PROVIDENCE – The average car insurance premium increased 137 percent in Rhode Island after adding a teen driver, more than any other state in the nation, according to insuranceQuotes Monday.
The average insurance premium hike for adding a teen driver in the United States was 81.7 percent.
What’s more, adding a male teen driver to a married couple’s insurance in Rhode Island increases premiums by 150.2 percent, while adding a female teenage driver increases a premium by 123.9 percent. InsuranceQuotes noted that male drivers are statistically riskier drivers than females.
The second-highest premium jump rate in the nation was in Arizona, where premiums increase 118.5 percent when a teen was added to a policy. In Massachusetts, premiums increase 73.7 percent when a teen driver is added to a family’s insurance.
Hawaii has the lowest insurance rate jump at 12 percent, which the report said was due to laws preventing insurance providers from considering age, gender or length of driving experience when setting rates.
The report also noted that age is a significant determining factor in rate increases. The average U.S. rate increase from adding a 16-year-old is more than 40 percentage points higher than adding a 19-year-old male driver, according to the report.
InsuranceQuotes commissioned Quadrant Information Services to calculate the economic impact of adding a driver between the ages of 16 and 19 to a family’s existing auto insurance policy. Averages were based on a married and employed 45-year-old male and 45-year-old female who each drive 12,000 miles per year and have clean driving records and good credit.
Chris Bergenheim is the PBN web editor.
