There are a lot of things parents will worry about when their 16-year-old gets their driver’s license, but they probably don’t realize one of those things is their bank account.
According to a new report:
- While it depends on the state, adding a teen driver can cost parents up to 19% of their income, and that’s just for insurance.
- Adding a 16-year-old to an insured vehicle costs parents an average of $5,380 a year.
- And a good student discount won’t help much, dropping insurance costs, on average, only 7% to $4,799 a year.
- Depending on where you live the cost can be a whole lot more.
- In fact, families in Michigan, Louisiana, Arizona, Florida and Kentucky will pay the most to insure a teen driver, anywhere between 10.9% and 19% of their income.
- In Michigan alone, adding a teen driver would cost parents over $10,000 a year.
- Now it would probably be near impossible to get your kid to wait until they're 22 to get behind the wheel of a car, but if you could, it would save you a lot.
- By waiting until 22, families can save an average of $33,091 over the six years they waited.
- The cost of adding a 22-year-old to a car insurance policy is 37% lower, at about only $3,931 a year.