Car Insurance for Any Driver Over 21

As a 21-year-old or older driver, you may be discouraged with your car insurance premiums, even if you drive a used car or a car that is fully paid off.

Car insurance companies, unfortunately, deem less experienced drivers as more of a risk than older, more experienced drivers.

Thankfully, there are things you can do to help lower your car insurance premiums. One of the best ways to save is doing a comparison search online. You can use our tool for free today!

Inexperienced Drivers

According to The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Teen Driver’s Source, inexperienced teen drivers make more driving mistakes that lead to car accidents than drivers who are older and more experienced.

Common young driver mistakes include:

• failing to accurately judge the road conditions
• failure to scan for traffic and road hazards

While being 21 or older doesn’t make you a teen driver, you may still fall victim to many of the common young driver errors.

When it comes to being inexperienced, the Philips Law Group gives some startling statistics for young drivers in Arizona. For the 2011 calendar year, Arizona saw 84 drivers who were 24 years old or younger killed in traffic accidents.

Of all accidents involving young drivers, 7,600 experienced injuries during the accident.

Car insurance companies are aware of these statistics for each state in which they operate, and they adjust their premiums to account for the age of the driver.

This increased risk of accidents is why younger drivers tend to pay more for their car insurance policies than older drivers.

Read more: Company Car Insurance: Under 21

Choosing the Right Coverage for Your Vehicle and Driving Habits

One of the best things you can do to ensure you are not paying too much for auto insurance is to make sure you only have the coverage you need.

• Liability – Every driver has to have liability insurance. This coverage pays for the other driver’s accident-related expenses when you are the driver who caused the accident.
• Collision – If you drive a new car, a car that is worth a lot of money or are making car payments, you will need collision car insurance. This coverage pays for the repairs to your vehicle if you caused the accident and typically comes with a deductible that you must pay before your car insurance company pays.
• Comprehensive – This type of coverage pays for non-accident-related damage, like falling tree branches, inclement weather, fire, and theft. In many instances, the damage occurs while the car is parked or not being driven.

Getting a Fair Car Insurance Premium as a Younger Driver

While you cannot arbitrarily change your age, there are things you can do to control the cost of your car insurance policy.

• Pay Attention to Your Credit Score – Drivers with low credit scores pay more for car insurance than drivers with good and great credit scores. By keeping an eye on your credit score and paying for bills on time, you have a better chance of having a good credit score.
• Think Before You Buy – If you are thinking about purchasing a car, check the car insurance rates for that car before you buy. Newer and more expensive cars tend to cost more to insure than older, less expensive cars.
• Be a Good Student – If you are in college and maintain a certain GPA, you may be eligible for a good student discount, which can lower your car insurance premiums.
• Consider Enrolling in a Defensive Driving Course – Enrolling and completing a defensive driving course will help make you a more vigilant and better driver, and it can lower your car insurance premiums.
• Compare Insurance Policies and Companies – Car insurance companies all have their own formulas for calculating risk. By using a comparison tool, you are helping to ensure that you get the best rate for the auto insurance coverage you need.

Putting it All Together to Get the Best Car Insurance Rate

To get the best car insurance rate for your age and driving experience, you need to be able to put everything together in order to choose the best policy, and that means shopping for car insurance wisely.

To start the process, you should determine how much car insurance you need.

Everyone needs a minimum amount of liability insurance in order to drive legally.

However, if you drive an expensive car or are still making payments, you will need to purchase liability, collision and comprehensive.

Once you determine the amount of coverage you need, use a comparison tool to quickly find policies that match your car insurance needs and your budget.

When you input your information and submit it, the car insurance comparison tool goes to work to find you all the available policies in your local area that match your needs.

Then, you need to read through each policy to make sure it adequately covers you and meets your monthly budget.

Once you’ve found a policy that works for both your budget and your driving habits, you can purchase it online and print off the documentation and temporary insurance cards.

Compare car insurance quotes today using our free rate tool below.