Car insurer that reduces rates for students far from home

<p>GEICO - student 250 miles away $500 a year savings</p>

<p>We have Metlife and add and remove the college kids when they home or way at college … not sure if they an occasional driver option. (PS - we used to the same thing with Liberty Mutual)</p>

<p>Just took D off Progressive policy for semester as she is abroad for semster abroad , saving $100 a month will put her back on when she returns</p>

<p>Another with Amica. He is listed as a primary driver on one car when he is home and as an occasional driver when he is at school (maybe 100 miles away). When he comes home for winter break we change him back to primary for the 5 weeks he is home and then he becomes occasional again. We don’t take him off the policy completely because we want him covered if he drives a friend’s car while he is at school. In the winter I was able to change him back to primary and pre-schedule when he would be returning to school and become occasional again all with one phone call so I didn’t have to remember to call again! Savings was not as much this time as last year as he now has 3 years of a good driver record (as well as the good student discount). Once he hit 3 years I received a refund check in the mail because his rate went down so much! It was a really nice surprise!</p>

<p>^^^Agree with Akmom. It’s NEVER a good idea to completely drop a licensed driver in your household from your policy. </p>

<p>Besides the risk of forgetting to put them back on the policy when they get home, guess what - college kids occasionally drive each others cars! This happens despite any instructions mom or dad might have given (which were our instructions to our son) about not letting anyone drive their car - sometimes for good reasons. There have been situations over the past couple years where my son got injured playing intramurals or got sick and needed to go to a doctor and he really couldn’t/shouldn’t drive his car. So a friend drove him to the ER or doctor using my son’s car. Then of course there are always potential designated driver situations in college - which as a parent you will never hear about. While these may be valid reasons to drive someone’s car in emergency or unusual circumstances, college students (and often times far older people) do not recognize the potential risks they are assuming- especially if they are not on their parents policy.</p>

<p>Now if the friend who drove my son had been in an accident, as someone who had permission to drive the car (from my son a covered person), the friend would have been fully covered by my $5 million auto/umbrella policies. On the otherhand, if the same friend drove someone who had state minimum coverage (say $20,000 - it varies by state) and was involved in anything more than a fender bender, he could be held liable for everything over that small policy limit and would likely have to pay for his own legal costs since the state mimimum company would just pay its policy limit and walk away. The friends current assets could then be seized and future wages garnished for up to 20 years in most states, unless he was covered under his parents policy which would defend and indemnify him. </p>

<p>Keeping junior on your policy is not the cheapest solution, but it recognizes the realities of college living and the thought processes of most students. It will also prevent your kid (and you) from having 20 years of reminders about the downside of being too thrifty.</p>