Hi, I am a freshman attending college in Colorado (I’m from Texas) and I have a couple of questions.
I am finishing up my freshman year, and am working on housing for the remainder of my college career (~3 more years). At which point should I transfer my drivers license to Colorado?
If I do transfer my license to CO and transfer my car registration to CO, can I still be on my parent’s car insurance plan if they live in Texas?
If you have any other tips for my situation, I’d love to hear them. Thanks in advance!
In terms of the insurance…you need to talk to your insurance company. YMMV in terms of the answer.
Who owns the car? You or your parents. One would think it’s you…or how would you be able to change the registration to CO. If you own the car, the registration is yours in CO, and you have a license in CO…it’s very possible you won’t be able to stay on your parent policy…the car isn’t theirs.
BUT most insurance companies do allow students to use cars OOS as college students…so if it’s your parent car, you might be better off not changing everything to CO. But contact your insurance company first.
And check the rules in CO. In VA, there has been discussion on this forum that even college students are required to register their cars in VA if they are garaged there for a certain number of days. Not sure how this would apply to,cars owned by parents!
Sample of one. We live in CT. Our kid went to grad school in NC, and used OUR car…with OUR CT registration. Kid had a CT drivers license. Our insurance allowed this…car used by a college student in another state.
Our insurance (State Farm) allows a parents’ car to continue to be insured while it is with a student OOS. But if the registration is changed to another state then you need a separate policy (which would cost more). That’s separate from whether our D gets a new drivers license (which she will do as a tax resident and voter in her new state) because it’s our car that she is borrowing. But if she owned the car then the registration requirements (in her state) depend on whether she is paying OOS tuition.
Do you need to change your drivers license and/or car registration? Do you intend to become a resident of CO? Why?
We live in MA my daughter goes to school in CA. She will bring a car to school in the fall. Our insurance company is OK with this. Car will stay in our name and be insured on our policy. It is much cheaper to have the car in our name vs her name as an inexperienced driver for some reason, even though she is assigned the car on the policy. Call your insurance company.
Agree that you should check with your parents’ Insurer as well as the DMV in your state where you are attending school.
In CA (where both our kids went to college) you had to re-register the car and get a smog check within less than a month I’d bringing the vehicle into CA. We transferred title to our kids and they had to get a CA policy. Our HI policy wouldn’t cover them out of HI. They didn’t have to get new driver’s licenses. Our insurer wasn’t authorized to do business in CA—only HI.
Our insurer wanted to know where the car was; DD did not have it on campus over the summer, but rather at our home. I’d notify them when it left and when it arrived. There was no trouble with having it remain on our policy, with the car in our name. Agree to be in touch with insurer.
As stated above, CO has reciprocity with all other states. The student is not required to register the car or have a drivers license from CO to have the car there. If you still wish to register in CO, check with your insurer - you will probably need your own policy, though you might be able to group it with your parents for a multi-policy discount.