Should You Put Your Teen on Your Insurance Policy?
As a parent who now has a driving-aged child, you might be trying to decide whether or not you should add your teen to your insurance policy. After all, it might seem like the easiest way to make sure that your child has the required coverage, but you still might not be sure if it’s a good idea. These are a few things that you should consider when making this decision.
Do You Have a Good Driving Record?
As you might already know, young and inexperienced drivers generally have to pay a whole lot more for car insurance. In fact, some of the youngest drivers in Canada pay a whopping 60 percent more for their coverage. However, if you don’t have a good driving record yourself, you might not be doing yourself or your teen any favors by adding him or her to your insurance. If your insurance is already high because you have gotten a lot of tickets or have been in accidents, you might find that your teen can get a better rate alone.
Do You Have Expensive Vehicles?
Take a look at the vehicles in your garage. Even if they are valuable, they might not be that expensive to insure right now, particularly if you have a good driving record. However, if you add your teen to your insurance policy, your insurance company might assume that he or she will be driving these vehicles, too, even if this is not the case. Since insurance companies often worry about teens wrecking cars — particularly valuable ones that will be expensive to replace if something happens — this could result in your policy going up really high. In this situation, it might be best for your teen to have a separate policy with the car that he or she will be driving alone.
Are You Required To?
Talk with your insurance agent about the fact that you have a driving-age child in your home. Depending on the rules that your insurance company has in place, you might be required to add your child to your policy as a driver, even if he or she never drives your vehicles and has a separate policy. If this is the case, it might be cheaper for your child to simply have coverage through your policy rather than being listed as a driver on your policy and then having separate coverage.
Making the decision to add your child to your insurance can be a big one, and you might be unsure of what to do. Luckily, asking yourself these questions, speaking with an insurance agent and running a few auto insurance quotes should help you make the right decision. If you need more information from an expert, InsuranceHero.ca may be able to help you.
