Car Insurance Driver: Pros and Cons of Getting Temporary Insurance for Drivers Under 21

Unfortunately, if you are going to buy car insurance for a driver who is under 21 years old, whether you are that driver or your son or daughter is, it will cost you a lot of money. Temporary car insurance is a very short policy that is meant for people who only need to be insured for a period of less than 28 days. This could be because you are only borrowing a friends car for a few days, you are only renting a car for a short time, you want to insure a car for the time from when you drive it off the dealer's lot to the time when you get home or any of a host of other reasons. To help you make a more informed decision as to whether or not you should buy temporary car insurance for a driver under the age of 21, a list of the pros and cons is included below.

Pros

• You can insure a driver who is under the age of 21 right after he or she receives their driver's license. This is sometimes more tricky than insuring an older driver because insurance companies see young drivers as more of a risk to insure.
• The mandatory liability coverage for most states is already covers damages you cause to other parties while driving, so if they already own an associated annual policy, teen drivers might not even need temporary insurance coverage. This means that there is a good chance that you don't need to waste money on temporary coverage in the first place.

Cons

• Any auto insurance plan for a beginning driver is going to be very expensive, and a temporary policy is no exception. This is because younger drivers are statistically more likely to get into accidents, so the price of their insurance coverage increases to compensate. Also, since men under 21 are statistically more likely to get into accidents than women, the price of young a young man's coverage will be higher than that of a young woman.
• It is a bad idea to try to buy short term auto insurance coverage for a driver who is younger than 21 and drives an expensive car. Since insurance rates are already particularly high for young drivers, the added cost of insuring a more expensive vehicle will be very high.
• It takes more effort to get cheap short term car insurance for drivers under the age of 21. Since they are more likely to get into a crash, many auto insurance companies do not offer coverage to young drivers at all. This will make it harder to find a good deal.

Before you buy temporary auto insurance for a driver who is younger than 21 years old, carefully think about whether or not you really need it. Generally, it is better to get a longer lasting coverage plan because you pay less for the time that you are covered, but there are any number of reasons why it would be a good idea to buy temporary insurance. Research the insurance laws in your home state to make a more informed decision.