<p>I live in Texas; I work for a major insurance company. I was told in no uncertain terms by our property and casualty department that, in Texas, you cannot remove your college student from your policy while a dependent student is away at school. However, you can get a discount on your insurance. (By the way, there was a huge thread on this topic last year, with people sharing various experiences by state/company.) I assure you that insurance laws vary by state. Insurers must abide by the regulatory laws of 51 entities (50 states, plus the District of Columbia). It’s quite expensive, and it’s reflected in your rates. That’s why many insurers support the Optional Federal Charter. It would allow insurance companies to decide whether they want to continue doing business as they currently do (dealing with all of those regulators) or operate under one set of federal laws (like the banking industry does today).</p>
<p>Instead of trying to figure it out anecdotally, I suggest a quick call to your insurance agent. Then you will have the answer as it applies to you.</p>
<p>They did respond in writing, in a way, by signing the green return receipt postcard acknowledging receipt of my letter. In a coverage dispute this would be golden in my view.</p>
<p>All this signed card means is that SOMEONE in their mailroom received and signed for your mail. It is NOT a response from the insurance company regarding anything contained in your letter. AND all it would do if a dispute came up would be to verify that you sent a letter to the company…period. You need a written confirmation that what you think your insurance is allowing is indeed what THEY are allowing. Only that will help you if there is a coverage dispute.</p>
<p>We are also insured with State Farm in New York. We receive the 100 mile plus discount. Ironically, the discount was the same when she was in Europe for the semester. 100 miles/1000 miles all the same. We were told that if the student was taken off for a time period then their insurance record showing a lapse may hinder their ability to resign or more importantly sign up on their own. Still not sure if I believe that one. We also ran into the primary/occasional driver class. The deal there is if you have the same number of drivers as vehicles no one can be an occasional driver. We don’t have that situation anymore but we have fanagled and put the most expensive student on the least expensive car. Helps slightly. Of course, we asked to run the numbers to get a comparison.</p>
<p>I live in MA and when DD got her lisence - she HAD to be included - by law - on one of our policies - no waiver allowed - so she was added to mine - tho she is NOT allowed to drive DH’s car - by law - as it is considered a ‘business vehicle’ - her being insured on my policy tho allowed her to drive my vehicle as a secondary driver and any one elses and would be covered if an accident occured (except DH’s legally).</p>
<p>Then she got her own car - again was added to my policy - with her as the primary driver on her car - and here they do insurance rate on same policy based on the most expensive vehicle for all drivers!!! We checked with the insurance company as she is an out-of-state student - and were told that we HAD to keep her on a policy irregardless of where she was - as her legal address is still here.</p>
<p>Then - we had to replace her car - so… we put the new vehicle in her name with her own insurance - the only way to get any break was if she was away at school - without the car - we could drop her insurance to minimum - but it would still cost about $1000 to keep her vehicle registered to sit in the driveway - as legally any registered vehicle MUST be insured. By doing this tho - my rate dropped big time and she is allowed to drive my car no problem.</p>
<p>To stop and start insurance when she is home is a PITA - have to go thru the whole process every time - it is not worth it in the long run so we keep her insured - she has her car with her own insurance out of state now - and actually cuz she took her car she is charged an extra fee as she is more than 500 miles from home - geeeeez… but the good news is that she is 3 years out from getting her license and her rate just took a huge drop!!! Finally a break.</p>
<p>We did consider having her register her car where she goes to school - but that process was rediculous and actually pretty costly - so for now she is registered and insured at home til life changes again.</p>
<p>If I am told something orally by an authorized agent of the company, I act on that information, I confirm it in writing, which the company receives, and I receive no reply in return that revises the information, I’m golden. That’s that. Ins. companies get a ton of important written correspondence and know how to respond if necessary.</p>
<p>The big picture issue is, is a student gone 8 months out of 9 a household resident? Residence is a pretty simple concept: where does he eat, where does he sleep? If someone wants to pay insurance for that student, to avoid the risk that his voter registration with the old home address would outweigh the sleep/eat factor, they should definitely do so.</p>
<p>To those of you who have insurance companies making this all very difficulty… it may pay to shop around. I read a consumer’s article recently saying that most people would be able to save money if they shopped rates regularly rather than automatically renewing with the same insurer each year – but of course most of the time its easier just to write a check than to have to go through the whole process of a new app, new agent, all the time – and some of us have “longevity” discounts that might not carry over to a new insurer. </p>
<p>But I do have to say that when I read a post that says, “we have company X” followed by a listing of complex rules and fees… I have to say … maybe you should call up company Y and company Z, explain your situation to an agent, and see if you can get a better quote.</p>
<p>I live in Texas too, and took Dd off our policy (with a named driver exclusion) because Geico wanted to charge us for her even though she only has a permit, and is more than 100 miles away with no car. Their policy WAS that anyone with a permit over 6 months old (my daughter’s was 3 years old! LOL) had to be insured. And the “away at school” discount was miniscule. But I called them yesterday, because I needed to put her back on the policy since she wants to drive and has agreed to pay her own insurance, and the Geico rep said that their policy has changed, and they won’t charge for kids at college w/o cars (just call when they are home for summer to put them back on) and also won’t automatically charge for students who have had their permits for more than 6-months. YEAH! But I would feel better about it if I saw it in writing, because I never trust that the reps have the information down correctly… So I will call back to verify in a few days.</p>
<p>The most complicated financial part of my reasonably amicable divorce was car insurance for our two sons. My X had to change insurers so that we could insure once, but have the boys covered while driving my car and X’s car. Otherwise, we would have each had to insure them on our policies - double the cost.</p>
<p>My State Farm agent told us that Son would only be covered during his school breaks if we either paid for the insurance year round (no discount) or he got a license in the state where he goes to school and we declared that to be his legal residence.</p>
<p>dt123 - tho’ doest assumeth toooo much!!! Just cuz you confirm something that was said by an agent - in writing - and with your green card confirming it was delivered - does not mean it will actually hold h2o. Nothing is absolute until it is engraved in granite - in writing AND you hold a copy of said document.</p>
<p>As far as ‘‘residency’’ of a student - the family home is considered the place of residence - so yes!!! the student gone 8-9 months is still considered a legal resident of that household and of that state - unless…they change their place of residence to where they go to school - yup - register to vote - register/insure a vehicle - pay taxes to that state, etc…</p>
<p>In CT all drivers must be insured. SO if my kid wants to drive when he’s here, he must have insurance. BUT we do get that “away at school” discount. AND we have that in writing.</p>
<p>dt123 - just to reiterate what everyone else is telling you, regardless of what you think, your child’s legal residence is at home, unless they have their own apartment (not living in a dorm), have their voting and drivers licence registered out of state and are paying state taxes in that state. Without all that they are not resident in another state and since you must be resident in one state they remain Texas residents which means your house. Since all household members with full drivers licences must be on your auto insurance, unless you have a written exclusion which bans them from ever driving any of your vehicles, basically your child is driving without any insurance. The law is quite clear on this so in the case of a major claim you wont get any help from your state department of insurance, and will be left to try to fight your insurance companies legal team (guess who will win).</p>
<p>I think it was Samuel Goldwyn who said “A verbal contract is not worth the paper its written on”.</p>
<p>You need to either exclude you child by getting an exclusion written into your policy, or add them back.</p>
<p>In NH we can drop/add our kids as they come and go. The agent told us some people do this 5-6 times a year. We take S off when he is away at school (without a car), and add him back anytime he comes home.</p>
<p>Is there anyone who has special deals with AllState regarding college student’s insurance (>100 mile)? I want to know this kind of info before calling them.
Pittheels</p>
<p>We have Allstate in Michigan. We took our kids off of the car insurance when they left for college. We were told that they did not need to be added back on when they were home for break–that if they were in an accident while they were driving at home, it would be as if we let them borrow the car. If they took the car without our permission, then there could be problems??? Something to keep in mind…</p>
<p>My son did take a car back to college (more than 100 miles) when he was a Junior. I believe that we were given the college student insurance discount because it was more than 100 miles. Be sure to ask about Good Student discounts too…we had to send them a grade transcript, but it did save some more money.</p>
<p>My son did say that some of his friends (who have bought new cars recently) had difficulty finding an insurance company that would insure them because they never had their name on an insurance policy. So before they buy a new car, it would probably be a wise thing to make sure that they were insured on another car ahead of time…</p>
<p>I have Allstate in California. I was told the exact opposite to what you were told. My Daughter is in College 600 miles away but in the same state. The key is where the child is resident. If I had purchased a house in her college town, or if she was renting with long term leases, utility bills in her name and voting and drivers licences showing that address then she would not be considered resident in my home since she would have established residency somewhere else. But she is in a dorm in college which is not enough to establish residency there.</p>
<p>If you read your insurance policy you will see that letting another person drive your car with your consent covers everyone who is not resident in your home. But if your college kids have not established permanent residency in their college town then they are not covered since they are resident at home. Also youll find that the insurance coverage that covers other drivers who drive your car with your consent is limited to the state minimum, so even though I have 250/500 insurance, anyone I lend my car to only has 30,000 worth of coverage.</p>
<p>I could drop my daughter from the policy but I would have to exclude her permanently from my cars. Allstate take a dim view of changeing this several times a year to turn it on and off during the summers, and basically wouldnt let me do it more than once or twice.</p>
<p>Tim, I think if it were me in your situation, I would turn the coverage on and off for your D when she visits and is driving, and if Allstate decided not to do that anymore for you find another insurance company that would.</p>
<p>It may be a lot different for boys than girls. I know dropping my S, with two at fault accidents on his record from high school days, saved me $3000 per year. At that rate I would have rather hired a limo to drive him around on Spring Break rather than keep him on the policy year-round “just in case.”</p>