Car insurance while away at college

[Anonymous]

Question for parents whose college bound students are not bringing a car and not planning to drive while away. Do you cancel insurance or does your provider have an option for suspending?

[Anonymous]

We have Geico and just notify them that the student is away at college and not driving while there. It reduced the rate a bit but they are still covered when home on breaks.

[Anonymous]

Our insurance only offers a discount if the student is over 100 miles a way, which doesn't apply to us. That being said, they told us we could lower the number of miles/year she drives and that will save us some $$. I wouldn't cancel outright. They'll be home and presumably driving during breaks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our insurance only offers a discount if the student is over 100 miles a way, which doesn't apply to us. That being said, they told us we could lower the number of miles/year she drives and that will save us some $$. I wouldn't cancel outright. They'll be home and presumably driving during breaks.

Really appreciate this. For once, a useful thread.

[Anonymous]

Every licensed driver in our household has to be insured, insurance rule. Only one of my college kids has a license but does not own a car. She has to pay insurance.

[Anonymous]

The discount is minimal but at least it's something. Plus if your student drives someone else's car at school they need to be insured.

[Anonymous]

Yep, car insurance companies have a special category for college kids who are away without a vehicle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The discount is minimal but at least it's something. Plus if your student drives someone else's car at school they need to be insured.

Insurance follows the CAR in many states.

[Anonymous]

How long can we have our adult child on our car insurance? Recently college graduate but no car of their own in the new state.

[Anonymous]

For my kid’s policy, they had to prove they were X amount of miles away (can’t remember the amt) to receive a discount. Once my kid was out of the house, we transferred the car title to their name and they got their own insurance. I wanted to avoid the liability.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How long can we have our adult child on our car insurance? Recently college graduate but no car of their own in the new state.

It varies by insurance company. Call yours and ask their policy. At our insurance company, they can only be on our policy while still living at our residence.

[Anonymous]

Agree. Completely depends on your insurance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have Geico and just notify them that the student is away at college and not driving while there. It reduced the rate a bit but they are still covered when home on breaks.

+1

[Anonymous]

Allstate had sort of an "all or nothing" answer for me when I inquired--i.e., either we remove son completely from coverage or we keep him completely covered, regardless of how far away college is. Agent was resistant to letting us just add son back during summer when he is home and has access to a car (hence the all or nothing). Not sure if our agent is lazy about adding son back for the summer or if that's genuinely their policy though, now that I think about it lol.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How long can we have our adult child on our car insurance? Recently college graduate but no car of their own in the new state.

USAA just told us we can only keep him on our policy if he is a dependent.