One of my clients called me last year with a question that was pretty interesting. She’s a Dallas area mom with a son who was about to turn 15. While she was already wondering what was going to happen to her car insurance premium when her son turned 16, her question was:
Will she get a better discount if her son takes the parent-led vs. instructor-led driver education?
What a great question. I’d never thought of that nor encountered it before. Since I didn’t know, here was a great opportunity to discuss it with an underwriter and learn something new too!
Turns out the underwriter had never been asked that question either. After a quick review, the answer was No;
- Most insurers offer a discount if the teen takes a qualified class
- I’ve not run into any insurance company that tiered the discount based on whether the teen attended an instructor-led class or a parent-led class
- This discount varies from 5% to 25% for the teen driver (it’s not applied to all drivers on the policy)
- It usually pays for itself within the first year or two
Parents, on the other hand, seem to be pretty divided as to whether or not the instructor-led class will provide a greater degree of sanity for themselves and their children!
What did you do, parent-led or instructor-led training, and how did it turn out? Let us know by posting on our Facebook or Google + pages or in the comments section. We’ll all learn something.
