<p>[Apologies in advance if the question has already been asked]</p>
<p>We have two grad students leaving away from home. Neither of them has a car.</p>
<p>We are trying to reduce car insurance costs. When I called our agent she said that if they leave more than X miles away, which they do, we can drop them from our policy. They would still be able to drive our cars when they visit home as long as we give them permission.</p>
<p>Does this make sense? Does anybody have a different arrangement for college graduates not leaving at home?</p>
<p>Are they (we) at risk by not being insured?</p>
<p>It is a little different for our policy or maybe state law. My S is listed as a non-driver residence when he goes away to college. When he is back, we need to add him back into the policy. Our agent said we can do this anytime for a short period like Christmas break. He is not insured as driver of our cars if his status is not changed to a driver in the policy. Yours sounds a lot better if you can get away with counting summer as a visit too.</p>
<p>Perhaps you misunderstood. Our car insurance can be reduced if our kids attend college full-time at a college that is a certain number of miles away and if they do not bring our cars to college. I think the insurance company figures that the kids are only driving the vehicles during their vacation visits back home rather than on a full time basis. Does that make sense to you? I’m pretty sure you still have to pay to keep them covered under your plan even if they are only driving the vehicles when they come home for visits. The cost is less, but there is still a cost in covering them.</p>
<p>Call your insurance agent and have them explain it to you one more time. I’m definitely not an insurance whiz.</p>
<p>Drop 'em. Your insurance covers them as an occasional driver when they come home and need to drive your car. Make sure that you understand what parameters are included in the definition of “occasional” (besides residing so many miles away). </p>
<p>That is what our insurance agent told us. As ttparent correctly points out, different companies do things differently and state laws governing the area may differ. So you really need to check with your insurance carrier.</p>
<p>Our kids aren’t on our insurance. The agent said that if one of them were to get into an accident in our car, the company would want to put them on the policy. Otherwise, not necessary.</p>
<p>The kids would not have insurance when they rent a car, though. They’ll have to spring for the rental company’s insurance. Also, if they drive anyone else’s car (besides yours), they are taking pot luck on how much insurance that other person may have on his car (if any :eek:). If they had their own insurance, they wouldn’t have to worry if the owner of the car is un- or underinsured.</p>
<p>We dropped both of our college grads, since they don’t live with us. They can drive our cars when they come to visit (just like any licensed driver friend you may lend your car to).</p>
<p>It is different with college kids because it is assumed that they are home and driving during summer and winter breaks (4 month out of the year). Not so with kids in grad school.</p>
<p>I can fully understand that there is a difference between college students and college grads who don’t live with you anymore. However, is there a difference between undergrad college students and graduate college students who still come home during holidays and summer? After re-reading OP post, I am not sure what category his children are in. Probably gray area, I have to ask my agent next time I talk to her.</p>
<p>Our insurance allows our kids to stay on the policy (they are LISTED on the insurance cards), and covers them at NO CHARGE even over holidays and summers, if they are away at college during the school year without vehicle. DD is now abroad and long past graduated, so they have actually taken her off the policy - but DS is still covered. Texas may have different rules than other states…</p>
<p>As ellemenope sugest I will confirm all the requirements/parameters and will probably drop them. I am a bit worried about driving other people’s cars too but that happens rarely and does not justify the expense.</p>