As a former producer from a popular well known Insurance company, the topic of who should pay a teenager’s insurance has come up quite a few times. From my experience of what I have seen, I feel teens should be responsible for their own car insurance. The reason I feel this way is due to the fact that I personally feel parent’s shouldn’t be accounted for their child’s driving. What I mean by saying this is that when you are a teen and beginning to set your sights on the road, first time drivers have a higher risk of fatal accidents, fender benders, and points on their licenses. Why should their parent’s suffer the wrath of increased insurance rates as a result? Higher rates not only affect their child’s insurance but their own, especially if the teen resides in the same household.
In my short time working in the field of insurance, I have seen the hits parent’s take from reckless driving on their child’s part and how big a change it makes on their financial situation. I have seen premiums go up over a thousand dollars from one accident and as a result, caused the parent’s insurance on both cars to increase because their kid lived with them. Once they drive, teens are assumed to be able to drive the other cars under the same roof in the event of an emergency or with verbal permission from the owner. Therefore if they get in an accident with their own car and have that on their record, because they can drive the parent’s car, they raise the rates on every ones vehicle since they are now a risk. So whether the kid is paying for their own insurance or not, parent’s are still suffering the extra cost just by them being in the same vicinity.
In this time of recession, everyone needs to pitch in for their own belongings; cars being one of them. Insurance is a huge burden on a lot of people’s lives and can sometimes amount to an entire paycheck with no money left over to pay other amenities. If teens become liable for their own insurance, they are not only learning and preparing themselves for the real world, but they are also lessening the burden on the people who brought them into it..
Driving and owning a car is a means of independence and for a teen it is also their first shot at showing responsibility. With that in mind I feel that teens should be held accountable their car and the insurance covering it. It is stressful enough as a parent when the time comes for their child to get their license and head out into the open road without being by their side to navigate the way. Why add the extra aggravation of another premium for them to pay? Once teens start to drive they are already predisposed to a higher rate because they are assigned as an inexperienced driver and a huge liability. If they want to be adults and drive, then teens need to take on the baggage that comes with being a grown up and pay their own bills.