# How to save money on car insurance under age 25? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 12, 2015, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-save-money-on-car-insurance-under-age-25/734469 "2015-10-12T19:36:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2015, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-save-money-on-car-insurance-under-age-25/734469/21 "2015-10-14T13:56:57Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > Liability insurance probably won’t vary at all by the type of vehicle. Any car is heavy and fast enough to do plenty of damage. > > Collision is going to vary with the cost of the vehicle. > > Comprehensive is going to vary with the cost of the vehicle, but might be lower for newer cars if, for example, they have more effective anti-theft technology. > > Are you sure that you had the same levels of coverage and deductibles on both of those cars? Which premium went down? Exactly the same coverages. Property damage liability went down by $6. BI went up by $1. UM went down by $1. Comprehensive also went down by $6 because of the anti-theft device discount, which was offset by a $6 increase in collision. I had the overall difference wrong - I just checked and it was $6 total, essentially based on the drop in PD liability coverage cost. ---
**Author:** ![AllShookDown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d9b06d/32.png) [@AllShookDown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AllShookDown)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2015, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-save-money-on-car-insurance-under-age-25/734469/22 "2015-10-14T14:34:15Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > Liability insurance probably won’t vary at all by the type of vehicle. Any car is heavy and fast enough to do plenty of damage. Not true. The liability rates on a Suburban are going to be higher than those of a Civic with companies that use multivariate rating. Not true in the days before multivariate rating but they have the technology and data capacity to factor in all that stuff now. ---
**Author:** ![AllShookDown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d9b06d/32.png) [@AllShookDown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AllShookDown)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2015, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-save-money-on-car-insurance-under-age-25/734469/23 "2015-10-14T14:36:32Z")
> [@Iggy](#): > > Many, many, many years ago I ran the high risk quotes in the brokerage office of a major insurance company. We quoted the high risk clients through Progressive and noticed that the rates could vary substantially based on make and model of vehicle. Generally stereotypical Soccer Mom-mobiles got lower rates. Anything remotely sporty got higher rates, sometimes MUCH higher. Yep, at the company I worked for back then it was called a “sports car surcharge” and it was 25% on all coverages. And that was a standard company. Progressive was a non-standard (high risk) company back then. My company wouldn’t even write your policy if Progressive was your prior carrier. ---
**Author:** ![AllShookDown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d9b06d/32.png) [@AllShookDown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AllShookDown)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2015, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-save-money-on-car-insurance-under-age-25/734469/24 "2015-10-14T14:40:13Z")
Anyway, the bottom line is that all insurance companies set their rates slightly differently. Maybe they want to sell more insurance in your area (cheaper rates). Maybe the area you live in has a high probability of vandalism or deer hits (higher physical damage rates), your credit score is low/high, you drive 30 miles to work vs. 5. Every company looks at different things and every company weights them differently. Some companies even have thingies you can put on your car to tell whether you speed, or brake hard a lot, or whatever. That’s why you need to get quotes from different places. Insurance isn’t going to be “cheap” for a 21 year-old male anywhere, but you have to shop around to find what’s cheapest for you. ---
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2015, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-save-money-on-car-insurance-under-age-25/734469/25 "2015-10-15T16:53:04Z")
I would echo those who’ve said to shop around. You’d be surprised at how much the rates can vary. In particular, Geico seems to be particularly low for young drivers. At least, it’s much much lower for young drivers on their parents’ policies - I personally saved about 70% when I began adding kids to my policy and switched to Geico, and I recently requoted the policy and found it still holds. I’m not as certain that the same applies to young people who have their own policies, but I think it does. (My oldest daughter moved out and got her own Geico policy, and she’s paying a few hundred a year in NJ, and she’s not 25.) ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2015, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-save-money-on-car-insurance-under-age-25/734469/26 "2015-10-15T17:40:39Z")
> [@boffking](#): > > I have a perfectly clean driving record, but I still have to pay ridiculous prices for car insurance because I am only 21 There’s a part of the brain that deals with risk assessment which doesn’t mature in men until about age 25, so they said on the BBC F1 show (talking about Max Verstappen). ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2015, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-save-money-on-car-insurance-under-age-25/734469/27 "2015-10-15T19:35:07Z")
> [@Fotheringay-Phipps](#): > > I would echo those who’ve said to shop around. You’d be surprised at how much the rates can vary. > > In particular, Geico seems to be particularly low for young drivers. At least, it’s much much lower for young drivers on their parents’ policies - I personally saved about 70% when I began adding kids to my policy and switched to Geico, and I recently requoted the policy and found it still holds. I’m not as certain that the same applies to young people who have their own policies, but I think it does. (My oldest daughter moved out and got her own Geico policy, and she’s paying a few hundred a year in NJ, and she’s not 25.) Definitely shop around- my then-22 year old son paid less to insure his car under his own policy than it would have cost to add his car to our Geico policy. That was mostly because all the cars on that policy had to have the same liability coverage , so he couldn’t get lower limits.as he could with a differnt company. And it was about adding the car- we had previously added _him_ as an occasional driver of one of our existing cars , and that wasn’t expensive at all. ---
**Author:** ![boffking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2015, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-save-money-on-car-insurance-under-age-25/734469/28 "2015-10-21T12:44:46Z")
Is VIN etching worth it? I know dealers push this as a way to reduce your insurance rates. How much would it lower my rates? ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2015, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-save-money-on-car-insurance-under-age-25/734469/29 "2015-10-21T13:15:47Z")
Depends on your carrier and state. State Farm offers a 15% discount for VIN etching in some states, but only if you don’t have a passive anti-theft device already. AAA sometimes does it for free so if you can get it done there’s no reason not to. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-save-money-on-car-insurance-under-age-25/734469.md?page=1)