Teenage Car Insurance Top Concern Among Parents

More teenagers are having to wait to hit the road, thanks to ongoing economic woes and the high cost of teenage car insurance.

A new study from Nationwide Insurance revealed that of all the parental concerns associated with teen driving, the cost of car insurance was the biggest.

Interestingly, the cost of car insurance was a larger concern than distracted driving, which can obviously endanger a teenager and you guessed it, lead to an accident and even higher car insurance costs.

“Insurance concerns are notable as 70 percent of parents of teen drivers insure their child on their auto insurance policy, experiencing a yearly average increase of approximately $800,” the Nationwide release noted.

The company also found households spent an average of $3,100 per year to allow their teenagers to drive, a figure that takes into account car insurance and gasoline costs.

Car insurance is so expensive for teenagers that half of parents have had to make financial cutbacks to allow their children to drive.

And one-third of parents of teen drivers said their children were “forced to get a job” in order to pay for their own car insurance.

All that said, it’s best to speak with an independent insurance agent who can shop your teenager’s car insurance rate (and even your own) with multiple companies simultaneously.

Doing so will allow you to see what discounts (good student discount, good driver discount, hybrid discount, etc) are available to your teen, thereby reducing your insurance premium costs.

Heck, it may even make sense for you to switch insurance companies to save money on the overall bill.

Read more: Am I required to have auto insurance on a teenager?