Most teens spend months counting down the days until they can drive.
While they see only the possibilities, parents are also aware of the responsibilities anyone takes on when climbing behind the wheel of a vehicle.
Most other insurance companies charge some of their highest rates to young drivers. Even if teens only drive their parents' car occasionally, the parents get hit with a noticeable increase in their insurance costs.
At ICBC, youth, sex and marital status are not used to determine your premium level. Every new driver, whether 16 or 56, will start out paying the base premium level when insuring a vehicle.
If teens don't have a car of their own, chances are they will sometimes (or lots of times!) drive their parents' vehicles.
You must now declare who will be your vehicle's principal operator each time you renew. If your situation changes and your teen will be driving your car the majority of the time during the term of the policy you must redeclare when you renew.
If you don't redeclare principal operator but your teen is driving the majority of the time, your insurance may not be valid if you have a claim. See your Autoplan broker for more information.If you are in the experienced driver rate class, in which all drivers of your vehicle must have had a valid driver's licence for 10 years or more, you will have to change your rate class.
Whatever rate class you are in, it will not affect the discount level on your premium just because a new driver starts using your vehicle on an occasional basis.
However, you should be aware that any at-fault claims affect the premium for the insured car, no matter who is driving it at the time. As the registered owner, you will pay a higher premium if your teen has an at-fault crash while driving your vehicle, but not before.
If your teen is now the principal operator of your vehicle, make sure you bring their driver's licence number when you renew.
The CRS discount on the new policy will be reviewed based on the claims history of both the registered owner and of the principal operator. The discount received would be the lesser of the two. Please contact your Autoplan Broker for more information.New drivers do tend to have more crashes. After all, they don't have experience dealing with roads, weather conditions, and that most unpredictable factor, other drivers.
So you might want to consider increasing your Extended Third Party Liability coverage. Or you may want to change to a lower deductible [click for definition] on your Collision coverage for a few years until your teen is a more seasoned driver with less chance of being in a crash.