Our kids are covered under our regular policy while they have learners permits at no additional charge. It’s only after they get their actual licenses do we have to make changes to our policies.
AFAIK, there’s only 1 US insurance company, which offers individual auto liability limits above $1M. If you want more than $1M in liability coverage, you almost have to get an umbrella policy.
@BingeWatcher Please keep in mind that insurance is a very personal and individual thing and rates vary tremendously by location. What’s a good idea for one family may not be a good idea for another. You should research your individual situation carefully. We’ll be covering all three kids on our insurance through college (possibly through grad school) we have five vehicles and two of the three kids are males under 18. For us, an umbrella policy is the best, most prudent thing for us at this time. If I was a single mom with one female child driving I’m not sure an umbrella policy would be worthwhile.
You should compare rates. For us, the umbrella policy was cheaper than increasing policy limits and also covers if someone is injured and sues us from being in our home or rental.
You will probably find that if you get an umbrella, you will also have to increase the liability coverage on the auto and maybe homeowners as well.
We had to increase our auto coverage to $250K/$500K when we got the umbrella.
^^ same with us but in the end it worked out in our favor for the total liability coverage.
@BingeWatcher – as others have said, personal decision, but my guideline was that I wanted an umbrella policy that covered all of my assets.
Also, you may want to obtain a quote from you car insurance and your homeowners, if you use different categories. Chubb offered me a lower rate than my car insurance.
We encouraged our D to use her college student insurance when her phone screen cracked and when her camera got wet and couldn’t be fixed. Now that she is applying for renters insurance, it seems those prior claims are going to hurt her with higher premiums. Not something I had thought about until now.
@mamabear1234 – I would not have thought of that, so thank you for posting. I forgot to add above that while I do not have renter’s insurance for my son at school, I do have liability coverage for his school address.