What You Should Know About Learners Drivers Insurance
What You Should Know About Learners Drivers Insurance
Obtaining a learner's permit to drive a car is a major mile stone in a young person's life. A sense of freedom and the ability to go anywhere any time you want is a wonderful feeling for young adults. This joyous experience can be quickly snuffed out however once young people learn what it costs to insure the vehicle with them as a driver. Learner drivers insurance is essential for your young driver and it can also be an expensive and complicated form of coverage for obvious reasons.
Young drivers are statistically more likely to be in an accident. Many insurance companies won't even lower rates on existing drivers until the age of 25 when insurance rates tend to be dropped assuming the driver has no moving violations or excessive claims. Teenagers can be especially expensive to insure and even more so now that many states have passed tough restrictive legislation on learner drivers in response to a rash of fatal or serious accidents involving young people.
Some restrictions placed on young drivers include curfews or times they are not authorized to be driving a car such as in evening hours during weekends or holidays, the amount of people the driver is allowed to have in the vehicle at one time, the age of persons in the vehicle as well as areas the driver is not allowed to go such as freeways. Regulations vary drastically from state to state but the overall purpose remains the same, to protect young drivers and other motorists from mistakes made by novice drivers.
Another factor that influences rates for learners insurance is the age of the driver. A person much older can still get a good insurance rate even if they have never driven before because they are at a mature age. Teenagers and generally persons under 25 are going through a lot of emotional and physical changes that can affect their decision making skills and reaction times in cases where split second decisions are needed. Young people are simply physiologically incapable of making the same sorts of decisions in the proper manner as older individuals and insurance companies are well aware of this.
If you have a young driver or are a young driver yourself, there are some ways to mitigate the expenses of learner drivers insurance. The best way is to not have any moving violations. If you don't have any it is crucial to maintain an impeccable driving record for as long as you can by practicing safe driving habits. Even one moving violation for a young driver can cause already high rates to go up even further. Another way to get a better rate is to add your young driver onto your own insurance instead of having them purchase their own. Companies will often give out better rates if a young person is simply added to an existing policy instead of having one all their own and this is also usually more convenient since they may be already using a car on the policy.