My kid drives one of our cars whe he is at home. When he leaves for college, do I take him off car insurance? What needs to be done?
This all depends on your insurance…and your state of residence in terms of insurance requirements.
Where I live, licensed drivers need to be insured. BUT our insurance company had an “away at school” discount for all students in college more than 100 miles from home and who didn’t take a car to college.
So…call your insurance company…and ask them.
You can ask your insurer if there is a discount for a student living ‘away’ at college (usually there is a 100 or 150 miles requirement). It can be a substantial discount.
Many insurance companies require all licensed drivers to be on the policy or not be covered at all. When we lived in Florida, I removed my kids from my policy and they couldn’t drive my car at all whereas a ‘guest’ driver, who didn’t live at my address, was covered for up to 12 trips a year (like they’d know if someone drove a car 13 times?) It wasn’t really an issue as one kid could drive my car because it’s a manual and the other didn’t drive enough to make it worth the $3000 premium. Then I moved to a different state and the new insurer requires all to be on the policy. Couldn’t just drop them. Since they were away at school, it was only like $30 each per year (6 months?), so worth it to put them on.
If you drop him, make sure you re-add him before he drives your cars. Your home address will be his permanent address as far as the insurance company goes.
Think before you do. If your kid lives close enough to your home, they could be at your house for a fall break, Thanksgiving, winter vacation, spring break, and then summer. What are you going to do? Ping pong your kid on and off your policy?
The away at school discount varies. Our insurance company reduction was…$100 a year. We took it…but really…
When our younger kid was in the Peace Corps for 27 months, in a far away country, and Peace Corps forbids driving…it practically took an act of god to get the kid removed from our policy.
We regret taking our daughter off our policy - all to save $140/yr. When she needed a car for grad school, she found the lack of continuity in her insurance record was very costly - she couldn’t find coverage for less than $2200/yr on a 10 yr old car, even though she had no blemishes on her record.
Might be worth asking your agent what the cost would be to reinsure after a gap.
Just an FYI in case some of you don’t know - many insurance companies offer significant discounts for students with a 3.0 or better
Not sure what you call substantial…but my kids both had higher than 3.0 gpas all the way through college, both were more than 100 miles from home, and both had taken drivers ed. Our insurance also gave a discount for deans list…
We saved less than $200 a year total on each kid. Every penny counts.
@thumper1 Wow! DH was just able to decrease our insurance for DS by $2k for the year, however, we did also buy a 14 y/o clunker (on the advise of the insurance co.) so that DS would be rated on that, and not our two main cars
I take mine off and put her back on at winter and summer breaks. It saves us more than “student away” and it’s 4 quick phone calls a year.
And while it is the car that is insured, not the driver, I did ask if there was any coverage at all if my kids drove another car (owned by someone else) while at college. Yes, there is. It would only kick in after all other insurance was exhausted. That gave me a little extra comfort.
Your decrease for one driver was $2000 a year @momo2x2018 ?
I’m quite sure the annual premiums for our kids was NOT that high in total!
My insurance agent always apologizes when she looks up discounts and they’re not applicable, but in NC the rates are so low to begin with at least my company didn’t knock anything off for grades or being away. I did continue to have my kids on the insurance, as said above, because they wouldn’t be able to drive when home on breaks. They weren’t listed as a primary driver on any car, but they did remain on the policy.
Call your insurance company. Our insurance gave a discount when our D was a full time college student more than a certain distance from home. I suggest you keep your kid on your insurance so he/she can drive during vacation/summer.
Yes, you have to check with your carrier. Here, we got the away discount and no issue with them driving when temporarily home or summers. Or if they drove one of our cars to school for a quick period. They’re still members of our household.
I easily took D1 off, when she was abroad 10 months. Then added her back when she returned.
More recently, they told me that though neither now lives at home, both are covered when using my car. These are all details that need a conversation with a rep.
Mine was more than that from one company. Well, it really was $3000 per kid to add them to the one car we owned, so they didn’t get licenses. When they did I changed to another company and for one teen driver it was $1000+, so I added her for a short time and the when she went away for the summer took her off. New state with them both away at school, I could add them for about $100/yr for both.
I don’t know why, but our insurance listed S, H and I as “drivers”, while we had 4 insured cars and D was in possession of one of them. The insurance company didn’t ask, so we didn’t know to do anything. Ironically, it was D whose car was totaled, although it was the other driver’s fault so didn’t affect OUR insurance. Now D has her own car and her own insurance, while S and his car (which we own) are still on ours.
@thumper1 I double checked w DH before responding, and, yes, that was the decrease!
And another thing, we recently learned (40+ years after graduating college!), an alumni membership will also qualify for discounts! MDs get even more…
Our insurance let’s us take them off while they are away. As long as I give 5 days notice that they will be driving again, they usually put them back on for shorter breaks free of charge and charge for just the months Home for longer ones. Saves us a lot of money… can’t wait to get a break from paying for my teenage sons insurance lol.
Well…if you are “saving” $2000 a year, then do look at coverage for your kid alone. Our two kids are out of college, but each has their own comprehensive and complete (including collision, comprehensive coverage and liability) car insurance which has the same coverage as ours…and neither pays more than $1500 a year for the policy. Both live in major metro areas.
Both have renters insurance which is “bundled” with their car insurance giving a lower rate.
For college students, these rates could very well be higher.
One thing to think about before deleting them, will they ever drive when at school? If your child borrows a friend’s car or offers to drive someone’s car as a designated driver one night you want to leave them on your policy. Yes the car they are driving is the primary coverage but if that car is uninsured (1 in 7 cars nationwide) or has very low liability limits, or has an exclusion for non-listed drivers your child becomes responsible for any liability loss. Your insurance will pay if they are listed on your policy but if they are not your child is looking at a judgement against them and possibly a ticket for driving without insurance. The risks are too high even to save a few hundred dollars a year.
The other thing to think about is uninsured motorist coverage. If listed your child will have this coverage which applies in any auto accident where the other driver is at fault and does not have insurance or enough insurance. The example I always use is being hit as a pedestrian or on a bike which are both common on college campuses. While most think about health insurance covering this there are a lot of other expenses health insurance will not cover. In a severe accident this would pay for long term care if needed, would pay for lost tuition if the student had to drop out because of the injuries or hospitalization, etc.