Don't Let Your Teen Driver Raise Your Insurance Rates
It's a major event when your teenager comes home holding a license to drive, and you will feel justifiably proud of the achievement. It's when you try to add that teen to your automobile insurance policy that the pride turns to shock. You should know that there is much you can do to lessen the effects of having a young driver in your household, so read on to find out more.
Keep up with your teen's driving habits: You and your insurance carrier can glean quite a bit by using a device that is inserted under the dash of the car. This small device is actually a computer that collects data from the vehicle's computer, sending it to a data collection point. This information is then available for parents to view on their computer or smartphone. Provided at no charge by your auto insurance carrier, it monitors certain parameters of speed, braking, and more.
The data is used by the insurance company to provide your teen with a rating based on several factors, and the rating can lower (or raise) your insurance premium. Some of the data points include:
- Speed
- Acceleration
- Cornering speeds
- Braking
and more.
Using this device not only has the potential to lower your rates but give you information about where your teen may need more work. It also has the tendency to make a driver more aware of their actions, just knowing that someone else is monitoring their driving habits. These devices are not just for teens, but for anyone needing to become more aware of their bad driving habits.
Be aware of distractions: Teens love their electronics so much that it sometimes seems like they cannot live without them. Texting, finding music to listen to, talking on the phone and even fiddling with the GPS device can create a serious distraction that affects this age group particularly badly. When you take into consideration the inexperience that a teen driver brings to the road, and add in a distraction of any kind, you have the means for accidents, injuries, and death. Teenagers who use their devices while driving are twice as likely to be involved in an accident than those who do not. Even a minor, slow speed crash can raise your rates, so emphasize the importance of not using these devices while driving to keep rates low and to increase safety.
You should speak to your auto insurance agent for more info and good ideas on keeping your rates down, such as driver's education classes.
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