Adding a Teen Driver to Car Insurance

In most cases, the cost of car insurance for teens will be lower if you add them to your existing policy, rather than getting them their own policy. Your premiums will still increase, but not by as much as the cost of the separate policy.

Reasons to Add a Teen Driver to Your Policy

There are many advantages to adding a teen driver to an existing policy.

• If you are the primary driver on the policy, the insurance company will consider your driving history more than theirs, which means your driving history, credit score, and other factors help keep costs lower.
• You can easily update the policy for both you and your teen, for example by  lowering or adding limits, and adding or subtracting coverages.
• Your teenager will be able to drive all of the vehicles in your household.
• Managing one policy is easier than managing multiple policies.

In most cases, adding a teen driver to your auto insurance policy should be relatively straightforward. 

When to Add Your Teen to Your Policy

Ask your agent when you should add your teen to your insurance policy. Often, you can list your teen on your policy at no charge when they get their learner’s permit. You’ll start paying when they actually get their license. However, laws and requirements vary by state and insurance company, so check with your insurer before a teen gets their permit.² 

How to Add Your Teen to Your Policy

1. Contact your insurance agent and tell them you want to add your teenager to your existing policy. 
2. Answer any questions the insurer has.
3. Read your rewritten policy to make sure you understand and it’s accurate. 
4. Pay your new premiums. The coverage will kick in on the policy’s effective date. 

How to Save Money When You Add Your Teen to Your Policy

• Bundle. You’ve already bundled your child’s and your car insurance together, but if you have any other types of insurance with different companies (life, renters, home, etc.), bundle them all under the same provider. Most companies offer bundling discounts. 
• Lower your limits. Lowering your liability limits will also lower your car insurance premiums. However, given teenagers’ higher rate of at-fault car accidents, it’s wise to purchase higher limits, as short-term savings could mean higher costs down the line. 
• Drop coverages. You may not need comprehensive and collision coverage on older vehicles that are paid off. You can save by dropping coverages your state doesn’t require; again, just keep your financial responsibility in mind. 
• Raise deductibles. You can raise your deductibles to lower your auto insurance costs. However, you’ll have to pay more if your child causes a comprehensive or collision claim. 
• Get them a safe car. Insurance companies base their prices partially on vehicle safety ratings, so get your teenager an affordable but safe car (find out more about the best cars for teens below). 
• Find discounts for teen drivers: Many providers offer insurance discounts specifically for teen drivers. These include good student discounts, driver education discounts, student away from home discounts, and others. Talk to your provider or an auto insurance agent to learn about the discounts it offers. 

Even if you apply all the best practices for saving money, you should still expect to pay about 45 percent more when you add your teen to your car insurance policy. This is based on the average annual cost of insurance for teens, which is $4,318 —  over $2,390 more per year than the national average across all age groups. ($1,924).

Average Car Insurance Rates by Driver’s Age

Expect insurance rates to vary depending on your teens age. Sixteen-year-old drivers can expect the highest auto insurance rates. Generally, rates should decrease slightly for every year your teen is on the road.

Average Cost of Adding Your Teen to an Existing Policy

Adding a teen to an existing policy is significantly cheaper than purchasing a separate policy. If you add a 16-year-old driver to your policy, you’ll see your rates increase by $1,085 annually on average. Including a 19-year-old as a named driver leads to an average increase of only $645 annually.

Average Cost of a Full Coverage Policy for Teens

Sixteen-year-olds are the most expensive teen drivers to insure. On average, it costs $4,706 per year to insure a 16-year-old. Nineteen-year-old drivers are typically the cheapest teen drivers to insure. Policies typically cost around $645 a month, or $54 a year.

When Do Rates Decrease?

You can expect rates to decrease by the time your teen turns 19 or 20, evening out by age 25. See below for the average insurance costs from Progressive for 2022 to 2023.

Why Is Car Insurance for Teens So Expensive?

Car insurance for teens is so expensive because unfortunately, they have the highest rates of motor vehicle deaths and crashes among all age groups.

In general, 16-year-old drivers have the highest rates of accidents and claims. Because of this, the cost of insurance for 16-year-olds is the highest of any age group. 16-year-olds cause double the number of crashes than drivers aged 25 to 34.

Despite making up only 4 percent of the licensed driver population, teen drivers account for 9 percent of all accidents.

You always need to meet the minimum coverage requirements, which vary by state — but minimum limits often do not provide adequate coverage if you are in an accident. When it comes to your teen’s auto insurance coverage, we recommend full coverage, which includes the following. 

• Bodily injury liability coverage: Bodily injury liability covers any medical costs your child causes to another car’s driver and passengers. Buy as much as you can afford, up to $500,000 when combined with property damage liability. 
• Property damage liability coverage: Property damage liability covers any third party’s property damages in accidents your teen causes. 
• Uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage: This will cover your bodily injury and property damage costs if your child gets into an accident with someone driving with no insurance or insufficient insurance. 
• Collision coverage: Collision coverage pays for your property damages in accidents your child causes. The limit will be your car’s actual market value (AMV). 
• Comprehensive coverage: Unless you have an old car, it’s best to get comprehensive coverage to pay for property damages from events other than collisions (such as car theft, vandalism, and inclement weather). As with collision coverage, the comprehensive limit is your car’s AMV. 
• Medical payments coverage or personal injury protection (PIP): Even if you already have health insurance, you can add medical payments coverage in at-fault states or PIP in no-fault states like Florida. Medical payments coverage includes only the costs of your injuries, while PIP also covers any lost wages or child care you have to pay for as a result of your injuries. 

There are several steps you can take to help your new driver be as safe as possible:

1. Send them to a driving education course: . One obvious teen driver safety tip is to send them to driver’s ed course, if it’s in your budget. . This might be easier (and less nerve-wracking) than teaching them to drive yourself.
2. Set a good example. When you’re driving, make sure you’re following all state rules and not using any electronic devices. Distracted driving among teens is unfortunately very common, but you can help discourage it by not partaking yourself.
3. Involve them in maintenance and insurance. To help your child understand the real consequences of accidents and reckless or negligent driving, involve them in their car’s maintenance and financial aspects, from oil changes to insurance premiums. While it might be unreasonable to expect them to pay the entire premium, paying a fraction will teach them responsibility and turn them into a more careful driver, as they know their rates will increase after an at-fault accident.
4. Practice with them. If you’re comfortable doing so, have your child practice driving with you in the passenger seat, starting in an empty parking lot before moving on to low-traffic areas. Always remain calm or at least project calmness, as your mood will affect your child’s mindset and, therefore, their driving.
5. Use a checklist. To ensure you’re teaching them everything they need to know, use the checklist from the Center for Injury Research and Prevention at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, accessible via https://injury.research.chop.edu/sites/default/files/documents/tdp_goal_guide_0.pdf.
6. Sign a parent-teen contract. Obviously, your child is obligated to follow state and local laws, but the restrictions don’t need to stop there. You could sign a parent-teen driving contract with your child, outlining any additional restrictions you want them to abide by, like curfews, passenger limits, or supervision. For example, maybe you don’t want your child to drive with a particularly distracting friend, or driving at night at all, even if your state allows it.

To help keep your teen safe, and provide them with the best possible learning experience as new drivers, consider a vehicle with the following features:

• Good crash test ratings: Safety should be your No. 1 priority in a car, so look for high crash test ratings from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration⁵ and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety⁶. These data points measure a car’s crashworthiness, how well it protects its passengers, and its crash avoidance or mitigation — how it can either prevent crashes or lessen their severity.
• Safe technology: Look for cars with safety features such as driver monitoring, anti-lock brakes, and automatic high beams⁷.
• Sedans: Sedans are preferable to SUVs and pickup trucks, which are hard to park.
• Low to medium horsepower: High-horsepower cars are at higher risk of hydroplaning.

When you add your teen driver to your existing auto insurance policy, or purchase a new policy for your teen driver, you may come across unfamiliar terms. These include:

• Permissive use clause: A permissive use clause is a portion of your insurance policy that allows people who borrow your car with permission to get coverage under your policy. It’s designed for occasional, short-term borrowing, not your teen who uses your car regularly and lives in your household. Note that misrepresentation on your application could result in a midterm cancellation.⁸
• Driver risk: Driver risk, part of insurance providers’ driver classification, measures how prone someone is to collisions, fatalities, and injuries. Drivers are classified as either safe, acceptable, or risky — or low, medium, or high risk. Teens are rated as high risk automatically because of their lack of experience behind the wheel.
• Primary driver: The primary driver is the person listed on a policy who drives a vehicle the most. Therefore, the primary driver’s risk level is the main data point an insurance company considers when determining premiums.
• Secondary driver: A secondary driver is a person listed on an insurance policy who uses a car less than the primary driver. While the insurer takes the secondary driver’s risk level into account, it’s at a lower percentage than the primary driver’s risk level.
• Excluded driver: An excluded driver is someone your policy excludes from coverage, meaning they’re not allowed to borrow your car. If they borrow your car anyway and get into an accident, they won’t be covered, whereas a rated or named driver would be covered. Not all states allow for excluded drivers.

Teen drivers are some of the most expensive drivers to insure due to their high-risk status. The younger your teen, the higher their premium is likely to be. Parents of teen drivers can keep costs as low as possible by adding young drivers to their existing policies, rather than purchasing new policies. They can also take advantage of discounts offered specifically for teens.