<p>We seem to have lost the useful thread on insurance and taxes in the CC crash last week. Let's try separating the topics and trying again. As I recall USAA has good coverage for cadet's "stuff" that may disappear and you can add it to your homeowners policy. We can also talk about auto and medical insurance.</p>
<p>USMA advises cadets to retain any civilian healthcare coverage that they may have. If a new cadet/cadet leaves USMA for any reason, DoD healthcare benefits terminate on the day that a new cadet/cadet disenrolls from USMA.</p>
<p>I'm not sure about auto insurance advice - can cadets be classified as occasional drivers to lower premiums?</p>
<p>Depending on your insurance company there are various methods to save some money and maintain coverage on your cadet. Our understanding is that the cadet is better off with some type of coverage between R Day and Spring of Cow year so that there is no break in coverage, although when I asked our insurance company about that particular rumor, they said even if there were no insurance for those years, the cost difference wouldn't be significant when the cadet started a new policy.</p>
<p>Some options to ask your company about:</p>
<p>Ask about a "name-non-owner" policy which would be in your cadet's name and carry a low rate. It basically means they sometimes drive but don't own a vehicle. The cadet would set that up - in otherwords, they would be off your policy.</p>
<p>Another option which our company offers is to keep the cadet on our policy but at a very low rate, basically treating them as they would a neighbor who might borrow our vehicle. </p>
<p>If after Spring Break of the Cow year, a cadet takes a vehicle to NY, they must insure it in their name in NY ($$$).</p>
<p>As far as medical, as we are retired military, our cadet is no longer part of our medical "plan" with Tricare or covered with our supplemental.</p>
<p>We have USSA as our carrier for auto....I contacted them upon my son's arrival at KP for Indoc. USAA has reduced our policy now that he is no longer at home, they did assure me that he would be covered on those rare times he is home and drives our cars. I understand that it is a courtesy USAA extends to all the academies</p>
<p>In regard to keeping your mid, cadet, etc. on your healthcare policy, this has worked very well for us. Each semester we receive a letter from our health insurance carrier requesting an update in our mid's school status. We simply fax it to the school registrar, requesting 2 copies of the certification faxed back, one to the health care plan and one to us, and that is it. It takes less than 5 minutes. </p>
<p>The nice thing about having the insurance is that it gives our son more options. He had his wisdom teeth extracted and his teeth cleaned and examined during Christmas Break, so he would not have to deal with that during the ac year. Then he immediately took his records to the dental clinic on base and they did examine him after he returned on Jan. 3. </p>
<p>As to the auto insurance, ours still has his name on our policy, although he is listed as an occasional driver and the rate dropped to nearly nothing.</p>
<p>Health: We bought a high deductible ($1000) student health plan plus a supplemental Rx & dental discount plan (through USAA)(helped the price of wisdom teeth removal) as was less expensive.<br>
Auto: He is "away at college" status and is not the primary driver on any vehicle - less expensive. I heard that USAA allows them free if you have family coverage through them.
Computer coverage - someone earlier discussed insuring computers, etc. through homeowners or a separate policy - could you jump in again?</p>
<p>From what I remember about homeowners claims (I supervised 12 claims reps), your computer(s) are "personal property". Most policies have a limit of liability. You could check with your own carrier to see if they offer a "rider" endorsement that would cover a specific item with a specific $ limit if a loss occurs. Keep in mind they do not cover the loss of files or data.</p>
<p>I think it was Bill that pointed out that depending on your homeowner's deductable concerning loss of property with items such as computers, uniforms, ect., it might be worth looking into USAA's personal property insurance. It protects up to $3000 for around $4 a month. It gives full replacement costs on uniforms, laptops, electronics,ect. with $100 deductable (class rings are no deductable). In our case, our homeowner's policy is $500 deductable and there is a fine line on replacement costs of laptops. Depends on how they were lost or damaged if they deem it payable. We've got the boy on that "away to college" type status and WOW did the insurance go down. That made for happy days since the boy has a convertible..... And there's a nuther laugh. Speaking of away at college....I gotta get in the garage and remove the Xmas garland that I've stored on top of his car & stash it back into the attic before he sees it. He's gonna freak bad enough when he sees his room. Freshly painted yesterday with no left over high schoolish awards, no posters, no nasty old comfy quilt on the bed. Too bad! Its my house now. He'll be staying in the new library when he comes home! LOL</p>
<p>Thanks Jamzmom, our son has an Appointment USAFA and will comfirm his decision after he attends orientation in April. I love reading posts from parents that have already sent their kids off. They are very helpful.</p>
<p>What stinks is my middle son will be 16 on June 6th. My oldest will be leaving June 28th. I am trading one "student driver" for another. I guess it could be worse......paying for two "student drivers" at the full coverage.</p>
<p>Why would my Plebe Need Auto Insurance when he/she doesn't have a car at the academy?</p>
<p>Here's why</p>
<p>Our plebe son innocently mentioned that he and some other plebes had taken spirit passes, rented a car(yes, rental companies will rent cars to cadets) and driven to New Jersey for the Army/Navy game. He said they all chipped in for the car and shared driving duties (it was a new SUV and they all wanted a turn driving it). Being a stick-in-the-mud I asked if they bought the insurance coverage from the rental car company. He said no since "the insurance wasn't mandatory, the car wasn't theirs, and it was a rip-off". Gotta love them !</p>
<p>When I told him that he had exposed himself to over $25,000 of liability for the car and who-knows-how-much liability for any injury/damage caused by the car, he genuinely sounded concerned as he muttered "Oh". After an appropriately long pause, I told him that, although he was no longer listed as a designated driver on our policy, he was still insured by our family auto policy.</p>
<p>WARNING: This may be more information than you wanted</p>
<p>You will likely save quite a bit of premium by removing your cadet as a principal or occassional driver on your family auto policy (in our case it was nearly $1000). Unless there is a specific endorsement stating that unnamed youthful drivers are not covered by your policy (this is rare and should be refused if suggested by your agent), your cadet or anyone else who has permission to use your vehicle(s) will be covered when they drive them during leave. Your cadet should also be afforded all liability and collision coverages provided to "family members". Under our policy this also includes collision on rental cars. Certainly, you can only remove them as a designated driver if they genuinely are no longer the principal or occassional driver. Some insurance companies require that a student reside over 100 miles away from home (or the car's garage location) before they can be removed.</p>
<p>Why doesn't removing your cadet's name as a designated driver from your personal auto policy eliminate coverage? It's because most auto policies extend liability and collision coverage to any "family member". You don't have to be listed on the policy to be a family member. However, in my policy, you do need to be a "resident of the household". Given our cadet still claims residency in our state, has his driver's license and voting registration here and still uses our address for a variety of purposes (credit card, banking, etc), I think a case can be made that he's a resident. Just to be safe I had our insurance company make a note in our file that, although he's away at school and not listed as a driver on our policy, our cadet son was still considered a family member and would likely use a vehicle when at home on leave. </p>
<p>If your cadet will be routinely driving other non-family, non-owned vehicles (rental car, friends' cars) and you are concerned that he/she will not be deemed a "family member", the Hired and Non-owned automobile liability policy is probably a good idea (They should, however, be covered by the other vehicle owner's insurance if they have the owner's permission to drive). An important note is that in most cases the Hired and Non-owned policy only covers liability and would not cover collision damage to the vehicle driven by the cadet.</p>
<p>As an additional protection, it's a good idea is to make sure your cadet uses his/her credit card (has to be a credit card with cadet's name on it) to pay for any rental cars since most cards provide Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver coverage for cardholder. </p>
<p>Hope this has been more helpful than confusing. I warned you it was going to be long.</p>
<p>Much appreciate that long post, Aspen - would seriously consider dropping son BUT for one very serious, deadly reason that I hate to bring up. Every year, at least 2 Midshipmen have been killed in car accidents while at home on break. All for a variety of reasons (weather, other drivers, alcohol, etc.), but all heart-breakingly tragic. Some have involved others, i.e. passengers. More than war, our kids are more likely to be killed or injured while in a car. </p>
<p>Please educate your kids about rental cars (see above) - which is why they usually don't rent to under 25s (unless they whip out those military IDs...). </p>
<p>They may think they are impervious, but we know better. I have been to too many funerals and son attended one for academy classmate recently.</p>
<p>Be careful out there.</p>
<p>Way back when in the stone age, upperclassmen would bring younger cadets to drive them home, the drinkage was 19. The "freshman" (Doolies) would drive the senior's cars home for a safe ride. They also drive them for SQ business. Go to the commisary and pick up 15 cases of soda for the picnic, here drive my car I have to study/go to a meeting/something. They need to be insured.</p>
<p>USAA still overs my D who is at U of AZ though her car is here in VA. This company is great they are so understanding of military issues. Deployments, screwed ups with your pay and slow APO mail they undertand. Move overseas they cover you. When our HHG were hit by a train, they were there for us.</p>