That is one reason I didnt let my kids get their license but they renewed their permit..by keeping their permit they still could drive if I was in the car with them and that gave them alot of pratice.. and until they found a job and saved up the money to buy their own insurance.. if they are old enough to drive they are old enough to work.. and pay for the privledge. I couldn't afford their insurance.
We found that we could save some money on teenage drivers by NOT making them the 'primary driver' on ANY car. They can still drive any of the cars, but as long as the teen is not the 'main' driver, the annual premium is a bit less.
Or you could send him off to boarding school - without a car at all! When our oldest daughter went off to college, we didn't let her take a car (doesn't need it there anyway) and that shaved several hundred off our annual premium, because she isn't around to drive several months of the year.
But she's still covered when she's home, and she can still drive anything we have.
Another potential savings if insuring multiple things through the same company - cars plus house, cars plus house plus life....
I just advised my kid to garage his "hot" '01 Camaro. He was complaining about the monthly insurance cost of $225. Add $205 for his monthly car payment and he has a whopping $430 dollar obligation before he even drives it on the street. I suspect he spends another $150 (and I'm being conservative) on gas a month. We are up to $530 a month. What's the answer? Don't drive the car! Keep paying the car note, cancel the insurance, and put the car in the garage,...sounds ridiculous huh? Well, he has his old clunker paid for that he can use and get liability insurance for $87 a month. He can drive his old Ramcharger sparingly, learn to use a bicycle as a means of transportation (there's 3 in the garage hanging from the ceiling joists) and save money. The savings can be applied to his car payment. He can double up on it and no sweat; he'll be out of debt in under a year if he does that. Plus his insurance will be dropping substantially as soon as he turns 20 in about 3 months. By the way, he will be quitting his full-time job and going part-time. I'm just trying to help. The lesson for him is that if you have nice expensive things it costs you your freedom (you work to pay for them), unless you're born to money or inherit it (and that just ain't the case here).
When our oldest started talking about driving we explained to him that he had to pay the difference in our policy to cover him. He was the child that worked 2 differetnb jobs in the summer and one job while in school until he went to college then ti was one full time job, school fulltime and various other jobs he coudl pick up. He never missed a car payment or isnurance payment.
We haved explained this to our soon to be 15yr old daughter. So she knows the rules now if she wants to drive she will also have to pay her cost of insurance. Will have ohave this conversation again in 2 yrs...not sure this one will want to follow what older sibs have done.
