Many insurers will agree to drop a child away at college from auto insurance if they study full time at least 100 miles away. If they are likely to spend most of the year at school, this may be a sensible choice since parents can save between $1000 – $2000 a year by doing so. But most companies will not agree to it if the college or university is less than 100 miles away because they think that the child is likely to come home often and drive the car when the distance isn’t far enough.
If the child is most likely to spend most of the education year at the college, like nine months, parents may not see any reason to keep such a person on their policy and pay high premiums. However, they should remember that their children will not have any insurance in that case when they come for Christmas or so and they should not drive.
When a child is allowed to be dropped from vehicle insurance while they are away at college, they cannot be considered as occasional drivers when they are back home, even for a short period. Occasional drivers are people who use the car with the permission of the policyholder and live somewhere else. Many insurers wouldn’t see a child back home from university as an occasional driver. Policyholders should check this point carefully and make sure the child is insured before they are allowed to drive.
They can be added back on the policy if they are going to stay at home for the summer holidays for like two or three months. In short, they need to add back the child if he/she will start driving.
Having a teenage driver listed on a policy can increase premiums as much as twice. That is why people may be eager to drop them off their auto insurance as soon as they can. But it may be too early to do so if the child still has access to the parent’s car and is still considered living with them. Even if a child is away most of the time studying in a different town he/she will come back home during school breaks and want to use the vehicle.
Usually, companies want every driver living with you to be included. A college student’s residence is still considered to be their parents’ address, unless they moved their license, vehicle registration, bills and other correspondence to a different address and hardly visiting home. This may be the case if they are in a different state on the other side of the country. Then, it may be safe to assume that they aren’t living with their parents even if they still keep their parents’ address. In that case, you may have no reason to keep them on car insurance and this may be accepted by the carrier.
Parents may need to consider their options depending on vehicle usage and costs. Many carriers offer special discounts on auto insurance when a teenager is at least 100 miles away at a full time college and below a certain age like 24. This is only logical since the risks associated with youngsters are reduced with the limited usage now that they spend most of their time in a different town.
These discounts can be as much as 20% on the total premium and even more with some companies and depending on the situation that can reduce the pressure to drop the child due to costs. try to get other sayings like good student discount to reduce costs further, if it is available.
Arranging the policies differently can save some money as well. For example, if a policy is arranged for the benefit of a teenager and he/she is the main driver, this may not be the case anymore when they are busy with their studies and the vehicle is left behind. Changing the main driver/user on an automobile insurance policy and listing such a person as an additional driver should reduce premiums.
Get a few quotes in such cases from different companies and with dropping them off vehicle insurance and keeping them on to be able to make a cost benefit analysis based on real figures, rather than guessing.
Remember that shopping around for the cheapest rates can yield enough savings to offset most of the cost of insuring a teenager. This is one of the most effective, fastest and easiest ways of achieving lower prices.