Adding Drivers To A Family Plan
Posted on: 6 June 2016
As your kids grow up, you may end up having more legal drivers than you have cars in the family. Then the question may come up: should we add the kids to our automobile insurance policy? Here is what you need to know about adding drivers to a family plan.
Does Everyone Need Insurance?
It's not necessarily true that you need to add every person who may potentially drive a car to your insurance plan. As long as your car has minimum adequate insurance for your state, you don't need to add an occasional driver to the plan. But there are several benefits of doing so.
For instance, consider the terms of your automobile insurance plan. Most insurance plans have the highest coverage for the drivers whose names are listed on the insurance card. If you only insure a single driver and a different family member is behind the wheel when an accident occurs, then you may need to pay out of pocket for those expenses. But if you insure everyone under a family plan, then you will get the maximum payout no matter which driver is behind the wheel. This is why many families choose to add their children to a group insurance plan when they are able to drive.
Creating a Family Plan
If this is your first time adding children to your automobile insurance plan, then you may want to look into a family plan of sorts. Many insurance companies will allow you to consolidate your insurance so that the parents and children are covered under a single rate. In many cases this will afford you a family discount, with increased discounts for each additional person that you insure.
Before You Buy: Improve Your Teen's Rates
The one potential drawback of adding everyone to your insurance plan is that it can cause the premiums to go up significantly, especially if this is the first time that your children are being insured. But there are a few things that you can do to help them get better rates. First of all, make sure your teens are enrolled in a driver's education program; this can help them to get good driver rates to start out with. Another thing that can help is making sure your kids have great grades; this may help insurance companies to see that your teen driver is responsible and won't add a lot of risk to your insurance plan.
So, there are definite pros and cons to putting the entire family on your auto insurance plan. It may come down to how much you expect them to drive your car, and how much you're willing to pay out of pocket in case of an accident. Contact a business, such as Amberg Insurance Center Inc, for more information.
Share