<p>I posted this in the parents' forum, but thought I'd also ask here to get some advice:</p>
<p>The University my S will be attending sent a letter to our home and one part of it says we can purchase personal property insurance. Is this a good idea? I think of that nice MacBookPro S just bought and a couple other items and am not sure if someone is going to decide to help themselves to his things.</p>
<p>Usually, that stuff is covered under your parent’s homeowners insurance. Talk to your insurance agent to make sure tho, if it’s not it would be a good idea.</p>
<p>Buy a laptop lock cable and never leave your laptop / textbooks unattended in public. The only times I read about someone having something stolen is when they do something stupid like go to the bathroom and leave their laptop sitting on a table in the library, or they have roommates that let everyone into their rooms and stuff magically disappears.</p>
<p>It depends on much the insurance is, I’d say. We received information on that too, but my dad decided not to do the insurance thing. His idea that things are usually fine and eventually, you waste too much money on insurance stuff. He never buys those extra warranties on any item purchased and has come out fine so far. </p>
<p>Just tell you S to not let his laptop lay around unattended. I have a MacBook Pro also for college, so I understand your worries!</p>
<p>It also might depend on the college your S is attending. My dad said with my college, he doesn’t worry all that much in a small university of 2100 kids, but if I was going to a large state university, he’d worry a lot more and probably buy the insurance.</p>
<p>Depends. Last year my schools dorms had major flooding (i should know mine was the first effected, but i had no damage luckly :)), half of the students effected had no insurance. One lost a tv and gamesystem and such. But no one knew that the pipes would freeze so hard then bust once they turned the heat back on (i’m not kidding the night before this it was like -40 outside and my room alone was like 20 degrees, and they couldn’t get the boiler fixed). Long story short, the school ended up paying for all 25 of us 5 nights in the hyatt hotel (i lucked out and got my own room :3) and paying for all the rugs that got soaked to be professionally cleaned. They also relpaced any textbooks that were damaged.</p>
<p>So, is it worth it to get it? I would check with your homeonwers first and see if it covers it, and if not go for it.</p>
<p>^^ I’d take the school to small claims court if I lost a TV because of flooding. Their poor maintenance of a building led to loss of personal property = their responsibility to pay for the damage.</p>
<p>Wouldn’t pass because of the waiver they have you sign at the begining of the year.</p>
<p>There are a ton of threads on this forum about CSI and NSSI (not sure about that acronym) who provide insurance for college students. I use CSI (collegestudentinsurance.com I believe) and they basically cover everything I own for about $130 a year. Lots of people have gotten laptops, phones, clothes, etc replaced with limited hassle and only a $25 deductible which is probably many times less expensive than the deductible on a homeowners policy (and using it won’t hurt you premium wise).</p>
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<p>Check your facts. I’m pretty sure that for most people, this isn’t true.</p>
<p>I suggest LoJack for Laptops. iPhones have a tracking feature that can be easily enabled.</p>
<p>Also, the size of the college is irrelevant. Theft will happen no matter what size your school is.</p>
<p>“I’d take the school to small claims court if I lost a TV because of flooding. Their poor maintenance of a building led to loss of personal property = their responsibility to pay for the damage.”</p>
<p>Housing agreements say something along the lines of the school not being liable for any damages or losses to property so their would be no basis for a case.</p>