Economy
Welcome to the Era of the $20,000 Family Car Insurance Bill
Have several children, a driveway full of cars and a few moving violations? Good luck to you. There are some ways to lessen the financial pain.
If you’re 16 years old, live in California and just passed your driver’s license test, the first thing you should do is drive your family to In-N-Out Burger for a milkshake and some animal-style fries.
The first thing a parent should do is call the insurance company to update the policy. That part, however, will probably give you indigestion.
Last month, when Debbie Mukamal called her insurer as she and her daughter rolled away from an In-N-Out drive-through in their 2018 Subaru, the representative casually informed her that her annual premium would triple, from about $1,700 to over $5,000.
She has it pretty good, it turns out. There are plenty of families with three or four children whose annual premiums will top $20,000 this year. That can be enough to replace one of the cars that the policy covers.
How can this be? It’s the insurance industry, which means it’s complicated, unpredictable and more or less mandatory. Buckle up, since failure to do so can cost you money, and away we go.
A Common Dilemma: Young Drivers Crash Cars
If you were an insurance company, you would charge a lot more for young drivers, too. Consider the most recent data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on young drivers, which it defines as people between the ages of 15 and 20.
