<p>S1 goes to Caltech where he is a freshman. My auto and property insurance Co, told me that they wanted transcript showing GPA of 3.0 or greater and it had to come from his college as he was not in HS anymore.</p>
<p>CalTech and MIT give only Pass/Fail in the first two terms (no letter grades), so I sent them a transcript showing P and I also sent them the back of the transcript where I had marked the section that said that Freshman in the first two terms did not get letter grades. I also specifically bought that to the notice of my agent in my e-mail.</p>
<p>I get this response:</p>
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<p>How do I respond other than find another insurance co (and I have been with this company for 20 years)?</p>
<p>Legally, that makes no sense. How could a student be in the top 20 percent of a class where no student was graded?
I like stradmom’s idea. I would also try to get a more intelligent answer from the insurance company…their in-house legal counsel should be able to handle this better.</p>
<p>Did you receive a good student discount for your son while in high school? If so, they already have records showing his strength as a student. That, coupled with the fact he is progressing satisfactorily at an extremely competitive college certainly meets the spirit of the discount. So this is where your agent needs to earn his commission. I am very familiar with how that process works, and although there are variances from one company to another, your agent needs to lobby the underwriting department on your behalf. He can appeal their decision. If the first line underwriter refuses he has other avenues. He needs to get them to continue the discount through this period and until such a time comes when grades start to be given. With no information contrary to your son’s most recent past performance they should be willing to make the exception regarding a hard GPA. </p>
<p>Coming back to you to get the type of letter they are requesting is ridiculous. It’s very clear that your son meets the standard of performance, plus as mentioned above, how can they expect an official letter claiming he’s in the top 20% when they are not ranking students? Your agent needs to remind the underwriter what the purpose of the discount is, and that they are putting him at risk of losing your business.</p>
<p>From a statistical standpoint, the insurance company probably doesn’t distinguish between Caltech and the local junior college, so they really have no idea what’s going on. I’d contact the registrar’s office because, as someone else else, they’ve probably had this situation countless times. At the insurance company, you probably need to progress to the next level; ask to speak with a supervisor and explain the situation.</p>
<p>Is this only in California? I’m in NY and I work for an insurance company and I’ve never heard of anything like this. I have heard of having to prove your child is more than 100 miles away from home to take them off as a primary user (assuming there’s no car at school) but I’ve never heard of having to prove your grades…</p>
<p>Our insurance co in California asked for proof, too. As we have never received her grades I was stymied. I took a copy of the Dean’s List letter to the insurance representative. The letter did stipulate that the student had to have earned a 3.75 or higher to make Dean’s List.
This requirement for the good student discount may be used by more than one insurance company in California. I would contact your son’s Dean, and ask for assistance. My guess is that you are not the first parent to request a letter of this sort.
-Good Luck!</p>
<p>Fax/email that form to son and ask him to bring it to Registrar with the email you got from your agent. The school might just go head to check one of the box and stamp it. You son might not be the only freshman asking for this form.</p>
<p>My child just had the form stamped from Registrar (a different college) and even mailed to my home, no cost at all, although they do give out actual GPA for freshmen.</p>
<p>And this has to be done every year. otherwise the good student discount will be lost.</p>
<p>If he at school without a car, he may not need to be on your insurance at all. My insurance company (and we live in CA) required that he be 180 miles from home. Not sure how they came with that exact number. </p>
<p>Even if they come home for spring break, Christmas or over the summer, you do not need to add them as long as they are full time students and meet the distance requirement during the term. Makes no sense to me, but that is the rules my agent told me. Saved us a bundle of $$$.</p>
<p>We had Mercury Auto Insurance in CA & all we did was tell the agent that S had a gpa of 3.5 & he automatically received the good student discount. No proof was ever required. I guess each insurer & agent is different.</p>
<p>Our kids are not on our policy. They do not live in HI other than rare vacations & while here rarely drive. Insurer said they didn’t need to be on our policy. When we shipped car to S in CA, he had to get own policy & register car in CA. He’s paid for it ever since but is NOT paying now since it’s being stored in relative’s garage & NOT driven. Will get a policy again when he reunites with car. Hopefully he’ll still get good student discount or perhaps not as important as he’s older & has had his license longer w/ no accidents now than when we 1st purchased insurance. He will have to inquire about rates for VA/DC policy.</p>
<p>The only problems with not being on a policy are that the person needs to make sure that every car they drive has insurance to cover them (which means they’ll need to buy insurance when renting a car) and when they do eventually need insurance of their own, it will be more expensive since there was a lapse in coverage. Continual coverage usually makes the insurance less expensive. However, if it will be years before the student will need their own insurance, then it might not be worth it to keep them on the parents’ plan for several years.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for your inputs.
S1 did get a good student discount at HS and we live more than 180 miles away and S1 does not have a car at the dorm.</p>
<p>My first response when I saw 180 miles away was to call my agent and have my son removed from the policy but than jazzpark bought up a good point and so let me talk to my insurance agent. This will reduce my costs, especially S2 now wants a drivers license and he still in HS and so will be very costly to insure. That is my other problem that I will have two students on my policy very soon and already my insurance rates are very high as S1 did have an accident two years back.</p>
<p>If we decide to keep him (S1) on the policy, I will ask the agent to appeal (my agent has increasingly become a mail box, just passing information between me and the insurance Co. and does not seem to very proactive any more.) Again, given that S1 is home due to spring break right now, if this does not work, I will ask my son to talk to the registrar when he gets back to college.</p>
<p>I would appreciate any other advice, especially given that I had not mentioned about S2 before. Thanks again, suggestions are great.</p>
<p>Also as others have pointed out, it appears that insurance companies do not seem to differentiate between colleges, HPYSMC are treated just like a community college. Unfortunately, everyone wants to stick something that is easily measurable. I know that e-mail made no sense to me, and I had to read it twice before I believed it.</p>
<p>We don’t insure our Ds who went far away to college and never had a car. When D1 bought her first car and went to get her first insurance policy, the issue came up that she had a lapse in insurance. Our insurance company wrote a letter that she was covered as an occasional driver under our policy for the past X years and had not had an accident or claim during that time. </p>
<p>Seemed to work to get her the lower rate. I suppose it all depends on how much they want to get/keep you as a customer. </p>
<p>I’d start to get some quotes from other reputable insurance companies. You might be pleasantly surprised.</p>
<p>USAA takes our word for the grades if you are shopping for a new company…</p>
<p>We have also found that driving older high-mileage cars really cuts our rates (17-year-old boy, 20-year-old girl with one accident). Don’t know how long we will be able to keep the old cars befroe one finally dies.</p>
<p>I just called USAA to inquire if our s was still getting the good student discount and if they needed documentation. He said it varied by state, but that our state did require documentation. Faxing a transcript was sufficient, but if we filled out some form it has to be signed by an official at the school. I imagine Cal Tech has crossed this bridge before and will sign a form.</p>
<p>Ironically, we got into a side conversation about college (he has a child in HS) and I recommended cc to him. If you are reading this post, hi and welcome!!</p>