Editor
Laura Jensen
Laura Jensen is the editor of Best Car Insurance for Teens. She worked for eight years as a personal-lines underwriter and underwriting manager, where households adding a teenager were the most common—and most anxious—files she handled.
She started this site in 2022, the year her own eldest was licensed, to write the guide she wished existed: what adding a teen actually does to a policy, how vehicle assignment works, what the discounts are really worth and what to do after the first fender-bender. She reviews every page annually.
Laura lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
- Based in Minneapolis, Minnesota
- Covering auto insurance since 2013
- Focus areas: youthful-operator underwriting, household policy structure, vehicle assignment, graduated licensing
- Education: University of Minnesota (B.S., Economics)
Guides
Guide
How Much It Costs to Insure a Teen Driver
What adding a 16- or 17-year-old does to a family premium, what a teen pays alone, why teens are the most expensive drivers to insure, and how the cost falls.
Guide
Adding a Teen Driver to Your Car Insurance
When you must add a teen, how permits are handled, how insurers assign teens to vehicles, named-driver exclusions, and the questions to ask your insurer.
Guide
Graduated Licensing and Teen Car Insurance
How graduated driver licensing stages—permit, intermediate, full—interact with insurance: when coverage is needed, how restrictions reduce risk, and what violations do.
Guide
A Teen's First Accident or Ticket
What happens to a family premium after a teen's first at-fault accident or ticket, how long it lasts, accident forgiveness, and what to do.
Entries
Entry
How Insurers Assign a Teen to a Vehicle
The rating methods insurers use to decide which car a teen is priced on, and how to use them to lower the family premium legitimately.
Entry
Separate Car Insurance Policy for Teens vs. Adding to a Family Plan
Compare the costs, legal rules, and coverage risks of getting a separate car insurance policy for your teen driver versus keeping them on a family policy.