It’s an exciting time when your teenager becomes a licensed driver. They’re taking a big step towards independence, but they probably aren’t so independent that they don’t need your help with access to a car—or organizing the insurance that needs to go with it. Even if you’ve decided they’re not ready for a car of their own, chances are your teen driver is going to be using your car. That’s why it’s important for you to make sure they’re added to your existing policy (gulp) so they’re protected—especially since they can’t have their own insurance policy until they turn 18. But don’t panic! At Elephant Insurance, we provide helpful discounts and policies that make adding a teen to your plan much less expensive than you might think.

Adding a teen to your policy may seem like a heavy price tag, but there are actually several ways you can save money when you have multiple cars to insure. Here are a few of them:

Good Student Discount

It’s simple: higher grades, lower premiums. When your teen’s grade point average goes up, your insurance costs can go down through Elephant’s Good Student Discount. Students who are taking a full course load may be eligible for a sizable discount depending on your type of policy. Plus, it isn’t just high schoolers who can take advantage of this discount. If your child is in college–and is under the age of 26–they can take advantage of these savings with a 3.0 GPA or better.

Safe driving habits

Are you a safe driver? How about your teen? When your family drives safely, you should be rewarded for keeping the roads safe! The longer you and your family go accident-free, the less you should have to pay in premiums. At Elephant, safe drivers tend to pay less when they file fewer claims.

Safe Car Discount

Speaking of safety, if you or your teen are lucky enough to have car safety features like a backup camera, Bluetooth technology, or crash avoidance features, you’re in luck! We believe drivers who make safe choices like driving safe cars should be rewarded. That’s why we give a discount to our drivers with cars that have advanced safety features.

Teach a new driver old tricks

Safe cars have many benefits, but sometimes those same benefits can be drawbacks for certain drivers. When teen drivers are learning the ropes, some parents find it reassuring to know they won’t be distracted with all the bells and whistles of a more modern car. If you’re looking to save big on a car for your teen, shop used. Or, if you have an older car you were considering trading it, consider passing it down to your teen. Elephant will be sure to keep them safe and save you money, even if they don’t qualify for our Safe Car Discount.

Multi-Car Discount

More cars? More savings. For many families, multiple cars are needed to keep a household running smoothly. However, many people get anxious thinking about having to cover more than one car on their insurance. So, will your premiums skyrocket with the addition of a teenage driver? With the Multi-Car discount from Elephant, you can save up to 25% on your existing policy.

Student Away Discount

We’ll keep this one brief—Elephant’s Student Away Discount offers savings for students who attend school at least 100 miles away from home and don’t have their car with them. If your teen is attending school away from home and isn’t actively driving their (or your) car at the moment, we don’t think you should pay like they’re behind the wheel. It’s the perfect discount for teens heading off to college!

Diminishing Deductible

This coverage is an optional feature that you can add at the start of a new policy or when it’s time to renew your current policy. Diminishing deductible is ideal if you know you and your teen are responsible drivers—it allows you to have the lower cost of a high deductible and pay less out-of-pocket in an accident.

At Elephant, we do things a little differently. You’ll get a reduced deductible on day one of your policy with us, regardless of your previous accident history. After this initial decrease, you’ll earn another $50 off your collision deductible every six months you go without getting into an accident.

Let’s put some numbers to that idea. Let’s say your deductible is $500 at first. When you add your teen to your plan and add diminishing deductible to your policy, your deductible will be reduced to $450 right away. Then, every six months after, you’ll get another $50 off your policy if you and your teen aren’t involved in any accidents.

There’s one more thing about the way we do Diminishing Deductible that sets us apart. If your teen does get in accident after adding this feature, we won’t reset your collision deductible. So if you had made it all the way down to, let’s say, $350, your deductible would stay at $350 for the next policy period. You’d be eligible for another reduction again at the beginning of the next year everyone was accident free! We don’t often toot our own horn, but this kind of deal is truly not offered everywhere.

Bundle your policies

When it comes to saving on insurance, one of the most sure-fired ways to save big is by bundling your auto policy with another type of insurance. At Elephant, for example, you can save up to 12% on your auto insurance when you bundle with homeowners insurance, which is our most popular insurance to bundle with. But it doesn’t end there! You can also bundle with life insurance, motorcycle insurance, or renters insurance. Bundling with renters, by the way, can be very beneficial if your teen is older and away at college living off campus. Combined with our Student Away Discount we mentioned earlier, you’ll be on your way to big savings.

Plan ahead with umbrella insurance

So, we’ll be upfront—you can’t bundle your auto policy with umbrella insurance, and it won’t offer you any up-front savings. But that doesn’t mean it’s not valuable—umbrella insurance could save you thousands if not millions of dollars. Sound dramatic? Maybe a little, but it’s true. Umbrella insurance expands the limits of your current coverage to keep you and any driver on your policy protected in particularly tough and expensive situations.

For example, ley’s say your teen is at-fault in an accident and the other driver sustains severe injuries as a result. Their medical bills are unexpectedly high (like, let’s say $1 million high), which is way outside the limits of your Bodily Injury Liability coverage. Umbrella insurance will help to cover the cost (if not cover it completely). Many parents with teens on their policies like to have umbrella insurance to offer the highest level of peace of mind they can have with their child behind the wheel.

Shop around

Worried your current coverage is too expensive with your teen added to the mix? See what other offers are out there! Even if you’ve been with your current provider for many years, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re prepared to offer you the best rate. With insurance comparison sites like The Zebra, you’ll be sure to find the best coverage that suits you. Shoppers often find that when it comes to adding a teen to their policy, Elephant’s combined discounts and policies can lead to hundreds of dollars off their policy, not added on.

Adding a teen driver onto your policy might seem nerve-wracking, and it’s hard not to worry about the potential expenses. But Elephant makes it easy to help your new teen driver stay protected without breaking the bank. Get a quote online, log in to add you new teen driver to your policy, or learn about even more ways to help save on car insurance.

Article last updated on November 15th, 2024 at 1:13 pm