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RSS FeedTeens and car insurance: Who should pay?
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| Teens | 75% | 438 votes | Total: 581 votes | |
| Parents | 25% | 143 votes |
Teens
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Add to FavoritesIf you are responsible enough to drive it, you can help foot the bill.
Car insurance is a requirement to drive. Our young adults need to get use to the idea of bills. And this is an easy way to begin the process. Of course they will need a part time job of some sorts. Great motivator, no job no money, no money no insurance, no insurance mom said I can not drive. This will also tell you the responsibility level of your young adult. America has enough irresponsible drivers on the road, lets not put out teens out there before they are ready.
Now when I say teens should pay I do not mean all of it. Not in the beginning anyway. I believe you should have an amount predetermined as to what your teen should pay and you foot the rest of the insurance bill. And let it be known, if anything happens, wreck or ticket, that increases the premium they will be responsible pay the increase.
After all every action has a reaction. Little Johnny gets ticket, goes to court pays fine, insurance increases he gets that too. He just had his first experience with real life and will remember it very well. Every one remembers the experience that hit them in their back pocket, makes you think twice.
Driving is a big responsibility and with it comes big insurance bills. It is an good opportunity to expose your teen to real life while still in your care. And teach them the right way to go about it. Such a the importance of paying the bill on time. Doing this will get them use to the idea and get them in the habit of paying on time. Later when they are older a second though wont be given to due dates of bill thus helping keep their credit good.
In essence teens helping pay the insurance do many things, it is more than just money. You are teaching necessary life lessons to your young adult. And trust me it is far less costly to teach those lessons now while they are still at home than to let them learn by trail and error after they move out.
Learn more about this author, Alyssa White.
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Parents
An important role that parents play in the lives of their teen aged children is to help prepare them for their future lives. The best way to accomplish this goal is to educate teens on accepting and handling responsibility. The most effective way to achieve this is
for parents to encourage their children to do well in school and participate in constructive activities as sports, and performing in community service programs. When the time comes for them to attain a driver's license, parents should accept the responsibility
of paying for car insurance.
The burden of making car payments and insurance payments places unreasonable pressures on teens in both their academic performances and personal lives. The difficulties encountered in today's job market has resulted in teen agers having to compete against adults for jobs that only offer pay at or near the minimum wage. Those that would be able to find jobs would have to work every night after school, plus weekends in order to keep up with their car expenses. That leaves little time for studying, or time for friends and extra-curricular school activities.
It is not that most teen agers are lazy. In fact, the majority of them are willing to work long hours so they can own their own cars; later regretting the impact their sacrifices had on their grades and social lives. Car insurance premiums for teen drivers can be considerable, depending on where they live. They can cost up to seven or eight thousand dollars a year. Adding gas and car maintenance means that the total cost of driving a car for someone under the age of twenty-one can exceed ten thousand dollars a year! This would require earning approximately twelve thousand dollars gross income per year to cover these expenses; that doesn't even include the cost of the car, itself!
Peer pressure also adds to the importance of attaining "a nice set of wheels". A car is a status symbol, especially to most teen agers. There was a time when a good used car could be purchased for a few hundred dollars. Today, any decent used car can easily set an individual back seven to ten thousand dollars. A teen ager's first car needs to be safe and reliable; a high-end sound system and nice rims can wait until after they finish school and earn a proper pay check.
Parents need to relieve teens of this heavy financial burden, so their kids can still enjoy being kids, and focus on their educational and social development.
Learn more about this author, Leslie Schwab.
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