Insurance

Here’s some good news about insurance. Your teen won’t need it until licensed and driving without you or an instructor in the car. Once your teen gets a learner’s permit, you’ll want to talk to your insurance agent about costs and other issues involved in adding your teen to your policy. Most families do this by adding the teen to their existing auto insurance policy. You could also use this as a time to comparison shop to find the best insurance option for the whole family and your vehicles.

Saving Money on Insurance

Because the risk of a crash is significantly higher for young drivers, particularly during the first year of driving, your teen’s insurance rate likely will be higher than your own. In this phase of the preparing-to-drive process, you may want to consider these strategies to keep your family’s costs down:

Helpful cost-saving strategies for car insurance

Insurance Requirements in Maryland

You are required to carry the following three types of insurance coverage in order to legally drive a vehicle in Maryland:

Liability insurance pays damages that are caused by you and suffered by the other party for personal injury, death, or property damage. You must carry a minimum of $20,000 for bodily injury per person, $40,000 for bodily injury for two or more people, and $15,000 for property damage.
Uninsured motorist coverage pays damages, after any applicable deductible that are caused by an uninsured motorist and suffered by you. You must carry a minimum of $20,000 for bodily injury per person, $40,000 for bodily injury or two or more people, and $15,000 for property damage.
Personal Injury Protection (PIP) coverage provides the benefits for medical, hospital and disability up to $2,500 for all reasonable expenses arising out of an accident. Note: Full PIP provides benefits for you, any member of your family, and any non-family occupant of your vehicle. You may also choose limited PIP, which excludes benefits for you and members of your family age 16 and over. This alternative costs less and should be considered if you already have medical and hospitalization insurance.

Insurance companies in Maryland determine rates on factors such as your driving record, how long you’ve been a licensed driver, how much you drive, where you live and what type of vehicle you drive.

Learn about insurance available through AAA for teen drivers and their families.