Back-to-College FAQs
Posted on Sep 21, 2015
If your son or daughter is one of about 20 million American college students who have headed back to college for the fall semester, then you are running out of time to make sure he or she has proper insurance coverage. This is no time to suffer from unexpected losses because of improper coverage.
At Otterstedt Insurance Agency, we field many questions about properly insuring college students. Hopefully, these answers to frequently asked questions will help you.
Are My Child’s Belongings Covered Under My Homeowners Insurance Policy?
As long as your child is a fulltime student under the age of 24, belongings kept in a college dorm can be covered by your own policy. However, most students take a lot of expensive items with them to school, and these include laptops, other electronics, college textbook, and a wardrobe. You may want to check the limits and possible deductibles of your own coverage.
If your child rents an apartment, a separate renters policy might be helpful. They aren’t very expensive and can also provide coverage for loss of use, or a situation where you child might have to vacate an apartment because of damage.
Do I Need to Inform My Auto Insurance Company About My Son or Daughter?
Parents with young drivers who head off to college might have a couple of different situations. In one case, the student doesn’t take a car, and you will surely want to tell your auto insurance company that your student may only occasionally drive over college breaks because that’s likely to lower your premiums. If your student takes a car to school, you should also let your insurer know that the car will have a different home address than your own. Depending upon the new location, this could either increase or lower your premiums.
Does My Student Need Health Insurance?
On one hand, your health insurer should allow you to keep your student on a policy. On the other hand, some policies rely upon local HMO or PPO networks to control costs. If your son or daughter leaves the network, he or she may not be covered as well or covered at all. This is something to check into before deciding if your child needs a stand-alone student health insurance policy. Because health insurance companies set premiums by age, most students are fairly inexpensive to cover.
How Can College Students Save Money on Insurance?
Some top auto insurance companies offer discounts for college students. In any case, most offer the same discount for good college students, with a GPA over a 3.0, which they offer to high school students. The best things that any young driver can do to keep their auto insurance premiums as low as possible are to maintain good grades and a good driving history.
Also, even though your son or daughter heads off to school in another location, you can still bundle his or her coverage with your family policies. It’s very likely that the discounts that you can earn will make it worth it to bundle policies with the same company. With major insurers, this is usually very possible and easy to do. Since many parents assist their college students when they buy and manage their first policies, this also makes everything a lot easier to oversee.
Do You Have More Questions About College Student Insurance?
With all of the things that need to get planned for, paid for, and organized when a child heads off to college, adjusting insurance coverage might get overlooked. Our experienced agents can provide advice and answer questions with a phone call.
