Family Feuds·
THE ONLINE ED FEE
After his son's unfinished online drivers ed triggers a $13 monthly insurance increase, a father trims the teen's allowance, framing it as a real-world consequence rather than punishment.
Should the son absorb that cost or not?
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A father's insurance bill went up $13 a month because his 19-year-old son refused to finish one online drivers ed module.
The father, 50, had just switched insurance companies to save money after starting a monthly budget for a family of five that had been overspending. The new insurer asked for the son's Drivers Ed Completion Certificate. That should have been routine. Instead, it turned into the reason for a higher premium.
When the father contacted the company to figure out why the certificate was missing, he learned the answer was simple: the son had skipped the online portion of drivers ed. He had passed the in-class section and the road tests, but never finished the full course.
The son's explanation was blunt. He had an "objection to online drivers ed because it's pointless."
The father didn't buy that. He told his son that, pointless or not, it was part of the contract and he had broken it. The result was concrete: the insurance policy now cost $13 more each month than it would have if the course had been completed. In the father's telling, the son was fully responsible for the increase.
He still gives the son an allowance, so he made a matching change there. He cut the allowance by $13 a month, saying the son should help cover the cost he created. He says that amount comes out to $715 over time, and he notes that he had other options available. He could have removed the son from the policy and forbidden him to drive. He could have demanded the full $715 back. He did neither.
Instead, he described the adjustment as "a natural consequence based on real world impact and not vengeance."
That framing did not keep him from wondering if he had crossed a line. He asked whether he was being petty for "nickeling and diming a young man and shaking him down to help my bills."
The final detail he offered was as ordinary as it was pointed: the cut means "one less Mary Browns 3-piece Combo per month."
So the situation is now this: a son skipped one online requirement, an insurer raised the family's premium, and a father responded by trimming the son's allowance by the exact amount of the increase.