The Virginia Auto Insurance Guidelines Every Driver with a Learner's Permit Needs to Know

The Virginia Auto Insurance Guidelines Every Driver with a Learner's Permit Needs to Know

One of my favorite things about Virginia is the fact that it has one of the lowest driving ages in the country. At 15 years and six months any teen can apply for their learner's permit and start logging in hours on the road. (Yes, they've raised the driving age by six months in recent years-don't ask me why!) Any learner's permit should come complete with a Virginia auto insurance policy before you hit the highways.

Here's what drivers (and their parents) need to know before taking that shiny new learner's permit out on the highways:

1) Before you can let a new driver drive your car with a learner's permit you have to make sure they've been added to your Virginia auto insurance policy. Your insurer will list them as a secondary driver on whichever vehicle they're going to be driving. It's important to think through which car you want to add them onto-their auto insurance claims might be denied if they're driving something else, even if you own that vehicle as well.

2) Every time you add a new driver, especially one with a squeaky new learner's permit, to your insurance policy you can expect your auto insurance rates to go up. There's no way around that; new drivers are exponentially more likely to have an accident than their parents. You can keep those costs down by encouraging them to keep their grades up, make them the secondary driver on the least expensive vehicle in your driveway and minimize the amount of time they spend on the road.

3) It has absolutely nothing to do with your Virginia auto insurance policy, but if you're going to be driving out of state it's important to remember that most states don't allow new drivers to start driving before they're sixteen, if not a little older. Even if they have a learner's permit in VA, they're not allowed to drive out of state if that state's minimum driving age is older than 15 ½. Before you allow your new driver to take the wheel over state lines, make sure you've done your homework.

4) The worst possible thing that could happen to your teen is to have an accident or pick up a speeding ticket while they're still driving on a learner's

What you need to know before you let your teen loose on the highways.

permit. Try and keep them off the highways and the Interstate while they're still learning their way around the controls. The best place to learn is a back road or privately enclosed track that doesn't get a lot of traffic.

Having a teen driver around the house is stressful enough. You don't have to add to that by having issues with your Virginia auto insurance policy. Talk to your agent about the best options to insure your teen driver, then sit back and take a deep breath. You're going to need it.