Can people share rough idea cost of teen auto insurance?

No, that's not why you interrogate with your pointless questions. Not to understand. Just to irritate. I'll just have to remember to ignore you.

canandrob,

Questions are, by their nature, interrogatory.

In which alternative universe, are they not?

But it seems that you would prefer to not answer questions on the topics you raise.

So again i query: what does it matter what others pay?

The young man has the parent he has. He goes on their policy and pays the freight; or, gets his own insurance and pays that freight.

Has he shopped his own insurance? Does he expect auto insurance as part of the "right of passage" from secondary school to college.

You're being kind enough to offer him a vehicle, as a gift.

What has HE done to facilitate the acceptance of you gift?

What has HE done to determine what public transit options between his home and his next school, exist?

Has HE queried the parent as to what financial contribution the parent will make, owing to the parent's poor driving record?

Has HE investigated the option of being an additional insured on the policy of the adult with which HE lives; and what that might might cost.

TomR

Okay, TomR, I'll bite one more time. 

It matters TO ME (don't care if it matters to you) for the reasons ALREADY stated- multiple times. Mostly, it matters because it allows me a starting point for negotiation with his parent to say, kid should be paying x. Because of you, he's paying y. 

The kid expects absolutely nothing. He has no idea he's getting a car. He has no idea I plan to also fund (in conjunction with his butthole parent) his insurance for the first six months. That is his 18th birthday/graduation gift. So, no, kid hasn't shopped for insurance yet. After the gift, I plan to go through how it all works with him, using the illustration of the astronomical cost because of his parent's mistakes as a learning experience for him. It would be important for him to understand what safe driving and good, responsible money management gets you in life. 

Now, go away.

I have a friend who lives with her brother...they counted his driving record against her even though they don't share a policy.  Once his license was suspended, she told him he was not allowed to get it restored if he continued to live there.

When our son passed his test, I took measures to make sure he/we qualified for all perks, including the Good Student Discount. We had Geico then and our home was insured separately. Although I don't recall the actual figure, it was high, even with Geico (and we had 4 vehicles - which in NJ doesn't really save you much). I do recall Geico being very expensive with our teen on the policy. I looked into the idea of him having an individual policy but that was astronomical for a new driver, male. A dear friend of mine announced her career change as a Farmer's agent. She studied our coverages like she was studying for the SAT's. We bundled all, kept him on our policy and the amount we save has been overwhelming. 

For his graduation, we leased him a vehicle and even that has not been crazy expensive for us. BTW, he's 19 and still on our policy, if that helps you. 

There is no easy solution but there are policies and companies that will help ease the pain for you. 

It's been a few years and I honestly don't remember, but I do recall that insurance approached the value of one of the cars. Even without a car, adding teen sons as drivers on my policy at least doubled the premium.

Instead they took campus and public buses, shared rides and occasionally used Uber or a local taxi service, and lived close enough to classroom buildings to walk. And even when they were living hundreds of miles away for most of the year, I continued to pay the teen boy surcharge.

conandrob240 said:

Care to share what rates you were quoted (roughly)?

How is kid supposed to get to college classes if he doesn't have a car? He's living at home and commenting. No public transportation. I should have pushed harder for CUNY. Maybe I can still convince him.

j_r said:

We took a pass on the gift of cars twice for this reason. Teen boys get the highest rates. 

Could you just add him onto your insurance as an authorized driver and keep the car titled in your name?  Then his rate would reflect your credit and driving history

I wondered that, too, but I would guess that an NJ insurer would balk at covering a car that was driven and parked in another state. But it's worth a call to your insurer to ask.

I don't think that's legal. He has to be insured based on where he lives/where car is garaged.

campbell29 said:

Could you just add him onto your insurance as an authorized driver and keep the car titled in your name?  Then his rate would reflect your credit and driving history

I think that's reasonable if they are going away to school certainly I didn't have a car my first two years at college, but living at home in suburbia, he has to have a car to get to school 17 miles away. His job luckily is .20 miles from home and he walks so he doesn't need the car immediately. 

j_r said:

It's been a few years and I honestly don't remember, but I do recall that insurance approached the value of one of the cars. Even without a car, adding teen sons as drivers on my policy at least doubled the premium.

Instead they took campus and public buses, shared rides and occasionally used Uber or a local taxi service, and lived close enough to classroom buildings to walk. And even when they were living hundreds of miles away for most of the year, I continued to pay the teen boy surcharge.

conandrob240 said:

Care to share what rates you were quoted (roughly)?

How is kid supposed to get to college classes if he doesn't have a car? He's living at home and commenting. No public transportation. I should have pushed harder for CUNY. Maybe I can still convince him.

j_r said:

We took a pass on the gift of cars twice for this reason. Teen boys get the highest rates. 

Are there no reasonable public transport options from where he lives to attend school? Can he Uber to and from the bus/train? 

Long Island in general doesn't have very good buses/public transportation. Especially from where he is and the fact that he has to go both West and then also south. It's not like here. He'd have to Uber to /from school 3-4 days a week. Roughly 18 miles each way. And then he'd be stranded in his home the rest of the time. It's not really a good option for him.

It wasn't the amount I was unwilling to pay. I was just trying to understand how his circumstances affected his rate and what "typical" would be. Based on the info people provided, I figured typical cost of his insurance should have been $2500 meaning the parent should be responsible for about $4000 (the amount of cost beyond what is typical). He's agreed to pay $2500 which is more than I thought he would. So I'll cover the rest of the gap and make the kids contribution 1/2 of that "typical" amount of $2500. That's fair to him.

Thank you

If the kid has a car (rather than being the 3rd driver in a 2-car family, for example) then it is a bigger hit.  I can't remember for sure but in our "clean driver" household, I think the hit was around $2000 a year, but that was 7 or 8 years ago.  Later we added another teen and it went up again, but I've lost track of what the increment over just the two of us is now.  Youngest is now 22 and oldest is off our insurance, so it has come down a bit, but is still much more than before teen drivers.  (Our total for three drivers and three cars is well under $6500, though.)

it's a one car household. He needs a car. 

to give context, the cost for the 2 drivers/ 2 cars is roughly $14k a year. That's how bad the parents credit/driving history is. I am going to set him up completely independently from the parent. The cost is roughly the same for him to be added or go independent - $6500/year

Have him complete a defensive driving course. It's will generate a small reduction in premium and is good for three years. 

iirc, college enrollment/grades can also help reduce premiums, so maybe there's hope for the near future?  (iirc, his h.s. grades would not be an asset, right?)

Wrenching your hands in public is not going to change the facts of this situation.  Have you considered offering this young man the option of living with you in which event he could go to a community college in NJ where he might be able to use public transportation or at least get insurance at a much lower cost?  Have you thought about the cost of maintenance and repairs on what is likely to be a fairly old car?  Have you thought about how much insurance coverage should be required at a minimum.  Paying $6000 per year for minimum coverage as part of an agreement which might not be honored by the other parties involved appears to be a risky proposition.

ugh. The poor kid just failed his road test for going too slow. On his 18th birthday. This kid never catches a break. So sad

Everybody who failed their first road test, raise your hand.  And yet we all survived, though it may have seemed unlikely at the time. 

He could probably use some reassurance, and maybe additional practice or (test-focused) instruction.

(Personally, I failed mine on my 16th birthday, for misunderstanding an instruction.  Pitched a giant fit, saying I'd rather die than go on without a license....  Well over 50 years ago now.)

I know, so many people fail. But he's so insecure, I just hoped he'd get a nice big confidence boost today. Seems like a particularly painful slap in the face that he was being extra careful which translated to a little too slow. Poor kid. Good news is you can try again in literally a day. I thought there was a longer waiting period. Hopefully he'll be willing to try again in a week or two.

I'm sorry I can't post a link here, but do go to www.insurance.com and look up the report with the title "Car Insurance for Teens" (by Michele Lerner, Oct 15, 2016).

It has lots of tips and an online price comparison chart. However, it may be worthwhile considering installing one of those "black boxes" which some auto insurers issue to monitor how carefully the driver of the car is driving and if it's considered to be at a satisfactory level, the premiums are lowered. 

My friend has one in her large SUV) and begged us not to brake hard too frequently when we borrowed it to drive up to Maine lol!

Hope this helps and that the teen overcomes his obstacles

Yes this! State Farm or Progressive has a program like this and it rewards you at policy renewal for good, low mileage, non-severe braking driving habits. Definitely worth a shot  

ApplePie said:

I'm sorry I can't post a link here, but do go to www.insurance.com and look up the report with the title "Car Insurance for Teens" (by Michele Lerner, Oct 15, 2016).

It has lots of tips and an online price comparison chart. However, it may be worthwhile considering installing one of those "black boxes" which some auto insurers issue to monitor how carefully the driver of the car is driving and if it's considered to be at a satisfactory level, the premiums are lowered. 

My friend has one in her large SUV) and begged us not to brake hard too frequently when we borrowed it to drive up to Maine lol!

Hope this helps and that the teen overcomes his obstacles

conandrob240 said:

How is kid supposed to get to college classes if he doesn't have a car? He's living at home and commenting. No public transportation. I should have pushed harder for CUNY. Maybe I can still convince him.

j_r said:

We took a pass on the gift of cars twice for this reason. Teen boys get the highest rates. 

Those in that situation either get loans to cover on-campus housing or matriculate at colleges where a car isn't necessary (or where rates are very low to self-insure).

Have you seriously explored pulling him out of that home and having him live with you for a gap year while he explored his options and works? He's not a kid anymore and anything to get him out of that home should help him and you with all your worry and consternation.

well, some kids don't have the grades to make that happen. Unfortunately, his grades got him into 2-year community colleges without many dorm opportunities. The one that has a dorm opportunity meant $12,000 a year in dorm expenses so the insurancecat $6,600 is still better financially. He fully intends to switch schools in 1-2 years to a better 4 year school with a true dorm or apartment setting. 

Again, the cost sucks but I was more looking for a comparison point on what it should cost vs what it will cost.

Thanks for the info in "car insurance for teens"- will study it diligently!

this situation wasn't really one of "worry and consternation" lol. Just continued annoyance at his irresponsible parent and a quest for info that could drive my "ask" of said parent.

All the options have been weighed against his own desires and my recommendations. We landed on living at home, attending local comm college at essentially no cost as a proving ground for transfer in 1-2 years. He has a series of things he needs to do (steady job, grades of B-, no skipping classes, savings of $5,000  and so on) and then I'll help him move where he wants to go. He's doing great so far since we made the decision and laid out the criteria- very motivated at his job, drastically improved HS grades past 2 periods, much improved social life, increased responsibility and dramatically improved relationship with his much younger siblings. I am very excited for him and I'm fairly confident we made the right choice. Time will tell.

I know this is unasked for advice, but unless he is really attached to going to his local CC, he would be way better off living with you, taking classes at Morris CC, Union CC and focusing on his studies.  During this time, you can support him emotionally and financially, which you appear to be doing anyway, he can work, go to school, become a NJ resident and get to Rutgers with in state tuition after a couple years, and probably finish without a big load of student debt

You are already essentially his parent, it seems like it would be far easier to deal with this stuff if you weren't having to always run through his parents' incompetence.

yes, unasked for. His college decision has already been made and, like I said, we believe it is the best choice for him right now. He's not interested in NJ or Rutgers in any way. He has a different longer term plan and interests. In addition, throwing away free NY state tuition is frivolous at this point. 

And, yes, his life and mine would be easier if his parent and other parent figure didn't exist. They both cause nothing but obstacles and aggravation at every turn.