Car insurer that reduces rates for students far from home

[ChicagoBear]

We have Chubb Insurance. Just got my policy amendment - the "away at college without a car" discount is $494 a year for us. This is on top of the normal good student discount we have. DS normally takes his car to school but is in Europe this semester - he definitely is more than 100 miles from home!

Chubb will never be the cheapest policy, but it is universally considered the "gold standard" when comparing coverages and policy terms. If you drive a more expensive car (Mercedes, Lexus, BMW etc.), where you wouldn't want knockoff parts and might need Agreed Value coverage, its worth looking into to see what the cost differntial with a standard policy is.

[mommusic]

MetLife here. Always put our kids on the "occasional driver" plan, as well as "good student" discounts.

[sax]

Thanks to everyone for posting. My friend certainly has enough info to share with their current insurer in hopes of getting them to reconsider.

[SteveMA]

We had American Family with our older kids, they were occasional drivers, dropped our rate on one car about $60/month or so (it's been a while).

[archiemom]

State Farm, here as well. Not sure of the current discount, but our previous carrier, CNA, only dropped the premium about $75.00 when our oldest was away at school (+/_2008?).

[HImom]

Our insurance was about $1000 for 3 cars and just H & I as drivers. Both Island Insurance & Liberty Mutual refused to put either of my kids on the policy, as both kids were attending school 2500 miles from our house.

When we send a car to D, our policy will drop because only 2 cars will be insured & we will get D her own policy based on where the car is garaged, that she will pay for. Because LA is more expensive, she is under 26 & has only had her license a short while, her policy will initially be high @ $900 for 6 months. Hopefully it will drop as she gets more experience and keeps a good record. We are getting high limits on all the cars--$300k/500K per accident, plus a $2M umbrella. It's cheaper than getting more auto insurance w/o umbrella & we want to have sufficient coverage.

[akck]

We were able to get a reduction with Allstate, but he was 1,000+ miles away. He had the car for his second year, so it went back up. We did see a decrease after he turned 21 though.

[Chedva]

Liberty Mutual. I take my D off the policy while she's away without access to the car. I put her back on when she comes to visit, and if it's less than 2 weeks or so there's no premium for her.

Saved about $500 per year.

[mamom]

Another one insured by Amica. They will remove S from policy 2X a year saving us hundreds each month he is off policy. Unable to list him as an occasional driver when he is home because we have 3 cars and 3 drivers so each person automatically gets assigned a car. I am OK with that because to be truthful we only have the 3rd car so he has something to drive.

[jandjdad]

S is 180 miles away with car at home and Erie gives a $440 discount for the entire year. If he takes the car with him next year, the price will go back up but it's a nice break.

[kiddie]

GEICO - student 250 miles away $500 a year savings

[3togo]

We have Metlife and add and remove the college kids when they home or way at college ... not sure if they an occasional driver option. (PS - we used to the same thing with Liberty Mutual)

[catlover2]

Just took D off Progressive policy for semester as she is abroad for semster abroad , saving $100 a month will put her back on when she returns

[akmom124]

Another with Amica. He is listed as a primary driver on one car when he is home and as an occasional driver when he is at school (maybe 100 miles away). When he comes home for winter break we change him back to primary for the 5 weeks he is home and then he becomes occasional again. We don't take him off the policy completely because we want him covered if he drives a friend's car while he is at school. In the winter I was able to change him back to primary and pre-schedule when he would be returning to school and become occasional again all with one phone call so I didn't have to remember to call again! Savings was not as much this time as last year as he now has 3 years of a good driver record (as well as the good student discount). Once he hit 3 years I received a refund check in the mail because his rate went down so much! It was a really nice surprise!

[ChicagoBear]

^^^Agree with Akmom. It's NEVER a good idea to completely drop a licensed driver in your household from your policy.

Besides the risk of forgetting to put them back on the policy when they get home, guess what - college kids occasionally drive each others cars! This happens despite any instructions mom or dad might have given (which were our instructions to our son) about not letting anyone drive their car - sometimes for good reasons. There have been situations over the past couple years where my son got injured playing intramurals or got sick and needed to go to a doctor and he really couldn't/shouldn't drive his car. So a friend drove him to the ER or doctor using my son's car. Then of course there are always potential designated driver situations in college - which as a parent you will never hear about. While these may be valid reasons to drive someone's car in emergency or unusual circumstances, college students (and often times far older people) do not recognize the potential risks they are assuming- especially if they are not on their parents policy.

Now if the friend who drove my son had been in an accident, as someone who had permission to drive the car (from my son a covered person), the friend would have been fully covered by my $5 million auto/umbrella policies. On the otherhand, if the same friend drove someone who had state minimum coverage (say $20,000 - it varies by state) and was involved in anything more than a fender bender, he could be held liable for everything over that small policy limit and would likely have to pay for his own legal costs since the state mimimum company would just pay its policy limit and walk away. The friends current assets could then be seized and future wages garnished for up to 20 years in most states, unless he was covered under his parents policy which would defend and indemnify him.

Keeping junior on your policy is not the cheapest solution, but it recognizes the realities of college living and the thought processes of most students. It will also prevent your kid (and you) from having 20 years of reminders about the downside of being too thrifty.