I remember paying about a hundred and fifty dollars a month for insurance on my brand new, bottom of the line Toyota pickup truck back in 1989. I drove that truck everywhere. Up to the mountains for skiing, snowboarding, hiking. Out to the ocean for surfing and camping, You name it. Anywhere a teenager free to drive the state roads and highways of California could dream of going, I went.
Eventually, I spun out on a slick, slushy and icy road on my way up to Big Bear with my snowboard in the bed of the truck. The blame falls on me for that one due to negligence because my tires were worn down and I hadn't changed them. It was a real bummer because I just bought tire chains for the truck less than a half hour before the crash and the mandatory chain stop along Highway 18 was only a quarter of a mile up the road from the accident spot. Fortunately, everyone was okay for the most part aside from being shaken up and jarred around, but the aftermath was what hurt the most.
A few weeks later, I get a letter from my insurance company saying that my premium is going to go up. I called my insurance company's customer service center and found out that some of the riders in the other car were seeking medical compensation as well even though nobody seemed injured at the time of the accident. Nobody got into an ambulance, nobody so much as scratched as far as I could tell. One rider complained a bit about a sore shin but he was walking.
At any rate, my insurance premium skyrocketed to over three hundred dollars a month.
So all that personal experience has taught me a few things:
- Make sure you buy a reliable car (I did that)
- Maintain your car well (I didn't do that)
- Teenagers and young drivers tend to be unaware of possible hazardous situations
- Teenagers and young drivers don't know how to handle dangerous driving conditions
So in a nutshell, you being a teenager, you're just going to have to come to terms with the fact that your in a high risk age group for auto insurance premiums and you're just going to have to shop really well for the best policy.
Here's some other things you can focus on to keep your premium down or even make it less expensive:
- Maintain good driving records.
- Drive only during the daytime since most of the serious crashes involving teenage drivers happen at night.
- Get a good student discount.
- Ask your insurance company for other available discounts like extra-curricular driving classes.
- Lastly, talk to a lot of opposing car insurance companies and get quotes from them all. Check their customer service rating and choose the best policy that suits your needs, even if it is a few dollars more per month.
