DD is moving from the dorms to an apartment next semester. The apartment she picked requires that tenants have renters insurance or they will be billed an additional $10 a month. I called our insurance company to get a quote and found out her renters insurance will be only be $97 a year AND our annual insurance policy will go down by $120 when we add another policy so we’ll actually come out ahead! Takes some of the sting out the taxes she owed on scholarships;-)
I suggest you make sure a claim on her renter policy won’t I pact rates on your other policies. I got my students insurance through CSI (College Student Insurance?). One son only used it once, but it was not a problem. He dropped his cell phone, it cracked and broke, and they gave him $150 to get it repaired.
Agree–it’s important to be SURE you understand whether policies that are “linked” won’t have claims made on one policy affect premiums or insurability on the other policies. We have transferred ownership of vehicles and bought separate policies for each of our young adult children at least partly because we would NOT want actions related to one vehicle to affect ALL our policies.
Some of the dedicated student policies have zero deductible and replacement coverage, so they cover computers, electronics, etc. that are likely to be stolen without affecting your homeowners policy. They don’t include liability typically, but you can add it to a renters policy. It can act as an accidental damage/loss policy for smartphones and laptops. NSSI is one of the vendors.
I know they are linked and we want it that way! With three teenage drivers, with our situation we think it’s best to have an umbrella policy with a large liability insurance. So far claims have not affected our policies at all. I don’t want the the kids to do something to someone and have their lawyers come after US!
Last year DD’s car was hit while parked in the driveway of her music teacher’s house by the music teacher husband, his insurance company paid up but it was reported to ours. The week before that DS who still only had his learner’s permit and was diving with the family back from a Spring trip was rear ended on I-10 in Houston, turns out the driver did not have insurance. Our insurance paid. Two weeks after we bought DD’s car it was seriously vandalized it would have been totaled if it wasn’t so new, and that same year we got hit by a windstorm that took off our roof, fence and AC unit. None of this has changed our rates. I’ve been very happy with USAA.
Last year I did get DD dorm insurance even though she was covered by our insurance because our deductible is so high but her renters insurance will only have a $100 deductible, was mainly concerned about her bike getting stolen. We also carry separate insurance on DD’s musical instrument and DH’s motorcycle. DH also reminded me that since we are the guarantor on her lease all liability will come back to us anyway.
renters insurance is good and cheap. it is like all insurance…you do not need it until you need it.
just like health insurance,flood insurance, car insurance…etc…
I actually leased a car and the nicer model was 20.00 more a month…but the car was considered safer by the insurance company so it cost 20.00 less a month to insure. so I got the nicer car for the same exact price…I just pay more to the finance company and less to the insurance company…it is a wash!
I never had renter’s insurance or thought to get it until my new apartment mandated it for all tenants. I used their suggested provider, it cost like $117 for the year, and never thought about it. Lo and behold, over Christmas break the building burned down! I got a nice five figure check. Everyone get renter’s!
We never thought about renters insurance until our cat played with the water faucet and managed to turn it on a trickle…and knocked the stopper into the sink while playing in it…flooding our apartment for 10 hours while we were away at school/work. Not only did we do terrible damage to our poor landlord’s house, we lost a bunch of books and fried a new computer. Water seeped downstairs into the furnace and broke it. We had to stay at a hotel for two weeks while they got the heat back on and flooring removed. Was a real mess. We haven’t rented n decades, but if we ever did again…I would definitely carry it. We did make things right with our landlord who didn’t want to file an insurance claim and up his rate. We paid to have the furnace repaired and replaced the flooring ourselves with materials we purchased. We did the lion’s share of the cleanup… Landlord was a nice guy, and deducted the materials we purchased from our rent. Everyone seemed happy with this resolution. But yeah…Renters insurance is a thing. A thing you really should have.
Kid is moving to her shared apartment in May. Thanks for the reminder - we will give her a nice housewarming gift of renters’ insurance.
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My kid didn’t want it for her first apartment - “Mom, I don’t have anything worth much anyway.” I reminded her that the big protection for renters’ insurance is not so much your own property damage, but liability - someone trips on your rug and breaks his leg, your sink overflows and floods the apartment below you (as noted above!), etc. Replacing her own stuff is secondary.
To those of you whose kids are going to college in California, be aware that basic renters insurance won’t cover losses from earthquakes. You can get a separate earthquake policy or rider and for renters it’s not that expensive.
One benefit of earthquake coverage for renters is money for temporary housing in case their existing building is red tagged.
Re post #7 - Guessing this is not the moral of the story, but wow - feeling very lucky that we are dog people, not cat people! No way our lab would be nimble enough or smart enough to do that kind of damage!
CSI replaced DD’s iPhone, which got soaked in an unexpected torrential rain on a mountain-top in New Zealand.
If this is for college students, I would recommend getting a policy from a company geared towards college students. They will provide coverage that normal policies do not, like breakage and world-wide coverage, and usually have cheap liability riders you can add.
Even with our own liability coverage, is was worth the extra $50 to me to get it on her policy.
Regarding Umbrella policies- I got my kids OFF my auto insurance ASAP to get them OFF my umbrella policy- my rates really went down. Insurance is to protect your assets, and kids don’t have any. On an umbrella policy they are nothing but liabilities- unless perhaps your kid is a movie star or prodigy of some kind!
Claims are brought against assets. It is extremely rare that a suit would garnish future wages or some such thing- the child would have to have done something egregiously awful. In which case they might deserve it.
On the other hand, by having your kids on your insurance policies, you are risking ALL of your assets should they get into a really bad car accident. That’s why you need the umbrella policy.
Two of my three kids are under 18 male teenage drivers I don’t think they can get their own policies until they are 18 and it would be more to pay for all three kids to have their own insurance policies (and less coverage) then to keep them on ours with an umbrella policy. We will be paying their insurance until they are out of college (this may include grad school) so the umbrella policy works best for our situation.
At risk of derailing…
My D will be getting a learner’s permit next summer. What do I need to get. I know nothing about umbrella policies.
I have homeowners with a high deductible and auto ins also with high deductible.
Umbrella insurance is insurance that covers you when the underlying auto policy or homeowner’s policy limits are exhausted. You can buy as much liability coverage as you want. Technically, it’s not unlimited, but Chubb will go up to $50 million and AIG will go up to $100 million. Umbrella policies can drop down and be the primary coverage for events not covered by either your auto or homeowner’s policy.
Is that better/ cheaper than increasing the liability limits on my cars ins?