be excluded. Other companies do allow exclusions.
Look around for better rates. Ask about good student discounts, college students living more than 100 miles away discounts (150 miles, 200 miles) if they don’t have a car with them.
“Our rates (Geico) went up a bit when Happykid got her license, but there was a “good student” discount as long as she had at least a 3.0. I think even her HS grades would have counted.”
Your rates probably went up because there was an additional driver on the policy, not a young driver. Unless they have changed things, they have said they do NOT price up for young drivers.
OP, get a quote from Geico!! They didn’t charge us anything when the kids were away at college.
If you are insured, anyone who drives your car with your permission is covered in case of an accident. Generally, when kids get their driver’s licenses, the family’s rates go up. Sometimes, if the child is at school more than 100 or so miles away (a distance where the child is not likely to be driving the car on a regular basis), you can get them removed from the policy. They would still be covered if they came home and drove the car on vacation, etc. Some carriers (Geico comes to mind) offer discounts based on grades, with the theory that kids who have better grades may be safer drivers.
I am not familiar with the concept of excluded drivers, so it may not exist in my state. If you can establish that someone is a non-permissive user of the vehicle, you may be able to escape liability if that person is involved in an accident.
With that said, 250% sounds like a lot and I would shop around for other coverage.
I do wonder if this particular company has had to many recent issues with teen male drivers and prices accordingly.
For HS families reading this thread…, considering deferring the road test if a kid does not need a license. In our state (and all states?) it is free to have a permit driver on the policy.
For our insurance, the distance to college would have to be only 50 miles or more. It’s worth it to shop around.
My D2 is off our insurance and doesn’t own a car, and she buys a simple policy from zipcars that covers her for those and any other car she rents.
Our kids got their licenses when they turned 21 because they wanted it to be horizontal not vertical (like those minors). S actually got his when he was 20, but it started coming apart due to a flaw and he turned it in for a replacement after he turned 21.
They had permits as teens but weren’t in a hurry to drive solo and didn’t get a car until SR year of college anyway. Perhaps because they were older and had so many years with a permit their premiums were lower.
I believe their premiums were about $1K/yr apiece for their separate policies with significant liability coverage, after discounts. Shop around–prices vary widely.
Dunno about state law, but our insurance carrier did not increase rates when kiddos got their permits – just the actual license – which is why, upthread, I suggested canceling the kid’s license if saving the insurance money is critical for the family.
"If you are insured, anyone who drives your car with your permission is covered in case of an accident. " That isn’t necessarily true, it depends on state law and the insurance carrier, some policies exclude ‘guest drivers’ (I first came across this when I was looking at buying cars, and the owner wouldn’t let me test drive it, I thought he was being a jerk, but when I checked his carrier they exclude guest drivers). As others have said, with insurance policies there are 50 different states with different laws, and even the same company can be very different (Allstate, for example, has a totally separate company that does insurance in NJ). A lot of policies do cover guest drivers, but it is always wise to check a policy and ask. When there are kids in the house who can drive, as far as I know most companies assume they are on the policy unless you exclude them.