[Atx328]

My 17 yr old was supposed to go off to college this fall but now it looks like she will be attending school while living at home. I have geico for a 2011 n 2013 328i's and a POS 1999 explorer. The six month cost for the wife n I is around $550 but it's over $1500 when the kids gets added on.

Does anyone have experience with an insurance company that doesn't hit you so hard for kids? She will turn 18 this summer.

With the price of e90s dropping, I would like to pick one up for her to drive but the insurance will cost more than the payment!

[M4YHEM]

kids insurance will always be high especially young at that age they have no experience. your best bet is to shop around and see who will give you the best deal. speaking out of true honesty i wasn't "on" the insurance until i was 25 i drove from college to home back. when i get my mercedes and my M i put everything under my name.

[Pixel8ed]

It's expensive because people bitched and moaned that boys are so expensive but girls were cheaper. So rather than lower the cost of boys, they raised the girls rates.

Depending on your situation it may be cheaper for her to be on her own policy than it is to be added to yours.

[jkoral]

Obviously varies greatly by location, but as a point of reference, here in MA, if you have 3 drivers in the household and 3 cars, the teenager *must* be listed as the primary driver on one vehicle. We added a 3rd car in anticipation of our daughter getting her license and were paying ~3K for three vehicles (all around $1K each).

When my daughter got licensed, she became the primary driver on our oldest car and the premium jumped from $3K to over $6K. I increased the deductible from $500 to $1000 and that dropped it down to $5K.

This is with all 3 drivers with perfect driving records, no tickets, no accidents, no claims. My daughter turns 18 next week, but there is no reduction until licensed N number of years (I forget the number in MA).

I know a few families where their teenager has had an accident -- I can't imagine how much they are paying.

[E30toF30]

Man you guys get some cheap car insurance down in the states.

My insurance at 43% discount is $2800 CAD per year. That's over $2000 usd on an f10 528i lol. My f30 335i was around the same price too. No kids on the policy or anything.

Yet another thing we Canadians get screwed on lol

[M4YHEM]

NYC I know it's after 25 prices go down along with the defensive drivers course you get 10% off your price

[dzvero]

keep her off the car until 18 y old

[mikimx]

Same here over the other side of the pond. Rates are insane. If you are under 21 and want to drive anything other than a very small cheap hatch then you're looking at £2K+.
Obviously it is suggesting that if you are young then you have no idea how to drive yet (often true) and thus they will have to cover the costs of the BMW/MERC that you may plough in to, hence the price.
They are doing tracker/cam policies now for the young where your driving is recorded and in the event of an accident the data is used to prove/disprove fault and look at the way you drive.
Makes the policy massively cheaper for really young drivers... good idea really.

[Never_Enough]

Because she is a 17...year...old...female...

[Red Bread]

Was OP never 17? My insurance should have been about a grand a month until I was 21 or so.

[tdott]

$3k/yr for 3 cars and a 17 yr old driver actually sounds really cheap...

[C1Boston]

Originally Posted by M4YHEM

kids insurance will always be high especially young at that age they have no experience. your best bet is to shop around and see who will give you the best deal. speaking out of true honesty i wasn't "on" the insurance until i was 25 i drove from college to home back. when i get my mercedes and my M i put everything under my name.

I did the same thing. Even after turning 25, I still think I am being charged an absurd amount for insurance.

[GoodNewsEveryOne]

It also varies a lot by the vehicle. I got a newish car when I went to medical school . At the time, I wanted a Saab 9-2x but the insurance was going to be $250 a month. Instead, I got a Subaru Outback 2.5XT (the one with the turbo; had a 5 speed as well!) and insurance was just over $100 a month despite the Outback being just as fast.

[Viffermike]

OP: This is not new. Generally speaking, vehicle insurance cost goes down as you age -- just as, generally speaking, health insurance cost goes up as you age. It's common sense backed up by many, many years' worth of empirical statistical data. Insurance is all about risk assessment -- personal biases set aside, would you trust a car in the hands of a 17-year-old as opposed to, say, a 45-year-old?

My advice: Purchase your daughter a relatively inexpensive-to-insure first vehicle (an Exx BMW will not qualify as this) and have her listed as the primary driver.

[BEM-S4]

The other problem with the strategy some others have suggested, i.e. not putting her on the policy if you have more drivers than cars, is that if she has an accident as far as the insurance company is concerned it's like you did it yourself.

[Atx328]

I appreciate all the replies.

I already tried the idea of putting her as primary on the 1999 Ford POS - but Geico in TX doesn't recognize a specific driver for a specific vehicle. So we get hit were having her on our two BMWs.

One of the reasons I was asking for your collective input was to see if this was maybe a company policy instead of general practice?

The surprising thing is that looking at different vehicles only changed the policy about $100 or $200 per 6 months. So a 2007 95K miles econohatch is almost as much as a 2012 sedan with 40K miles. It doesn't seem to make much sense other than there is a guy in the back running his actuarial tables.... and making me cry!

So if anyone has suggestions on a reasonable company that they used with teenagers on the policy - please let me know so I can run a quote or two.

Thanx!

[saeyedoc]

Older cars can cost just as much to fix collision damage as newer ones, parts and labor don't get cheaper with age.

[Viffermike]

Originally Posted by saeyedoc

Older cars can cost just as much to fix collision damage as newer ones, parts and labor don't get cheaper with age.

And injury coverage of any sort is not vehicle specific. That's age-specific -- i.e., the younger you are, the more likely you are to be part of an accident (whether your fault or not) that involves injury.

I would explore getting your teenager her own policy on a relatively inexpensive-to-run vehicle with little or no comprehensive coverage. This is what I did with my first car (a '76 Datsun 280z), which, frankly, wasn't worth covering with comprehensive at the time. Don't get her a beater -- but don't get her something with high repair costs, either.

[rr006rbc]

Originally Posted by E30toF30

Man you guys get some cheap car insurance down in the states.

My insurance at 43% discount is $2800 CAD per year. That's over $2000 usd on an f10 528i lol. My f30 335i was around the same price too. No kids on the policy or anything.

Yet another thing we Canadians get screwed on lol

But you guys have beautiful women that are mostly kind and welcoming. That trumps all. Girls from Los Angeles suck.

[CTinline-six]

I used to work in auto insurance claims. The number of distracted driving accidents (texting) made rates skyrocket for that age group. Premiums are determined by the risk calculated by the insurance company. If she has a BMW the rates will be even higher. For some reason certain companies feel coupes are more of a risk (sportier). My GF's Subaru Legacy GT (turbo) sedan was much cheaper than her Honda Civic coupe. Does she have good grades? Has she completed a driver's ed program? Those can lower the rates a bit, and some insurance companies are more willing to work with you than others. Driving distance/area is also a factor. When my sister moved to the Cape from CT her rates increased by about 20%.

[c1pher]

The title of this thread just doesn't read right to me.

[paliknight]

USAA. If you arent a military family, then make them enlist, at minimum air force reserve. this will solve many of your problems (especially college), not just this one.