As a parent, you meet with a mixture of terror and excitement as your teenagers approach the legal driving age. Terror is the result of knowing your teen is attempting to wield something that could do some serious damage, and excitement comes in the knowledge that your teen is one step closer to independence. Unfortunately, it also means that your car insurance rates are about to go through the roof. You can decrease these premiums with a number of options.

Switching and Grouping Insurance Policies

If you had separate insurance policy providers for car, motorcycle, renters, home, boat, or any other type of insurance up until now, consider cancelling your other policies and grouping all of your insurance types under one provider. Get a quote from each of the separate insurance companies, such as Biglow & Company, so that you can see which company will offer you the best deal. Be sure to include your teen's information as part of the quote, otherwise you will not get an accurate quote on the amount you will save. Several insurance companies offer policy grouping and multi-driver discounts.

Good Student and Safe Driver Discounts

Another way to save on insurance for your teen driver is to ask about good student and safe driver discounts. Some insurance companies still offer this discount if your son or daughter can prove they are an excellent student. If your teen has straight A's or A's with a few B's thrown in and no marks lower than a B on his or her report card, then he or she qualifies. In addition to a good student discount, insurance companies offer the additional incentive for safe driving. Usually, when your teen does not get into an accident or receive any sort of traffic ticket for a specified period of time, the amount you or your teen pays for insurance decreases.

Teen Driver Insurance the Old-Fashioned Way

You could just opt to make your teen pay their own insurance, either on a vehicle he or she purchases himself or herself, or on the cars your family drives. Parents who choose to go this old-fashioned route require their teens to save up and buy their own cars and pay their own insurance. It teaches them to respect their property and be responsible for it, and it cuts most of the financial responsibility of insurance out of the equation for you. Your teen may not like it, but it saves you quite a bit of anxiety and money.