insurance for college students

Parents Forum
61

I’m getting a lower quote from https://tuition.libertymutual.com/ , $399 to insure $36,000 compared to gradguard’s quote of $486

Coverage looks comparable

Liberty Mutual:
Injury or Illness 100%
Mental Health Disorder 100%
Death of Insured Student 100%
Death of Tuition Payer 100%

gradguard.com:
Illness/Injury of Student: Up to 100%
Death of Student: Up to 100%
Psychological/Mental Disorder: Up to 80%
Any Unforeseen Reason: No Coverage

Our son’s school also participates in the Dewar Tuition Refund plan and their quote is $396. Coverage is
Injury and Sickness Withdrawals 100%
Mental Health 60%

62

@crepes what are you insuring? I am speaking of standard renters insurance and it’s like $10.00 /month or $120/year

63

@Knowsstuff
The quotes are for tuition insurance, also in the gradguard link that you posted above

However this article https://www.consumerreports.org/tuition-insurance/should-you-buy-college-tuition-insurance/ gives pros and cons of tuition insurance; if the student is generally healthy there may not be as much as a need for it.

I didn’t get a quote from gradguard for renters insurance because they asked for an email address

64

Got it! Thx… Their renters insurance is pretty cheap. Never thought or need the insurance you are speaking of. Didn’t even know that is a thing… Lol. Lots of different ways to spend our money I guess. I don’t really see a need for tuition insurance. Interesting though. I would rather use that money on their over expensive books.

65

@crepes thank you. I am looking for tuition insurance. I think the one recommended by the school is nearly $600 for us. The published COA for the school is over $70K, obviously we are not paying that much to attend.

66

My experience is you want to avoid ever filing a small claim on your homeowner’s policy as it is likely subject to a deductible (mine is $1,000) and will increase your rates.

Even if you have coverage, spending $12-15 a month to cover a student seems smart to me. I don’t understand why schools don’t include it with just living on campus.

IAPARENT - makes a good point about claims following a student, but the plans I have seen offered thru schools (GradGuard) and the one we purchased indicate that claims do not follow students post-college and no credit check is required.

67

We have been thrilled with CSI with our older kids and certainly will purchase for a student starting in Fall. Why?

  1. It is cheaper than the policies sold with electronics (laptop, cell).
  2. The deductible is $25 vs pur HO $1000
  3. My oldest used it and it was easy and he received check quickly

NOTE - the policy is dropped after 2 uses. My son’s “older” laptop was damaged freshman year and we advised him to not use it as he had planned to upgrade soon anyway

68

So two kids in college living in dorms, apartments, houses. We never bought anything and never had an issue with anything. FYI… Hope it continues.

69

We had two kids living in a combo of dorms, apartments and houses as well, from 2006 through now. So far, there is nothing they would have claimed, except for when they lost their cell phones but we had them limp along with borrowed ones or 2nd hand phones until it was time for them to get free new phones on the plan. I know others who have had insurance and were glad of it as their kids had items broken/stolen/damaged. You have to know your child and how much risk can be absorb vs insured.

For what it’s worth, they did have their new laptops die on them but both were covered by the Costco CCard extended warranty and were refunded 100% of the purchase price which they bought other machines that worked for them.