Does anyone know how this works and is this something I should even be worried about?
Does my homeowners policy as a parent reach into their dorm to cover contents? And does it require us to meet our deductible? We have fairly high limit deductibles and I am hard pressed to see her having a potential claim that would meet that test.
Do parents of college kids worry about covering dorm incidentals with insurance or should this just be self-insured?
And bonus credit on how it is to drop a kid from my auto policy if they are leaving for college. She is going more than half the country away and will not be driving a car at all while there. She will be in a major US city with subways with no car access. I assume she would be a permissive driver when home for breaks, but am curious to hear perspectives from either knowledgeable parents or people in the insurance business that know what they are talking about.
For the car, check with your insurer. I kept my kids on my policy (both were more than 100 miles away) and it didnât cost very much at all, like $50 for 6 months. That way we didnât have to add them back for the summer. Usually âpermissiveâ or guest drivers can only drive your car 12 times per year (but how would they know?) and if they are home for breaks it is likely theyâd drive more than that.
I think if you want things covered in the dorm it would be better to get a dorm policy. Those usually cover things like bikes, computers, other electronics; itâs more likely youâd file a claim for those. Yes, if you file a claim under your homeownersâ policy the deductible would apply, and it would also count as a claim. Some insurers will cancel you after the third claim, no matter how small the payout is (neighbors had this problem with continued flooding of the basements).
Our insurance has a "student awayâ discount. It applies if the studentâs school is over 100 miles away and they wonât have a car.
We never took out renterâs insurance when our students were in the dorms. When their apartments required it, we had the kids take out their own policies in their own names so that any potential claim would be made against them and not us.
When my oldest started paying his own car insurance, we found that renters insurance lowered the car insurance rate. It ended up that car + renterâs was $7 more than car insurance alone.
check with your policy if homeowners will cover stuff in the dorm, but it will still be subject to your deductible. College dorm insurance is usually really cheap. There used a couple of national companies involved with very low deductibles. Daughter got caught in a thunderstorm and ruined a sweater adn cell phone taht was in her backpack. Insurance paid quickly.
This may be a state-by-state, company-by-company situation.
In NC, everyone with a driverâs license is required to have insurance coverage. In NC, if a licensed driverâs insurance is cancelled or dropped, the insurance company immediately notifies DMV, who then contacts the driver and cancels their driverâs license unless the individual provides immediate proof of insurance. The individual is not allowed to drive again until insurance coverage is reinstated, DMV is officially notified, and the driverâs license is reissued. There may be fines incurred for not following the proper procedure.
Check with your state to see if there are similar laws/restrictions there.
Our kid was out of the country for 27 months doing a Peace Corps assignment and it took us MONTHS to convince our insurance company to drop her from our policy. Months. They claimed she might come home and drive. NoâŠnot from that distance. And she was prohibited from driving in country by the PC, and our policy would not have covered her out of the country anyway.
For college studentsâŠour plan offered a $100 âaway at school discountâ. Every penny counts.
never ever got dorm insurance; but when apartments required it, we did with kidsâ own policies. for car, we left our kids on == kids do drive othersâ cars sometimes in college, and if our kid is a DD, we want our coverage there in place. Another thing we had was UBER for every kid. No questions asked.
Two of my kids get a discount for being more than 100 miles from home. Their phones and laptops are insured and they have nothing else of any value in the dorms. Off campus renters insurance is cheap, about $50 a year (State Farm letâs two renters on one policy so $100 a year).
Canât really add much to whatâs been already said other than to agree that our car insurance gave us a discount when D was away without her car freshman year. She needed to stay on for when she was home and driving.
Our homeowners policy explicitly covered dorm contents while she was on campus. D had to buy her own renters insurance through her apartment complex when she was off campus. Super affordable.
Years ago my son had a policy through College Student Property Insurance (CSPI) that was very inexpensive and even covered accidental damage to things like laptops and phones. The deductible was something like $25. That company has now been changed to Gallagher but it looks like theyâre still offering those policies. My son made a couple of claims that were paid promptly and without hassle.
Agree with dorm insurance - not 1 but 2 dorm fires last year at one of our childâs school (no damage for her) - but smoke damage x many rooms plus water damage and expense on your own for items if no insurance.
Car insurance - went down significantly with kids âput on awayâ and still covered holidays and summers. I called numerous times and always got the same answer - as pleasantly surprised about the savings and no need to pay more when they were home.
We took out college student insurance when our kids were in college, both in the dorm and in off campus housing. Believe we used the predecessor to Gallagher and Gallagher.
It was inexpensive, and did cover a cell phone when sonâs got messed up accidentally.
Our insurance didnât give us much of a discount on the kid that was 350 miles away, and 0 discount on kid less than 50 miles away. We kept them insured, and we paid a fortune for car insurance. Probably stupid, but I could sleep well at night knowing they were well insured.
We also took out an umbrella policy about the time we had 2 teenaged male drivers⊠so I guess we are risk averse.
Make sure you arenât double insured⊠check the fine print on your credit card, check the invoice from the retailer⊠if you already have replacement coverage, you donât need an extra policy. These specialized insurance products are extremely profitable⊠ask yourself why!
So in past years - we had Donegal for insurance - and for $7 for the year, they somehow extended our homeowners insurance to my sonâs apartment.
Really - my kid probably doesnât have $1K worth of stuff (excluding computer) so not sure why needed - but for liability.
This year we switched to Stillwater - and they donât offer the same rider - so I have to get them their own. The apartments all recommend the one mentioned above (like $12 a month) but State Farm was 8 in both my kids apartments.
That said, youâre asking about a dorm - and I never had any âdormâ insurance - so i donât think thatâs necessary.
We didnât want our homeowners to be dinged with a claimâŠthus the separate policy. Our kids had expensive musical instruments so a rider was needed to cover those too. Worth the peace of mind.
Iâd either self insure for dorm contents or get dorm insurance from an outfit like Gallagher. Cost is pretty low and deductible probably much lower than your homeowners. It wouldnât make much financial sense to make a claim on your homeowners for the relatively small loss you might have from dorm contents.
Call your insurance company and inquire about a reduced rate for a college student far away from home. We found the cost ended up pretty close to not having the kids on the insurance at all.
We put all of our kids on the NSSI student insurance. It covered everything in their dorms and apartments. Car insurance put her on the âAway at Collegeâ coverage. We called them when they were back at home for the summer and then started the policy again every summer.