Dorm insurance versus homeowners insurance

I tried a search, but the threads were several years old (unless I did something wrong).

What are your thoughts on dorm insurance? I talked to my insurance agent and she said my daughter is covered under our homeowner’s policy in a dorm or college apartment as long as her permanent residence is ours (ie not living in her own apartment after graduation).

My daughter will have her cell phone, a laptop and ipad mini (required for her program). The agent is looking into whether we need/want riders, but I’m looking for information and advice about the whole college insurance thing.

Did you just rely on your homeowners? Did you add riders for anything? Did you go with a particular brand of dorm insurance, and did it seem to cover more/less/the same as your homeowners?

If you use your homeowners policy, you’ll most likely have a fairly high deductible. Also, homeowners policies don’t usually cover accidental damage. “Dorm insurance”, however, covers much more. My son’s deductible was $25 and covered theft, accidental damage, replacement cost and more. It also covered him if he lived off campus or was away studying abroad. The premium was fairly cheap. He used CSI Insurance, which I believe is now Gallagher Insurance.

It’s hard for me to believe that my kid is going to have enough high dollar stuff in his dorm room that even if it were all destroyed or stolen I’d want to make a claim on my homeowners insurance. Not only is the deductible for homeowners insurance high, but claims can cause increases in future rates or even cause the policy to be canceled. I wouldn’t put in a homeowners insurance claim for less than $5k.

So while in theory those items could be covered under homeowners insurance, the question would be - would you want them to be? For me, the answer is no. Also, depending on the type of coverage (full replacement - rare or current value - more common) the replacement value of those things is lower than you’d guess. Your 3 year old laptop or phone isn’t worth much.

I would probably self-insure for the stuff in a dorm room. By the time you get to an apartment or the total value of the items is more than $10k or so, then renter’s insurance might make sense.

We got dorm insurance for the reasons stated above. Never made a claim but I’m glad we had it, and it was pretty cheap for the peace of mind.

We purchased a separate $4000.00 college student insurance policy for our son. It only cost $100 and covered the replacement cost of any property that was stolen, damaged or destroyed. The deductible was only $25.00. He had his cellphone, desktop pc, engineering laptop, a 3D printer, his snowboard & boots, skis & boots, a kayak, camping gear, and the usual miscellaneous dorm room stuff. All it would take is for the fire alarm sprinklers to go off in the dorm room (or heaven forbid, an actual fire), or a theft of just on of the above items…

Check your credit card (you may need to call the 800 number). Many already offer some form of theft/damage protection for items you bought using the card-- so receipts may be all you need.

No need to overinsure if you already have coverage.

And as Milee points out- you will be paying a lot to cover a two year old phone, three year old laptop or whatever. Add up the entire contents of a dorm room- unless your kid is taking a Stradivarius off to conservatory, the dollar value likely doesn’t warrant coverage.

dorm insurance worked great for us with two claims and a $25 deductible. They reimbursed D’s cell phone (full price, even tho it was two years old) which got soaked during a thundershower, and a lost jacket which she left in a lecture hall and was not there when she went back for it.

OTOH, did not purchase for S since I didn’t think he’d need it. (Would never be texting during a rain storm.)