Cost for 20 year old male- car insurance

[Hilltopmom]

So quotes are coming back so high. I knew it would cost a lot when ds finally got his license and a car (a beater car, even). But $3500 a year?!! I hadn’t planned on that. For just liability, no collision . Even tried Geico.

what age does it go down???

just commiserate with me unless u have a Magic way to find it cheaper 🙂

Edited July 24, 2020 by Hilltopmom

[Pen]

Commiserations.

Check if there are any possible discounts like for taking a driving class or non smoker etc

Check AAA...   Is this including being part of family insurance?

 

[Hilltopmom]

This quote is for his own separate insurance policy with a “good report card” discount. (I believe that was going to be cheaper than putting him on our family policy)

But he’s literally only had his license for a few weeks.

[Pen]

Just now, Hilltopmom said:

This quote is for his own separate insurance policy with a “good report card” discount. (I believe that was going to be cheaper than putting him on our family policy)

But he’s literally only had his license for a few weeks.

 

For us putting my son on my policy was less than him having a separate policy.  It Only could be done since he was still living at home. 

[Hilltopmom]

3 minutes ago, Pen said:

 

For us putting my son on my policy was less than him having a separate policy.  It Only could be done since he was still living at home. 

Ah. Makes sense. He lives in a different city- away at school but legal address is still ours.

[teachermom2834]

That is really high. My 20 year old on a beater with only liability is $430 for the year. He got his license the day he turned 16, though so maybe four years of clean driving record brings it down some, but that is a huge difference. My 16 yo with a beater was about $1000. They are on our family policy, not their own. My 22 yo did just get his own insurance and it is higher but he is in a higher COL area.

I totally commiserate having insured three teen boys and I only mention ours for comparison and maybe check on having him on your policy if you didn’t check into that. We kept our boys on our policy even though they were living away at college.

[prairiewindmomma]

That’s about what we are paying. It is not fun.

[klmama]

It may be cheaper with some companies if he is on your policy, and it may be cheaper still if your name is also on the car title.  FWIW, if you want him to be on his own policy, Progressive may have a better rate.  

[Bootsie]

It was much cheaper for DS to be on our policy, with the title of the car in our name, than it would have been for him to have a car title in his own name and his own policy.

[Tree Frog]

Ours is $1600/year in a 2 year old vehicle for a 19 yo male who's been driving for 3 years. He is on our insurance, but will be out of state for college. Often discounts are offered for safe driving courses ($30 online) and being a good student. Your ds can also agree to use the insurance company's tracking to confirm his good driving habits. I don't know what it's called specifically because it's not something we've chosen to use. Because we have 4 vehicles on our policy, we also have a multiple vehicle discount. Confirm with the insurance co that they offer these discounts. The location of the vehicle will also affect the price. When ds goes to college, his rate will drop a bit because of the community he's moving to vs. where we live. 

I don't know why you're looking at your ds having his own policy, but I wanted to share what I learned when we wanted to spin our dd off our insurance. Her own policy, at 20yo, was significantly higher than being on ours. We were considering setting up her own policy to limit our liability in case of an accident, but the insurance agent told us that because she was considered living at home (despite being away at college) and the title was in our name that even with her own policy, we could still be liable. 

I wish you much luck. Hopefully you're able to find something significantly less expensive!

[Pen]

1 hour ago, teachermom2834 said:

That is really high. My 20 year old on a beater with only liability is $430 for the year. He got his license the day he turned 16, though so maybe four years of clean driving record brings it down some, but that is a huge difference. My 16 yo with a beater was about $1000. They are on our family policy, not their own. My 22 yo did just get his own insurance and it is higher but he is in a higher COL area.

I totally commiserate having insured three teen boys and I only mention ours for comparison and maybe check on having him on your policy if you didn’t check into that. We kept our boys on our policy even though they were living away at college.

 

$430! That seems amazingly low!

[Pen]

1 hour ago, Hilltopmom said:

Ah. Makes sense. He lives in a different city- away at school but legal address is still ours.

 

Check and see if he can be on yours and what it would cost

[TarynB]

FWIW, the type/age of car he's driving has little to nothing to do with the rate. Liability insurance is for him as a driver; he's not actually insuring the car if he doesn't have comprehensive/collision coverage. Liability coverage is exactly that - compensating someone else for property damage, medical bills, lost wages, etc. if DS is found to be at-fault in an accident. Liability does nothing to pay for your own car if you cause an accident, so driving a beater doesn't help with the insurance cost. In fact, driving a vehicle with more modern safety/collision avoidance features could help. Also, age matters some in how the rates are set, but length of time/driving experience matters more, especially for young male drivers. That's why we made sure DS got his license as soon as he was able to at age 16, while he was still living at home in a pretty rural area with lower insurance rates - before going off to college in another area (Big City) with higher insurance rates. He'll have been insured for more than 2.5 years at that point and the rates with our current insurer start to drop after 3 years of driving experience.

Edited July 24, 2020 by TarynB

[Bootsie]

16 minutes ago, TarynB said:

FWIW, the type/age of car he's driving has little to nothing to do with the rate. Liability insurance is for him as a driver; he's not actually insuring the car if he doesn't have comprehensive/collision coverage. Liability coverage is exactly that - compensating someone else for property damage, medical bills, lost wages, etc. if DS is found to be at-fault in an accident. Liability does nothing to pay for your own car if you cause an accident, so driving a beater doesn't help with the insurance cost. In fact, driving a vehicle with more modern safety/collision avoidance features could help. Also, age matters some in how the rates are set, but length of time/driving experience matters more, especially for young male drivers. That's why we made sure DS got his license as soon as he was able to at age 16, while he was still living at home in a pretty rural area with lower insurance rates - before going off to college in another area (Big City) with higher insurance rates. He'll have been insured for more than 2.5 years at that point and the rates with our current insurer start to drop after 3 years of driving experience.

In our situation it did very much matter which car DS was the driver of.  The insurance company saw the chances of being in a wreck and the amount of damage that would probably occur to another automobile as very different depending on what vehicle DS was driving.  The way the premiums are set can vary greatly from state to state.

[TarynB]

24 minutes ago, Bootsie said:

In our situation it did very much matter which car DS was the driver of.  The insurance company saw the chances of being in a wreck and the amount of damage that would probably occur to another automobile as very different depending on what vehicle DS was driving.  The way the premiums are set can vary greatly from state to state.

For liability-only coverage, or full coverage? For full coverage, yes, that is accurate. For liability-only, they are writing the policy on the driver, not the vehicle.

[TarynB]

Insurance rates also vary with credit history. Bad credit or no credit can result in higher rates. Not saying I agree with it, but that is part of the game too. Insurance underwriters believe better credit/money management = lower risk driver. That's another reason why young people on their parents' policy can get lower rates versus being on their own policy. DS has had his own credit history starting at age 16 when he began driving and we added him as an authorized user on our credit cards (4 different banks, all did it the same). 

[Bootsie]

2 minutes ago, TarynB said:

For liability-only coverage, or full coverage? For full coverage, yes, that is accurate. For liability-only, they are writing the policy on the driver, not the vehicle.

Yes, for liability-only it made a difference because they are insuring a driver who is usually driving a particular vehicle.  I think this varies by state.

[TarynB]

5 minutes ago, Bootsie said:

Yes, for liability-only it made a difference because they are insuring a driver who is usually driving a particular vehicle.  I think this varies by state.

Well, not exactly. The driver is insured no matter what vehicle s/he is driving. S/he could even be driving a vehicle owned by someone else/not in the family, etc. The coverage still applies in the case of an accident no matter what vehicle s/he is driving. Coverage is on the driver.

Edited July 24, 2020 by TarynB

[Starr]

Ours was cheaper on our policy and we owned the cars. I think 25 is when the rates drop. It's a pain.

[Laura Corin]

In the UK you can get a 'black box' fitted to the car that tracks how it is being driven (speed, cornering, acceleration, braking).  With that in place, my insurance for our old car with Hobbes as driver (aged 18/19) was cut in half after six months, from £1,000 to £500.  The black box tracks everyone who drives the car, so everyone has to drive carefully in order to reduce the premium.  I don't know if something similar is available to you.

[BlsdMama]

10 hours ago, Pen said:

 

For us putting my son on my policy was less than him having a separate policy.  It Only could be done since he was still living at home. 

We are allowed to have DS (21) still on our insurance policy with his own car, however he is a full time student.  

But I will say this - your quote is expensive.  I just looked up our insurance policies.  We carry a van with full coverage where I'm the primary driver, DH has a truck that has liability only, DD(18) has a car with liability only, and DS(21) has a car that has full coverage.  My TOTAL policy with four vehicles and 18yo & 21yo primary drivers, is $3170.38.  Both kids do have discounts due to grades if that matters.  This is through USAA.  We are not accident free - I totalled DH's car two years ago by backing my van into his car and I wish I was kidding, but neither of the kids have claims.  DS DID get one ticket but it was for 10 over and if I remember correctly that isn't a moving violation?

[teachermom2834]

9 hours ago, Pen said:

 

$430! That seems amazingly low!

I guess so! I do know that over time his rate has dropped. A little bit each year older he gets and a little bit each year of safe driving. It didn't seem low until I typed it because we had, until recently, five vehicles on our policy so the monthly bill seemed awfully high. His policy definitely was the cheapest of the rest. The older drivers had newer cars with full coverage and his little brother was higher. (And said little brother just totaled  his car...so there you go with the high risk driver 😭)

 

[teachermom2834]

12 minutes ago, BlsdMama said:

We are allowed to have DS (21) still on our insurance policy with his own car, however he is a full time student.  

But I will say this - your quote is expensive.  I just looked up our insurance policies.  We carry a van with full coverage where I'm the primary driver, DH has a truck that has liability only, DD(18) has a car with liability only, and DS(21) has a car that has full coverage.  My TOTAL policy with four vehicles and 18yo & 21yo primary drivers, is $3170.38.  Both kids do have discounts due to grades if that matters.  This is through USAA.  We are not accident free - I totalled DH's car two years ago by backing my van into his car and I wish I was kidding, but neither of the kids have claims.  DS DID get one ticket but it was for 10 over and if I remember correctly that isn't a moving violation?

Agreed the quote in the OP is crazy high. Our policy through State Farm for five vehicles (2016 van and two 2013 sedans with full coverage, a 2006 beater with a 20 yo driver, and a 2005 beater with a 16 yo driver) was $300/mo. Just spun the 22 yo off to his own insurance and the 16  yo wrecked his car putting the policy down to three vehicles and now it is $187/mo. However, our rates are going to shift with the wreck the 16 yo had. There isn't a large claim being filed but our insurance does require attaching the teen driver to a specific car. The cars left both have full coverage so it will be high putting the teen on one of those. Waiting to see how that plays out. Might have to call around to find a company that handles the extra teen driver differently or may actually have to buy a beater to put teen on because that will be cheaper than putting him on my dh's car. How stupid is that? 

I will say that I called around every few years when we started in with the teen drivers and State Farm was always the lowest for our situation. They all had different rules about how they handled a kid away at school without a car or how they assigned drivers to cars. I remember one company stating that they had to assign the highest risk driver to the most valuable car. 

Also, the discount State Farm gave for having mulitple lines was enough that adding a $20/mo life insurance policy for me was enough to make all the car insurance cheaper. Plus now I have that extra life insurance. 

It is all very frustrating and it is very difficult to compare policies. 

[Pen]

 

 

https://www.carinsurance.com/Articles/adding-teen-driver-cost.aspx

 

yhis is for teens, but probably not super far off for new 20yo driver

It has state average cost chart - worth looking at because some of us may be in high Insurance cost states, some in low ones.  

(Some states show average year cost with teen added under 2000 others over 5000.  So what is a “good” price may depend a lot on location. Even more than on what company, what car, or possible discount.) 

Edited July 24, 2020 by Pen