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Insurance Woes


Freebird

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Well...I know that many of you have been through this already but today I take my 16 year old son to get his driver's license. I have been online getting insurance quotes to add him to my policy. Needless to say, my insurance is going UP UP UP. From what I can see so far, it will triple now with him on the policy. I'm talking about the car of course, not the bike. :mo money:

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Been through all of that fun. If he keeps his nose clean it won't be too bad. I had one that did and one that didn't. They both had their own vehicles and paid their insurance. Part of the learning curve is to pay your own way and see what the consequenses are for bad behavior. One thing is that he only needs to be rated on one vehicle with the insurance company which is bad enough. At least it works that way with State Farm. Our agent sits down with each new driver when they get a license and explains to them how things work and what will happen in there is an accident or violation. He does this without the parents present. It is a point blank, honest meeting that tells the the new driver where it's at. It comes from someone other than a parent which helps. Kind of a right of passage I guess. A person needs to understand that with new privileges also come new responsibilities. I wish you and your son luck in this and may his gaurdian angel keep him out of any real trouble.

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Been through all of that fun.

 

Had his own car and paid their own insurance.

Part of the learning curve is to pay your own way and see what the consequenses are for bad behavior.

 

Yep, yep, yep....

That time is drawing near to let go of that hand and let him find out what it is to be responsible..and pay for the luxuries that one wants to have and enjoy in life..

Also time for one of those father / son sit down talks about the responsibilities on driving the car ....AND ...the consequenses for the experiences he will have when the car is ...say "parked" ...:whistling:

Oh yea, we all remember those days....:stirthepot:

Hell, I would still enjoy them... if we didnt cramp up so much, but the dang cars are made smaller these days..:rasberry:

Our agent sits down with each new driver when they get a license and explains to them how things work and what will happen in there is an accident or violation. He does this without the parents present. It is a point blank, honest meeting that tells the the new driver where it's at. It comes from someone other than a parent which helps. Kind of a right of passage I guess. A person needs to understand that with new privileges also come new responsibilities.

 

Now I really like this method...just wish they (or I ) thought of that when my kids were younger and were going through all this..

Heck this sounds like it would be worth asking your agent to set this up and do it anyway... :thumbsup2:

 

I wish you and your son luck in this and may his gaurdian angel keep him out of any real trouble.

Yes Sir......couldnt have said it any better...:clap2:

 

Best of luck Don to you and your son and dont forget mom, for she will be a nervous reck too...bless you all..

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Don it may help a little if your son completes Driver Ed.

 

Most Insurance Co.'s have no mercy on male teen drivers.....you only have to see some of them drive in the vicinity of the High School to know why.:shock3:

 

Yes, he has completed driver's ed. That is a requirement here if you want your license at 16. He also had to hold his temporary permit and complete 50 hours of driving time with my wife and I before he could take his test.

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Went thru it last year with our daughter, We have Erie and their rates are great except they dont like new drivers, it actually ended up being cheaper for her to have her own policy? Which I still dont understand and no one has been able to explain to me? It is a pain and between gas and ins. the poor kids are getting hammered. I do believe in letting them pay for ins. and gas, I help out with the maint. Good Luck and I would be interested in how you make out. Craig

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The rates are astronomical aren't they? Its kind of like when you get your CDL license and no one will higher you because you don't have 2 years driving experience. How can you get 2 years driving experience if no one will higher you? :confused24: Been there with 2 boys and 1 girl, have the scars to prove it!:D

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Ky insurance stipulates a driver has access to any vehicle in the household, not just a specific assigned one. So, here he would even be insured on your motorcycle. And, of course they charge accordingly. Even worse, if he has his own vehicle, his own insurance and all is in his name alone, if he list his residence as the same as yours, you still pay as if he is on your policy. Brilliant insurance idgets in Ky figure if he is in your house he has access to all your vehicles. Even if he is away at college and uses your address as point of reference for school!! Smells bad any way you approach it.

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This may not hold water any longer, but my brother listed my nephew under a beat up old 50cc bike with a good current title that he'd bought for just that reason. It just sat in the garage...didn't run. Then he added the kids Mustang to his regular policy as an extra vehicle since he was the title holder anyway. Saved him a bunch. The nephew is now about ready to retire after 25 years in law inforcement... Go figure.

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When my daughter got her license it was the same price for a boy or a girl. Didn't matter. So we got her on our insurance and then after a while set it up with the insurance company for her to have her own. Worked out well for her they counted her time on our insurance, which they usually don't do.

Good luck Don. Before you know it he'll be off to college. It really does go that fast.

 

Margaret

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dont know how it works in the states...but here in canada...had 2 cars...one in my name,and one in my wifes name. added son in the policy and were paying around 3000.00 dollars. wasnt even comprehensive insurance. just the basic one, where i take the hit if my fault ( repair our own car ) insurance repairs the other one.

 

son gets 2 speeding tickets...one was 10 kms over ( 6miles)..in a 60 km zone... and the other was 30 kms over.( doing 130 km in 100 km hwy. and one ticket for not having the ins policy with him ( though the ins co knew too well the insurance was valid) they counted this as 3 tickets and put him in the high risk category and for a while...get this...we were paying 8000.00 dollars per year in premium. my two junkers weren't worth that much put together. when i mentioned the insurance ticket to the insurance company...their answer was " a ticket is a ticket!" had no choice but pay for a while till the rates came down when a ticket is cancelled after a 3 yr period. i was ready to give up the cars, believe me, but needed them to get to work. if this is not highway robbery...i don't know what is. and the worst thing is, our governments go along with these crooks.i guess a paid golf vacation is more important to our elected officials than our problems. now when they get in trouble... for making wrong decisions,me the tax paying slug has to bail them out. go figure!

 

you can't stress enough about keeping their record clean, don. all we can hope is, they take us seriously when we lecture them. after all, teenagers will be teenagers. the insurance companies are taking full advantage of that fact and penalizing the parents for their behaviour.

and the sad thing is, it doesn't change anything in the youths behaviour. we just end up dishing more money to these " gangsters"... is what i call them. :2cents::soapbox:

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Don,

 

Still holds true today in most states...but it's probably cheaper for you to buy a "cheaper" dependable used car for your son and ensure it, than it is to put him on your policy for your cars.

 

I went through this with both of our daughters and Cathy and I decided if we were going to spend the kind of money the insurance companies wanted, we might as well put into a car for each of the girls and get them started on taking care of something. We have some friends both here in WI and in AR who doing the exactly the same thing today (ours were 10+ years ago) and the difference in cost of adding their child to their insurance and what it would cost to insure a car specifically for their child paid for the cars.

 

Curt

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We have Progressive, all cars under parents names, doesn't matter who drives them, every one in the house is covered. Matter of fact, my boy gets his license on Nov. 9th (turned 16 last Thursday, 30 days wait), no increase in premium, they rate by the amount of cars and driving record and grades for those in school. I pay about 800 every 6 months for 1 full coverage and 2 with liability only (01 Durango, 97 Sebring Conv., 79 standard Camaro). If they need another car on there to bring it on down, I'll put my 65 Corvair on there!!

 

Good luck Don,

 

Dan

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