Getting started as a young driver isn’t easy, especially if you are looking at the average car insurance for 18 year old motorists. Let’s be honest – you are not going to find your best rates for auto insurance this early on in your driving venture. The good news is, though, that by playing it smart you can still find some great lower average car insurance for 18 year old rates.

What you do need to think about is what kind of things can influence the rates you do pay. For instance you should realize:

• You may be able to get discounts for good grades, generally if you are still in high school. Many insurance policy providers extend a good grades discount for young drivers who keep their academic career a priority over their social life.

• Already in college? You may qualify for student discounts depending on which insurance company you chose.

• Make sure you get a good driving record right off the bat. If you start driving when you are 16 and manage to avoid getting and tickets or having any accidents, then you will see savings on rates as early as possible. This is a good habit to establish anyway because you should try to maintain a good driving record for all of your life.

• Take driver’s education. Most car insurance policy providers offer some sort of discount for young drivers if they take drivers ed in high school. Not only can this help you get cheap auto insurance for young drivers rates, but you can also be much better prepared for getting behind the wheel of a car this way.

• Think practical not sporty. As much as you may want your first car or two to be the type of vehicle every one of your friends will wish they had, this is probably going to cost a great deal more on monthly payments and your car insurance. Consider a safe but affordable clunker or at least finance a new car that has more safety add-ons than sports car features.

• If possible, try not to finance a car. Having a car that you are making payments on through a financial lending institution will drive up the average car insurance for 18 year old drivers. Save up and buy a reliable but affordable used car or accept your older brother’s hand me down. Once you get established as a driver with a good driving record, you can look into getting a “cooler” car and not worry so much about the insurance rates.

• If you join the military, you can more than likely take advantage of discounted rates for car insurance because of this. In fact, other things such as getting married before the age of 25 can do the same thing. While you would never want to get married or join the military for cheap car insurance rates, you should take advantage of it if it applies to you.

Other Ways to Cut Your Costs

There are other things you can consider to help cut down on those high rates for young drivers. The problem is that young drivers are deemed inexperienced and therefore automatically classified as high risk. High risk is the most pricy category to be in when it comes to securing an auto policy. Try to reverse this mentality by not feeding into it. In other words, be safe, cautious and courteous; avoid making potentially fatal mistakes such as texting while driving.

If you still live at home, see if you can be included on your parent’s car insurance policy. Not only that but if your family has other types of insurance such as home owners, life or RV insurance and you bundle these together on one policy, there should be savings all around. Try to set up your premiums to be paid automatically instead of requiring a paper billing statement mailed to you every month.

If you have started to look for prices for car insurance, the important thing is to not get discouraged. It is possible to find cheap car insurance for young drivers; it is just a matter of knowing where to look. Never settle for the first quote you get, and it is a good idea to get the quotes brought to you instead of trying to hunt them all down yourself.

In fact, you could get started right now with nothing more than your zip code. The average car insurance for 18 year old drivers may be higher than other types, but you can still locate great rates this way.

The average car insurance for 18 year old drivers may not be cheap, but you can still make it easily affordable.