Auto Insurance Claims: young driver insurance, Age or Experience based auto rates

Question
hi justin,
 i will be graduating high school this june and my parents have been pushing for me to get my drivers license. they tell me that even if i don't get a car now it'll lower my insurance rates when i do get a car. is this true? suppose i get my license at age 18, and don't get a car or drive until after college (22 yrs old), does physically just having a license for those years lead to lower rates or would i have to prove some sort of driving in that period? also, is age that important a factor that insurance companies look at? or is actual driving experience? i ask because i do hear people say teens get the worst quotes but what about new drivers at any age? will a 35 year old new driver get the same quote as a teen? at what age will there be no longer an issue? thank you.

Answer
That's a great question Kenny.  The short answer is that only the underwriting department for your insurance company can tell you how they rate you according to age, experience, etc.  Since that doesn't give you an answer, here's my take. . .

It is the age that matters, not the license status.  It does not matter whether you have a license or not for you to drive.  Is it not true that you can go out and get in a vehicle and drive off right now, if you have the keys and permission?  You are a higher risk at a younger age because of experience, and not because of how long you have had a driver license.  In fact, in many States, there is an endorsement that requires people to exclude or list anybody that lives with them that is over the age of 14, simply because there is a risk that they will drive.  

Your rates will likely go down with age, no matter how long you have had a license.  I have never seen a policy for an 18 year old that just got a license which was rated higher than an 18 year old that had everything the same except they had their license for two years.  Make sense?  

So it COULD be true, IF you have a company that is really picky about experience over age, AND who weights the possession of a license as actual experience.  Not gonna happen.  When you are 25, your rates will go way down, regardless as to whether you wait until you are 25 to get a license.  I hope this helps. . .