[blparent] more questions about car insurance for sighted teen driver

[dawn stumpner]

First the good news: One of my sons got his driver's license on 
the first try! This involved a lot of work on his part, but it 
was also a challenge fitting in driving practice with my dad, who 
lives in another state, and also getting him to driving classes, 
since I do not drive or have a car.  The next challenge was 
finding an affordable car.  I'm a single mom of 3 teens, and 
though I work as a teacher, money is tight.  My dad again came to 
the rescue, offering to buy a car and let me pay in installments 
as I get tax refund money each spring.  I couldn't believe we 
would actually be able to drive places on our own soon, and my 
sons were really excited about the prospect too.  Then I 
re-visited the insurance issue.  I'd checked into it somewhat 
before, but now we actually had a real car that my dad saw to run 
by the numbers.  The first company I checked with wanted a 
whopping $1,000 a month for comprehensive and liability (much 
more than the price of the car).  My dad said it would be better 
to have a newer car, so we were looking at a 2010 model.  I 
checked with other companies, and the rate got better, but the 
lowest rate was still $564 a month, which is way beyond my means.  
I asked if I got a cheap old car and just insured for liability, 
not comprehensive, how much the premium would be, and the $381 
per month quote was still out of my ability to pay (as it is 
$4,572 a year, and I have a mortgage, grocery bill, etc.).  This 
quote was with the discount for home and car being on the same 
policy, for the good grade discount (his GPA is over 3.0), he has 
a squeaky clean driving record, and I even said we would agree to 
use Snapshot.  I can't imagine if his grade point ever slid 
between 3.0 or he got a parking ticket what would happen.  A 
friend of mine has insurance for 4 people, two adults and 2 teen 
drivers, and she pays $200 a month! The insurance companies I 
talked to said that because my son would be the primary driver, 
and even though I insisted he wouldn't be using it for school or 
even driving every day, they said he had accccess to it every 
day, so his rate is sky-high because of his age and the fact that 
I'm not a driver.  I don't quibble over the fact that young 
people are riskier drivers.  I agree, and I wouldn't complain 
about paying double what adults pay or even a little more, but to 
argue that he would drive more because he's the only driver in 
the household and so be more of a risk than 2 teenage drivers who 
happen to have sighted parents because he is the only one in our 
home that drives is unreasonable to me.  My dad and brother are 
in other states.  They could not be the primary driver of my car 
were I to get one, and it's hard to ask someone else to put your 
child on their insurance because I wouldn't want their rates to 
go up were anything to happen, God forbid, but I'm feeling a bit 
trapped and frustrated.  I talked about this issue a bit with 
some of you and got great suggestions when I was figuring out how 
to find a car for him to practice driving in, but I'd like to 
re-visit the issue again now that he has gotten his license to 
see what advice people might have.  If anyone who has experience 
working for an insurance company or finding affordable insurance 
for their own sighted teens has advice, it would be much 
appreciated!