Do you have a teenager who is about ready to hit the road? Well, there’s good news and bad news.

What’s the good news?

The good news involves a recent study from InsuranceQuotes.com that found that rate increases for adding a young driver have decreased for the fifth year in a row.

What’s the bad news?

New Hampshire is the second most expensive state in the country for insuring teen drivers, and Vermont isn’t far behind.

The study found that adding a teen driver to auto insurance in New Hampshire will increase your rate by 119.6 percent. (It could be worse; Rhode Island is number 1, with an increase of 152.7 percent!) The numbers are a bit better across the state line in Vermont, where the increase is 93.5 percent. Of course, you could move to Hawaii, where the rate increase averages only 8.1 percent.

Nationwide, the increase is 78 percent, or $671. Gender and age make a difference. Adding a male teen increases the rate 89 percent compared to 66 percent for a female.  Moreover, the rate for a 16-year-old will be much higher than for a 19-year-old.

“Adding a teen driver is expensive because statistics show that they get into more accidents than older, more experienced drivers. While that fact won’t change, the rate increase to add a male or female teenager to an existing policy has come down slightly in each of the five years we’ve analyzed the data,” says Laura Adams, senior insurance analyst at InsuranceQuotes.

 

What can a parent do? 

Laura advises, “To keep rates as low as possible, parents should reinforce the dangers of distracted driving to their teen; shop and compare quotes carefully; and take advantage of opportunities to save, such as driver education and good-student discounts.”

The full report, which includes state-by-state rankings, additional findings, and important tips, is available at www.insurancequotes.com/auto/teen-driving-insurance-rates-6142017.