Cost of car insurance for male(19) on parents policy
his costs $5,782 a year. I’m trying to understand why. I’m guessing it’s a function of the fathers terrible credit, accidents and tickets. His father insists the kid pay it himself. I’m open to him developing a sense of responsibility, of course, but if that insurance is that high because his parent is a f$&@-up, IMO, it’s unfair to him to be asked to pay that.
conandrob240 said:
his costs $5,782 a year. I’m trying to understand why. I’m guessing it’s a function of the fathers terrible credit, accidents and tickets. His father insists the kid pay it himself. I’m open to him developing a sense of responsibility, of course, but if that insurance is that high because his parent is a f$&@-up, IMO, it’s unfair to him to be asked to pay that.
Who is his? The teen or the teen's father?
TomR
the addition of the teen ADDS $5,782 to the fathers insurance.
I can’t even wrap my head around that. If the father’s history of accidents, tickets and credit is THAT bad, could it actually result in this extreme amount?
For the teen to get his own policy independent of the parent is around $6500 which is what I’d expect for a new driving teen with no credit. But to add to the parents policy and get a figure almost as high- what could be causing this?
For this first year, the father and I agreed to a 50-50 split as an incentive to get the kid to get his license and start driving. Starting in January, the father says he won’t pay any of it anymore and the kid should pay his own. Fair enough but it’s going to be impossible for the kid to pay this much nor do I think it’s fair that he has to if the father is the cause of the ridiculously high premium.
Could I call my insurance and ask hypothetically if the kid came to live with me, what would be the added cost? I guess then I’d know if there’s something about the teen causing this price or if it’s a result of the father’s issues.
Regarding the father. Tickets and accidents stay on the insurance record for 3 years. How recent were these events?
The age, type/value of car and the amount of liability all affect the premium. If the father and kid are gonna be driving a '16 Vette or Mercedes, the rate will be higher than if its a 2010 Mazda 3. The factors in this paragraph would also affect the charge for adding the kid.
not at all. Normal cars. Kid has a 2006 Toyota Camry, father has a 5 year old pick up truck.
I am not sure how recent th father’s stuff was. I know for sure he was in a bad motorcycle accident about a year ago.
So, will anyone share the amount of added cost tour teen adds to your insurance?
Tickets surcharges are at least 3 years, accident surcharges go on for 5 providing there are no other accidents within the 5 years.
The father’s prior accidents don’t help but unless you have access to the policy to see his ratables, there’s no way to tell.
The teen could’ve been rated high on his own merit. If he’s going to have his own car it will be more expensive than if he was sharing his parent’s car.
The sooner he can get his own insurance untethered to his parent’s poor rates the better for him, expensive as it may be.
Quick search yielded this calculator from Nerd Wallet.
https://www.nerdwallet.com/insurance/compare-car-insurance-rates
how can it be THIS high? That’s my question. I understand it’s not cheap to insure a teen. I understand it’s higher with his own car. But I don’t understand how it can be THIS high?!?
It’s been a while since we added each of our sons but the increment was about 2,000 per year, IIRC.
But does it really matter? In this case, given the history of these parents’ treatment of this young man, do you really expect that the Dad will ever agree to chip in?
Adding the son adds 5,200. Dad doesn’t care why it’s so much, he wants 5,200.
my son's (college student) insurance is $3600/yr for a similarly ordinary car. I don't remember exactly where you said he lives -- location could be the issue, try calling your agent for a quote for Jersey. (when I rented in between houses in South Orange - just a few blocks from Newark, our insurance went way up -- though it was only a mile from where we are now!)
FYI - no tickets or accidents on my insurance.
he’s already chipping in and paying 1/2 (for the first year). After that, he says it’s on the kid. Which really would be okay under normal circumstances that the kid pay his own car insurance and learns that responsibility .
My concern is that it’s unfair to make the kid pay his own if it’s 3x the “normal” amount. If I get a sense of the “normal” amount, I’d like to even the playing field and pay the “gap” for the kid next year.
Peteglider, helpful. $3600 is high. Add some parental tickets and bad credit to it and I am seeing why it could be $5600. Thanks!
peteglider said:
my son's (college student) insurance is $3600/yr for a similarly ordinary car. I don't remember exactly where you said he lives -- location could be the issue, try calling your agent for a quote for Jersey. (when I rented in between houses in South Orange - just a few blocks from Newark, our insurance went way up -- though it was only a mile from where we are now!)
FYI - no tickets or accidents on my insurance.
I don't know anything about insuring a teen, but I can attest to location having an effect on the rates. For years my husband had a commute of less than 4 miles to get to work. We just moved to Hunterdon County, and he now has a 45 mile commute to work, so 90 miles round trip. I expected our rates to go up because of the drastically longer commute time, but they went DOWN because our new area has a lower risk factor. Same insurance company, nothing else changed.
spontaneous said:
I don't know anything about insuring a teen, but I can attest to location having an effect on the rates. For years my husband had a commute of less than 4 miles to get to work. We just moved to Hunterdon County, and he now has a 45 mile commute to work, so 90 miles round trip. I expected our rates to go up because of the drastically longer commute time, but they went DOWN because our new area has a lower risk factor. Same insurance company, nothing else changed.
This is comical if he works in the same place. So he's in the same high risk area, just not when he's asleep.
As for insuring the teenager, those rates are insane. I think the teen should move or just give up the idea of driving. I know those are drastic, but so are the rates.
I don’t think it’s that high because of the area. It’s a similar community to SOMA and my parents car insurance is in line with what mine is in NJ. I think it’s a factor of the parents poor history. That’s the hypothesis I’m trying to prove or refute.
Not an expert, but it seems clear that it's related to the parent's history. That is an extremely high rate. As people have been saying, adding a teen is closer to $2k or so a year. Perhaps consult with your own agent for ideas on getting the rate down.
I don’t think I have any way to get someone else’s insurance rate down, unfortunately. He can get 10% off by doing a course, so we'll do that, but short of that. It’s nothing I can control.
I just want to make sure the father knows the burden placed on his kid and that that rate is due to HIS record. That the kid would likely be paying $2000 if he wasn’t so “blessed” with this guy as a father. And then I’m going to cover the difference for the kid because it’s not fair his life is continually f-ed up by his stupid parents.
so, in case anyone is interested, we’ve solved some of this mystery. It’s still high but that rate is elevated due to the kid owning the car in his name. It goes down to $3600 for the year if we switched the car into his fathers name. I had no idea that would account for so much. I knew it was more for the kid to own but not almost double!
Might also be worth considering the specifics of the particular policy - raising the deductible, lowering the liability coverage for personal injury and/or vehicle damage can also bring the rate down. Of course, it means a higher out-of-pocket cost to the driver if there is an accident.
What distances does he need to cover? Are there alternatives to car travel? You can get a lot of places with uber, ride shares, mass transit, and bicycles. I commute between home and work on bike, and I ride 3,000 miles a year. I don't drive a car on weekdays. I've heard that most car trips are three miles or less. That's a stupid distance for a car if you're not carrying people or cargo. It's super easy to ride a bike three miles, even if you're out of shape, and I assume a 19 year old is not out of shape.
he will keep his car. In my opinion, it’s a necessity for him for a variety of reasons.
For one, his school is 15 miles from home and would involve 3 different buses. He’s not going to make that effort (and I can’t blame him)
There are other social reasons and “escape from home” reasons as well.
Thats insane. My 18 yo son is on his father's insurance plan and its about $1200 a year extra.
Our son, when he was 22, (oldest policy I still have), was on our policy. 500,000 liability, property damage, 250,000 medical, 500 deductibles. The cost was $955 for 6 months. His car was in his and my name (co-owners).
Look around.
I wouldn't put the car in the father's name.....unless that was absolutely the only financial option.
Tom_Reingold said:
spontaneous said:This is comical if he works in the same place. So he's in the same high risk area, just not when he's asleep.
I don't know anything about insuring a teen, but I can attest to location having an effect on the rates. For years my husband had a commute of less than 4 miles to get to work. We just moved to Hunterdon County, and he now has a 45 mile commute to work, so 90 miles round trip. I expected our rates to go up because of the drastically longer commute time, but they went DOWN because our new area has a lower risk factor. Same insurance company, nothing else changed.
As for insuring the teenager, those rates are insane. I think the teen should move or just give up the idea of driving. I know those are drastic, but so are the rates.
Actually the car is in Newark for 40 hours a week, in a secure garage with security. I don’t think it is where he works that was making our rates higher, I think it is the other 128 hours a week where now the car is no longer parked in Essex County. The rate difference is such that the drastically longer commute is more than offset by it. We’ve never had a claim, never had a car stolen, broken into, headlights stolen, nada. So this wasn’t a case of us being high risk, just that NJM determined that our old address was high risk
mikescott said:
Really, they need to shop around. Not that hard to do.
He has called a few different places with much the same result.
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I think I asked this before but maybe some fresh answers. How much additional does it cost for you to have your teen son on your car insurance?
19 years old. Has had license 9 months. Full time student. No tickets or accidents. Typical credit score for a teen. This is NY but in my experience it’s similar or even a little lower than NJ.
I think his is so high as a function of his fathers poor credit and driving record. Father had two serious accidents (including a motorcycle accident) and has a number of speeding tickets. His credit is terrible- bankruptcy and still weak. If this is the reason his portion is so high, it’s kind of unfair to ask this kid to pay it.