Exclude distant college students from auto insurance?

[cmk]

Yesterday I learned that I can reduce our automobile insurance bill by about 2/3 by excluding my 2 sons temporarily while they are out of town.   They are going to separate colleges 2-3 hours away from our home and probably won't be home until Thanksgiving and the Christmas holidays.  We need to be certain to reinstate them when they come home and that can easily be done online.  The savings for us is a whopping $800/ 6 months. 

Does anybody with more insurance expertise than I see a downside to this?  The only thing I worry about is forgetting to notify the insurance company when they are in town.

[jamaicaspanish]

USAA offers a non-owner's policy.
We're paying $24/year while overseas.  The policy covers us when we're in the States renting or borrowing a car.
It keeps us continuously insured (so we don't enter the high-risk pool when we need a 'real policy').
I'd check out carefully what happens when your 'uninsured' kids are added back to your policy.

[lakemom]

Are you certain you can do this?  We were told that as long as our home was their permanent address we couldn't drop them.  Could just be a difference in insurance companies though

[Michread]

We add & drop our college son all the time. It takes a phone call to add and a fax to drop him.  Yes, it's a pain but it's a HUGE savings. 

[TomTX]

Are you certain you can do this?  We were told that as long as our home was their permanent address we couldn't drop them.  Could just be a difference in insurance companies though

So get them a PO box as a "permanent address".

[teen persuasion]

Yesterday I learned that I can reduce our automobile insurance bill by about 2/3 by excluding my 2 sons temporarily while they are out of town.   They are going to separate colleges 2-3 hours away from our home and probably won't be home until Thanksgiving and the Christmas holidays.  We need to be certain to reinstate them when they come home and that can easily be done online.  The savings for us is a whopping $800/ 6 months. 

Does anybody with more insurance expertise than I see a downside to this?  The only thing I worry about is forgetting to notify the insurance company when they are in town.

Why is your rate so high for your sons?  Our insurance is only $200 extra a year for DS2, and he is not far enough away to count for a college student discount, and he has a car assigned to him.  $800 for six months, even for two seems outrageous.  Will they not drive at all while away at college?  Even if they don't have a car, a friend may want them to drive for a while on a road trip, etc.

[Gin1984]

Yesterday I learned that I can reduce our automobile insurance bill by about 2/3 by excluding my 2 sons temporarily while they are out of town.   They are going to separate colleges 2-3 hours away from our home and probably won't be home until Thanksgiving and the Christmas holidays.  We need to be certain to reinstate them when they come home and that can easily be done online.  The savings for us is a whopping $800/ 6 months. 

Does anybody with more insurance expertise than I see a downside to this?  The only thing I worry about is forgetting to notify the insurance company when they are in town.

Why is your rate so high for your sons?  Our insurance is only $200 extra a year for DS2, and he is not far enough away to count for a college student discount, and he has a car assigned to him.  $800 for six months, even for two seems outrageous.  Will they not drive at all while away at college?  Even if they don't have a car, a friend may want them to drive for a while on a road trip, etc.

I am not sure how you are only paying $200 for a male under 25.  Over ten years ago I paid $700/ six months for coverage under my mother, when I was under 21.

[cmk]

Michread, it sounds like we use the same company.  That's the way they described it, and I was afraid it was too good to be true!

[teen persuasion]

Yesterday I learned that I can reduce our automobile insurance bill by about 2/3 by excluding my 2 sons temporarily while they are out of town.   They are going to separate colleges 2-3 hours away from our home and probably won't be home until Thanksgiving and the Christmas holidays.  We need to be certain to reinstate them when they come home and that can easily be done online.  The savings for us is a whopping $800/ 6 months. 

Does anybody with more insurance expertise than I see a downside to this?  The only thing I worry about is forgetting to notify the insurance company when they are in town.

Why is your rate so high for your sons?  Our insurance is only $200 extra a year for DS2, and he is not far enough away to count for a college student discount, and he has a car assigned to him.  $800 for six months, even for two seems outrageous.  Will they not drive at all while away at college?  Even if they don't have a car, a friend may want them to drive for a while on a road trip, etc.

I am not sure how you are only paying $200 for a male under 25.  Over ten years ago I paid $700/ six months for coverage under my mother, when I was under 21.

Dunno, maybe because we like old cars?  Lol, I think DS2's car is the youngest car in the family, 2000 I believe.  We're paying ~$1000 per year for three cars, four people (DH, me, DS2 and DD3 on a permit).

[Gin1984]

Yesterday I learned that I can reduce our automobile insurance bill by about 2/3 by excluding my 2 sons temporarily while they are out of town.   They are going to separate colleges 2-3 hours away from our home and probably won't be home until Thanksgiving and the Christmas holidays.  We need to be certain to reinstate them when they come home and that can easily be done online.  The savings for us is a whopping $800/ 6 months. 

Does anybody with more insurance expertise than I see a downside to this?  The only thing I worry about is forgetting to notify the insurance company when they are in town.

Why is your rate so high for your sons?  Our insurance is only $200 extra a year for DS2, and he is not far enough away to count for a college student discount, and he has a car assigned to him.  $800 for six months, even for two seems outrageous.  Will they not drive at all while away at college?  Even if they don't have a car, a friend may want them to drive for a while on a road trip, etc.

I am not sure how you are only paying $200 for a male under 25.  Over ten years ago I paid $700/ six months for coverage under my mother, when I was under 21.

Dunno, maybe because we like old cars?  Lol, I think DS2's car is the youngest car in the family, 2000 I believe.  We're paying ~$1000 per year for three cars, four people (DH, me, DS2 and DD3 on a permit).

Maybe that is it, but my car was a 91 so it was fifteen years old and all we had on it was liability.  I'd check your policy to make sure they have not snuck anything in, because that seems damn cheap. 

[StartingEarly]

They don't need their own insurance to drive someone else's car.  Insurance follows the vehicle.  That's why I can't lend out my motorcycle to one of my best friends (past dui)

[Simple Abundant Living]

I'm not sure if this situation applies, but my son just left for a 2-yr church mission where he will be on a bike the whole time.  I called USAA twice and asked if I can drop him off my policy.  They told me no because:
1) It would make it really hard for him to get insurance when he comes back (lapse of coverage)
2) As long as we are responsible for him I had to keep him insured
3) That if he was in an accident (on his bike), they would still cover him.
4) That if he cause an accident (on his bike) it would protect our assets.
5) Etc., etc., etc.

The second guy sold me a non-owners policy that would save me a bit off having him fully covered, but I was still upset that they wouldn't let me drop him and told them I would be looking into this with other companies.  After talking to other missionary parents, I found that they all suggested that I drop him off my policy.  I called back and got a supervisor.  She told me that I had been misinformed and that she would drop him off my insurance, cancel the non-owners policy and get me a refund.  She spent about 45 minutes trying to undo what her coworkers had done. 

Anyway, yes, it is possible to drop your adult kids off your policy and get them on later. 

[MrsPete]

Yeah, we tried to do this, and we couldn't.  Our daughter didn't have a car during her first two years of college. 

I can't remember the details about WHY it wouldn't work, but I'm thinking they said that if she wasn't insured she'd have to "turn in" her driver's license and wouldn't be allowed to drive even when she came home for a weekend, etc.  And then that meant that when she DID need to drive, she'd be considered rather "suspect" by all insurance companies, and it would cost big bucks for her to insure herself in those initial years. 

It's been a while, and I'm not sure I remember the reasoning exactly, but I investigated it thoroughly and it just wasn't something reasonable. 

[TeresaB]

I think it depends on the insurer. Geico has a program, I can't remember what it's called, but you can tell them that your child is in college more than X miles away and only drives occasionally when home on a break. It counts as having them insured, but it makes the premiums cheaper. And you don't have to switch them between away and home status.

[ZiziPB]

We add & drop our college son all the time. It takes a phone call to add and a fax to drop him.  Yes, it's a pain but it's a HUGE savings.

I do the same with my daughter.  My agent takes care of this for me and this thread reminded me to contact him today (she left for school last night)....

[Elderwood17]

Are you certain you can do this?  We were told that as long as our home was their permanent address we couldn't drop them.  Could just be a difference in insurance companies though

We were told the same thing when our boys were in college.

[cmk]

 Just an update:  This is working out well.  Our son came home for fall break, so we designated him as an insured driver online.  Our account was adjusted to show the additional amount we would owe as if he were going to be an insured driver for the entire 6-month premium period.
 Re-excluding him was a bit of a hassle - the paperwork has to be either faxed or mailed. So it took a little while, but eventually we got another modification to the bill to show the amount we owed only for his fall break ($26).
  When we excluded both sons, our premium went down by $800.  So we should save a lot of money, even considering that there will be periods when both are insured,  for example, during Christmas break.
  I trust them not to drive, but stress it often so they don't forget. 

[forummm]

As a male, I also had incredibly expensive insurance until I hit 25. I had my own personal policy and was not on my parent's policy starting at 18. No one told them they couldn't drop me. When I was in grad school I did not own a car and did not have any insurance at all for 5 years. When I graduated and got a car the insurance was really inexpensive (and I was over 25 by then) and I had no trouble getting it. I got quotes from 3-5 companies.

There is no requirement that anyone have car insurance unless they are actually going to drive. In fact I tried to get a policy, but they wouldn't sell me one if I did not have a car. If they are going to drive, they should be insured. I just didn't drive anywhere for years other than rental cars (where I had to buy their expensive insurance--but even at $10/day for liability for a week a year it was not that expensive). Note that even if you don't have a personal insurance policy, using your Visa gives you the collision damage waiver coverage for free so don't buy it from the rental agency.