Adding Allstate teen car insurance coverage to your plan can be expensive, as these coverage scenarios illustrate.
Insuring teen drivers is expensive. How expensive? There are some reports from groups like the Insurance Research Council and the car club AAA that suggest that adding a teen girl to your family car insurance plan can easily double your premium cost and that adding a teen boy to the plan can triple or even quadruple your rates in some regions. To find out more accurately what it can cost to add a teen driver to your family’s car insurance coverage, we developed a model driving family and went shopping for Allstate car insurance. Thanks to advancements in online tools and comparative purchasing profiles, we are able to get a pretty specific range of what a family will pay when pursuing Allstate teen car insurance.
You may be surprised.
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Our model driving family
Our first step in getting quotes for car insurance coverage from Allstate was to generate a family profile of drivers. We tried to build a fairly typical family profile for the purpose of seeking online quotes using Allstate’s own set of tools.
Our hypothetical driving family consists of homeowners Lyle and Peggy Simpson and their recently licensed son Aaron. Lyle is 44 and works as a fireman. He has been insured since he first received his license at the age of 17 and he has never been in an accident or received a serious citation for any traffic violations. His wife, Peggy, is 42 and works as a kindergarten teacher. She has also been fully insured since getting her license at age 18. Their son, Aaron, recently completed all stages of the Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) program in the state they live in, including completion of defensive driver/driver safety classes. At age 18, Aaron now has full driving privileges. Aaron is in his final year of high school and he currently has a 3.5 grade point average (GPA).
The Simpson family has two cars they need to insure with Allstate. The first is a 2013 Ford Fusion they bought brand new and it’s the car Lyle uses to commute to work at the fire station. The commute is not a long one and the car has about the average number of miles on it. The second car is the one Peggy drives to work and also uses for family errands. It’s a 2010 Volvo V70 they bought used in 2012. It had very low mileage on it when they purchased it and they don’t drive it excessively. The Volvo is the car Aaron learned to drive and it’s the one he used in completing his driver’s exam. It will be the primary car he drives. Both cars are owned, free and clear.
Marketplaces for coverage
With this hypothetical driver family profile, we’re going to go shopping in three separate markets for Allstate car insurance. This way, we can give a more detailed picture as to what a family can expect to pay in increased premium when they go to add a teen driver to their Allstate family car insurance coverage. Each year, several organizations produce lists showing what the average cost for car insurance is in each state. Factors going into these lists include what each state sets as a minimum requirement for car insurance coverage for licensed drivers in that state.
With the Simpson family profile in hand, we’re going Allstate car insurance shopping in three city/state markets rated as expensive, mid-range, and inexpensive (respectively) for car insurance premium costs in 2014. In this way, you can see what the subtleties in ranges can be when shopping for car insurance, even if you’re sticking with a single provider like Allstate.
(The rates and coverage levels provided in these quotes are the result of online quoting requests conducted in July 2014 using Allstate’s own online quoting resources.)
Decatur, Georgia
Georgia is a state that routinely lands in the top four or five slots in annual surveys for most expensive states for car insurance. One reason is that its largest city (Atlanta) has notoriously high incidents of fender-benders. The state also has relatively low standards for required car insurance coverage (which insurance companies often counterbalance by charging higher rates.) Licensed drivers in the state of Georgia are required to carry the following minimum coverage options and levels:
- $25,000 in bodily injury liability coverage for a single person per accident
- $50,000 in total bodily injury liability coverage per accident
- $25,000 in total property damage liability coverage per accident
By law, insurers are required to offer licensed drivers similar minimum coverage levels of uninsured motorist bodily injury and property damage coverage, but drivers are not required to accept it (though they must formally reject this coverage offer in writing.)
Taking the Simpsons Allstate car insurance shopping in Decatur, Georgia, we put together a coverage package more in line with what a responsible and conscientious family might have in place, especially when they are very near adding a teen boy driver to the coverage roster. What we found is that Allstate (like most leading car insurance providers) actually rewards drivers interested in putting higher coverage levels and options in place that go beyond the state’s bare minimum. Adding higher levels of coverage options like liability will generate a lower base rate for coverage.
The Allstate car insurance package we put in place for the Simpson family in Decatur, Georgia included:
- Liability coverage at 100/300/100 levels
- Uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage at 100/300/100 levels
- Medical payments coverage at $5,000
- Collision coverage (on the Ford only) with a $1,000 deductible
- Comprehensive coverage (on both cars) with $1,000 deductibles
- Rental reimbursement coverage, in place
- Allstate roadside assistance coverage, in place
In the state of Georgia, the Simpsons enjoy a few Allstate car insurance discounts that take a bit of the sting out of the monthly premium bill, including discounts for having anti-theft and safety devices on both cars, for safe driving, for being homeowners, for insuring more than one car, and for conducting most of their business online. Taking all of these discounts into consideration the Simpsons will be paying a monthly premium of $170-$180 for this Allstate package.
Adding 18-year old Aaron to the mix gives the Simpsons two more Allstate discounts in Georgia: one for Aaron’s good grades (a Smart Student discount) and one for his completion of a defensive driving class. Even with these additional discounts, the Simpson’s bill for adding Aaron to this Allstate coverage plan will cost them $330-$340 monthly (both premium bills were based on a six-month policy.)
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Reading, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania is one of those states floating right near the national median when it comes to car insurance premium costs. The state would enjoy lower rates if it could somehow disown the greater Philadelphia area, a sector that tends to skew costs for everybody in the state.
Licensed drivers in the state of Pennsylvania are required to carry these minimum car insurance options and levels:
- $15,000 in bodily injury liability coverage for a single person per accident
- $30,000 in total bodily injury liability coverage per accident
- $5,000 in total property damage liability coverage per accident
- $5,000 in first party benefits/medical payments coverage per accident
Like drivers in Georgia, insurers must offer Pennsylvania drivers comparable levels of uninsured motorist coverage as the liability coverage levels require and just as in Georgia, Pennsylvania drivers need not take the coverage, but they will have to formally decline it in writing. (Given the recent increases in uninsured motorists in and around Philadelphia, drivers in this area might want to strongly consider this coverage.)
To make a closer comparison to Georgia drivers, we’ve put a similar package of coverage in place for the Simpsons when they go to add Aaron to their Allstate car insurance in Pennsylvania:
- Liability coverage at 100/300/100 levels
- Uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage at 100/300/100 levels
- Medical payments coverage at $10,000
- Collision coverage (on the Ford only) with a $1,000 deductible
- Comprehensive coverage (on both vehicles) with $1,000 deductibles
- Rental reimbursement coverage, in place
- Allstate roadside assistance coverage, in place
The Simpsons enjoy the same Allstate car insurance premium discounts in Pennsylvania as they would in Georgia. The result is that the monthly premium they will be paying for this Pennsylvania package of Allstate coverage is $130-$140. Adding Aaron to this plan gets then a Allstate Smart Student discount in Pennsylvania, but that’s still not enough to deaden the blow of an increase in premium. Adding Aaron, the Simpsons will now be paying $210-$220 in monthly premium for a six-month policy.
Twin Falls, Idaho
The state of famous potatoes is also famous for very affordable car insurance rates. Idaho is a consistent winner in the affordable car insurance premium sweepstakes and it maintains its position in 2014. The state also has pretty moderate car insurance coverage requirements. Licensed drivers in the state of Idaho must have at least these coverage options and levels in place to remain in compliance with car insurance laws:
- $25,000 in bodily injury liability coverage for a single person, per accident
- $50,000 in total bodily injury liability coverage per accident
- $15,000 in total property damage liability coverage per accident
Idaho is one of a growing number of states that allow drivers to provide electronic “proof of insurance” via some portable device like a smart phone or tablet. Allstate has an app that can facilitate that.
Continuing with the apples-to-apples comparison of coverage plans for the Simpsons, the Idaho Allstate car insurance plan we put in place for them included:
- Liability coverage at 100/300/100 levels
- Uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage at 100/300 levels
- Medical payments coverage at $5,000
- Collision coverage (for the Ford only) with a $1,000 deductible
- Comprehensive coverage (for both cars) with $1,000 deductibles
- Rental reimbursement coverage, in place
- Allstate roadside assistance coverage, in place
The Simpsons enjoy the same Allstate car insurance discounts in Idaho as they would in Pennsylvania or Georgia. Factoring these discounts into the equation, Idaho proves itself to by a thrifty state for car insurance shoppers. The monthly premium (on a six-month policy) for the Simpson’s Idaho Allstate car insurance plan will be $65-$75. Adding Aaron gets the Simpsons the Allstate Smart Student discount in Idaho and adding him doesn’t sting quite as much. The monthly premium on a six-month Idaho plan (even after adding Aaron) will be $120-$130.
While your individual circumstances and family needs will be different than our imaginary Simpsons, this highlighting of three coverage scenarios should give you some idea of how important it is to compare car insurance plans before you buy. No matter what, adding a teen driver to your family’s car insurance plan (whether with Allstate or with some other carrier) is going to increase your premiums. One good step in finding out all your options for coverage, cost and even additional discounts when it’s time to add that teen driver, is to sit down with a licensed car insurance professional. A seasoned agent will have answers to all your questions and may even be able to steer you and your teen towards some useful tools and programs. Reply! can certainly help here as we can put you in touch with local car insurance agents eager to help you and your teen driver get the right protection for a lifetime of safe driving.