<p>I’ve posted a thread on the parents forum and gotten some responses.</p>
<p>Was curious what the Bama group is doing to have insurance coverage on their kids’ possessions while at Bama.</p>
<p>Are you just going to let your homeowners take care of it, or do any of you have a policy with companies geared toward college student property theft: laptops, ipods.</p>
<p>Hoping to get feedback/recommendations from those who have gotten dorm insurance or are planning to this year.</p>
<p>interesting question this is one we have not even considered. Guess we are using whatever coverage is available on our homeowners. Not like there’s a lot of valuable inventory other than the TV and laptop, and if those were stolen/damaged at home I know we wouldn’t file for them. Hmmmmm…</p>
<p>I’m sure the honors dorm doesn’t have a theft issue, but if you attended Bama Bound, the officer did mention 60 laptops being stolen during move in. It would be naive to think one is “safe” just because of your surroundings. Thieves are opportunistic “predators”, and it’s better to be safe than sorry. Of course, we need to teach our kids to practice “safety”, ie, locking doors, keeping valuables locked up, being aware of your surroundings. </p>
<p>But back to the original post, I’m thinking just using our homeowners, too, but I didn’t know if there was something in place at Bama for students to sign up for.</p>
<p>I don’t think Bama has any kind of insurance plan for these things.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if there is a big cost benefit to having a special plan - except maybe for the laptop - which probably can be a “rider” on your home insurance. Our deductible is $500, so if an iPod is stolen, there’s not going to be a claim.</p>
<p>DS has a laptop-sized dorm safe that attached to a bedpost from the inside. Only got it because it was like $19 special when we were buying something else. I know they have them at Target. As to if he’s going to use it? Not likely.</p>
<p>Since the possessions one normally has in a dorm room are of a relatively small value, it seems best to just use one’s homeowner’s insurance and self-insure for what it doesn’t cover. The honors dorms are very safe and since your child will have their own locked bedroom, the chance of theft from their room is very small.</p>
<p>Because honor students don’t steal things? That sounds awfully naive if you ask me.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This is a must. On several instances, I have gone to those suite-style residence halls to visit somebody and accidentally walked into a wrong suite where the suite door was unlocked and nobody was inside when I’ve gone inside.</p>
<p>S got his laptop stolen on the last day of school this year (Jr) at his private school. Although laptop was worth $2K, it wasn’t worth a homeowners claim - there was a $500 deductable and if anything else happened our rates would go up substantially and might even affect car insurance rates, so we didn’t want to take the chance. So, we have laptop insurance now. That is an option, although for when S goes to college we will look into some additional insurance as he has a lot of expensive photo equipment.</p>
<p>*The honors dorms don’t have a theft issue. *</p>
<p>I wrote that because there isn’t a theft problem in the honors dorms. I’m not saying that there has never been anything stolen. But, in the 3 years that my older son has been there and one year that younger son has been there, they haven’t known anyone to have anything stolen from their dorms. They’ve been in Riverside, Lakeside, and Ridgecrest. </p>
<p>And, yes, I would say that honors students are less likely to steal. That’s not that unusual.</p>