I will be adding my teenage son under my car insurance. I’m a single mom. I’m afraid that I might be paying more than I could afford on my premiums once I’ve added him under my policy. I’m hoping you could teach me ways on how to get cheaper insurance rates in Kansas City.  Can you help me?

Ruby

Kansa City, KS

I do understand where you’re coming from. I dreaded the moment too when I’ve added my daughter under my car insurance’s name. But you really don’t have to worry a lot. There are some factors you need to consider to help you get cheap car insurance rates for your teenage driver:

1. Check the available resources online. It’s always cheaper to get quotes online than from an insurance agent. Why? Less money is involved in running a website rather than paying insurance agents.

2. Make sure your teenager is studying more rather than partying at night. If he got good grades in school, then he’ll qualify for a good student discount.

3. Has your teen completed a defensive driving or safe driving course? If yes, then you can get as much as 15% discount off your premiums.

4. Is you teen’s car equipped with anti-theft devices? The more safety features a car has, the lower your rates will be.

5. Is your teen going to drive an inexpensive car? The lower the value of the car, the lower the rate of your premiums.
One of the best ways to lower your annual premiums is to have a higher deductible amount.. Like a $1,000, is what I carry personally.

Now, if you are a claim free and safe driver like I am, you could be saving a ton of money each year on your premiums.  People fail to realize that the deductible amount is only paid when they file a claim and their insurance company pays that claim.

Ask for discounts, you never know what you might be able to get and how much you can save by asking.  Some popular discounts can be given for:

1. Military personnel

2. Good grade students

3. Union membership and bank member affiliations

4. Safe drivers with no claims in last 7 years

5. Defensive driving school attendance

6. Clean credit history – used by many carriers to determine payment risk

Start surfing the net now and you can easily compare quotes in Kansas City. You’ll be shocked on how rates vary from one company to another. I wish you luck in shopping online.

When I turned 16 and got my first car, I also got added to the car insurance policy that my parent’s had. Now I’m leaving state to go to school elsewhere, so I’ll be getting my own new student car insurance. I know it will be more expensive, but how do I make it cheaper?

Sharon

It’s easy, Sharon.

First I want to remind you of the option to just not get a new student car insurance policy at all. If you are going to school in a different state, most car insurance companies will give a huge discount or not charge for you at all while your name is still on the policy, so if you leave your car at home you could end up paying nothing for car insurance and still be covered when you use it during visits home. This may not sound reasonable, but consider that if you are moving to a college town, not only will you live on campus but you will probably be able to get places where you need to go by taking public transportation.

If that isn’t what you want to do, or if your college town doesn’t have a good bus system, then here are some ways to get it done.

• Raise your deductible. This is the most basic cheap car insurance rates advice. The higher your deductible, the lower your premium. Just make sure that you can afford the higher deductible.
• Lower your standards. Pick a car that has some grey hairs and wrinkles, but is still safe. Older cars are cheaper to insure, and you also won’t need as much insurance. In the same vein, consider not getting that great stereo and those rims.
• Is your car worth less than your premium? Then you should only get the minimum state required car insurance coverage.
• Take a class in defensive driving.
• Maintain your credit report. It’s time that you are starting out in life and getting your credit going, so be careful now or you’ll have problems in the future.
• Look around for your car insurance company. Get instant online rate quotes and compare, compare, compare.
• Join an organization that helps you get discounted car insurance rates.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.

I’m adding a teenager to my policy. How do I keep my rates low?

Michael

Good question.

Adding a teenager to your car insurance policy means high costs all around. It could mean the doubling or tripling of the current amount of your auto insurance premium, and because of that the best amount of effort should be put into keeping that premium down, a lot of the responsibility for keeping it down should be put on the shoulders of the teenager. In order to find out who will be best suited to insure you and your teen, you should get free instant auto insurance quotes and compare prices. But that’s not all. While they should naturally try to avoid accidents and drive safely, there are plenty of other ways for them to stay safe on the road and still be saving you money in the car insurance office.

• Driver’s ed.

Most teenagers under the age of eighteen take some kind of driver’s education course before they get their license, as required by law. However, these classes aren’t always considered enough for creating safe drivers. Getting them an additional class in driver’s ed or defensive driving can get you a discount on your car insurance, even though research shows that these classes don’t decrease the amount of accidents.

• Good grades.

Get your kid to study hard in school for their driver’s privileges. The upside of this is that, if your student brings home all B’s or above, most car insurance companies will give you as much as a fifteen percent discount on your premium.

• Mileage.

Many car insurance companies offer discounts for low mileage cars. Usually, this is under five thousand miles every year. If you restrict your teenager’s driving practices and keep the car as strictly school and back affair, then you could save money from a low mileage discount.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.