<p>How about having your precious kids take public transportation until they can afford they’re own insurance…</p>
<p>The method my daughter used: get rid of the car and buy a bike.
The method my son used: get rid of the car and buy a motorcycle.
The method we used: expect the kids to pay the insurance.</p>
<p>^^^^^^^^^this^^^^</p>
<p>“We’ll probably drop comprehensive in the oldest cars.”</p>
<p>Do you have an umbrella policy? Since we do the cars have to stay at a fairly high coverage level.</p>
<p>fendergirl, It still seems like lying to me to put my son as “primary driver” of a car that he doesn’t primarily drive. Maybe I will email my insurance agent and ask.</p>
<p>USAA here and no cars for the kiddos. And my car is a junker. So a $50 deductible, minimum state requirements and pay under $90 a month for 2 cars…been the same for years. Kiddos all now have their license and buy their own vehicles, but their insurance is still from USAA.</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>"How about having your precious kids take public transportation until they can afford they’re own insurance… " - That won’t work everywhere. </p>
<p>Work with your agent to get the best price and discounts. (We opted to reduce or drop coverages on older vehicles.) Then compare - that Geico deal sounds good for college kids.</p>
<p>If you have assets, don’t save by reducing the liability coverage. 100/300 is too low. I recommend insuring house and cars with same company and getting a $1m umbrella policy. Typically you can lower the liability limits on the cars when you have an umbrella policy. I used to practice insurance defense law and getting sued for over the policy limits is a nightmare. I don’t like to take chances by lowering uninsured motorist coverage either. I’m surprised to hear that agents are telling people to put their kids on the policy for the older cars if they exclusively or almost exclusively drive another car. When I practiced, that could be grounds for denying coverage. This is particularly true if they are taking another car to college. That is the car on which they should be named.</p>
<p>I agree–it is tragic for everyone when folks drive around underinsured. If the insurance can’t be afforded, the car should NOT be driven, PERIOD. We have made sure that we have adequate coverage, including an umbrella policy for us. S does have insurance and we will recommend that he get an umbrella & renter’s insurance, now that he has a job and will start acquiring assets.</p>
<p>When I practiced personal injury and insurance defense, I noticed that the folks with umbrella policies tended to get the best attorneys hired by insurers to represent them; those were the attorneys that we had the best working relationships with and whom I would want representing me in a case.</p>
<p>Not having collision or comprehensive on older cars is an OK strategy, as long as you can afford the loss if there is one related to this.</p>
<p>I’ve had good luck emailing with the Allstate agent asking for “what if” estimates. (I’ve asked about varying coveraged deductibles, buying new car with and without keeping a 4th car, etc etc). </p>
<p>It’s also worth asking the agent to look at the current coverage and make suggestions. At one point we got a much better deal because the agent discovered that we had an excellent credit rating.</p>
<p>Late to post here…Few years ago, H got into a car accident, D1 got few traffic tickets, so our insurance went sky high. I was advised by our insurance to take a driving course. In our state, we were able to take the course online, so over the holiday time we all took it (you didn’t hear from me, but the same person could take it for everyone). When you pass, it goes on your record that you have taken the safe driving course, and it could be renewed every year. I don’t remember now, but I think our insurance came down by over 30%. It was a real surprise to me. We had 3 cars, and they were all premium cars (D1 had a mini), we had Liberty Mutual. Another pointer is what kind of car you have matters when it comes to premium, cars that get stolen a lot (not necessary expensive cars) and unsafe cars comment higher premium. Before you purchase a car, check with your insurance on the premium.</p>
<p>^State Farm now has a course that the over 55s can take to get a break on insurance. Maybe H & I should check it out…make it a date night sort of thing.</p>
<p>Reminder - if your student has taken driver’s ed, make sure you get a copy of the completion certificate to your insurance agent. Also take advantage of any discounts offered for Good Student (needs copy of report card) and online agency courses. </p>
<p>I know this has been said before, but for parents with younger kids… INSURANCE COSTS TYPICALLY DO NOT INCREASE UNTIL STUDENT GETS A LICENSE - THERE IS NO NEED TO DEFER THE PERMIT. As far as I’m concerned, the more time on the road before the license the better!</p>
<p>Is there any difference if your child gets his/her license over 18 in rates? My son was 17 but then didn’t drive much, being away from school, got good grades, and then was 22 when he really was driving full time. My daughters don’t have their license yet but are taking a few lessons and practicing. They probably wont take the test until next year because of time.
Is it helpful to be older or is it “time on the road”, they would still be considered beginners?</p>
<p>Just switched over to Geico after reading this thread and saved $500 a year on 2 cars.
Thanks :)</p>
<p>Our kids did not have their own cars while in college until they needed them for their summer jobs. It’s been challenging because the jobs are in another state than we live in and our insurance company is having problems with that. Am I the only person who has kids who have summer jobs in a state other than the one they live in? My D doesn’t know this yet but since she’s not that thrilled with driving and it’s so expensive to insure the car and pay the parking fees at her university. The car is probably going to be sold or taken to the junk yard, I’m not sure yet. She does not need a car to go to the grocery store every other week, we signed her up for a zip car and even though she feels uncomfortable driving those cars,it is so much cheaper than keeping a car at school.</p>
<p>I called the insurance agent and found out that they had put our D on our newest car. By dropping her to the oldest car, we found that it saved money. She is a student away from school except for the summers so we save on insurance. But the biggest way to save money was to drop that 23 yo male in the household! Thank goodness he got a job, his own car and moved into his own apartment. Insurance co did not want to drop him unless he was not living in our house anymore. Young male drivers must be a cash cow for the insurance company.</p>