Auto insurance college freshman with no car

rnorwo1

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jun 23, 2006
Hi,
Like everyone in our situation, we have been paying an exorbitant amount on auto insurance thanks to a driving-teenage son. We just dropped him off at college 800 miles away with no car. We thought we could drop him from our insurance (USAA), but that was a no-go. We were told they may allow us to drop him with a stand-alone policy from another agency, but several phone calls later, and no one else will insure him as a solo policy. I understand that if he drives (he won’t) and is in an accident, we will probably be sued, so this is the explanation we’ve received about why they don’t separate. This is costing us about $250-300/month extra. Does anyone know of any other ideas/options for us to get him an independent policy? Thanks for any advice!
 
List him on your policy as being a college student living away from home. This should give you a discount and he will still be covered when he is home and driving on vacations. Shop other auto insurance companies too. I found Geico to be the cheapest with my two teen drivers.
 
Also inquire about discounts like good student discount. I remember my Dad needing my college transcripts to get discounts on auto insurance when I was in college.
 
I thought insurance covered cars. If he doesn't have one and won't have access to one while he is away, tell them, you want him off your policy. Add him back on when he comes home for the holidays and summer. Can you go in and remove him as a driver online? I have USAA and have made MANY changes to my policy online without ever speaking to anyone. See if you can do it that way.

Also, if he is home less than 2 weeks at a time and drives your car, it should still be covered, because USAA covers ANY licensed driver operating your cars. It would be considered an incidental usage. So, I think you can remove him completely from your policy unless he gets his own car, since he is not living at home full time anymore.
 


I thought insurance covered cars. If he doesn't have one and won't have access to one while he is away, tell them, you want him off your policy.
Insurance covers both the car and the people *. My daughter was on my policy until age 27. I was surprised that I couldn't just drop her when she bought her own car and got her own insurance. I had to provide her policy number, and list what her coverage was. I told my agent I thought that was none of their business, but the agent said the underwriting department wouldn't drop her without it.

*https://cover.com/blog/does-car-insurance-follow-the-car-or-the-driver/
 
Insurance covers both the car and the people *. My daughter was on my policy until age 27. I was surprised that I couldn't just drop her when she bought her own car and got her own insurance. I had to provide her policy number, and list what her coverage was. I told my agent I thought that was none of their business, but the agent said the underwriting department wouldn't drop her without it.

*https://cover.com/blog/does-car-insurance-follow-the-car-or-the-driver/

That is super weird. My parents had Amica when I was in college and as soon as I graduated and got married, they dropped me and Amica didn't ask for anything. I was added to my husband's USAA policy. I was 22.

What happens when a child simply stops driving when away at school with no car? It seems ridiculous to charge several hundreds of dollars for coverage that isn't needed. If that kid drives a friend's car out at college, the FRIEND'S insurance covers him, not his own.
 
What happens when a child simply stops driving when away at school with no car? It seems ridiculous to charge several hundreds of dollars for coverage that isn't needed. If that kid drives a friend's car out at college, the FRIEND'S insurance covers him, not his own.
They are still considered part of your household so have to be on your policy. My kids both had cars from the time they turned 16, when they hit college, I had the option of keeping our home zip code or their college zip code as their primary area of vehicle operation, and I could choose the least expensive area.
 


They are still considered part of your household so have to be on your policy. My kids both had cars from the time they turned 16, when they hit college, I had the option of keeping our home zip code or their college zip code as their primary area of vehicle operation, and I could choose the least expensive area.

This is exactly what they told us. Until we can prove that we are not paying his bills, then he is an official member of our household and he must be covered. USAA will lower us by $30/month with him being away. I love USAA and hate to change, which is why we were looking for an independent company for him; proof of that and then USAA will drop him. We talked to Allstate, Progressive, and Geico, and none of them would do an independent policy. This is insane. I guess We just need to start over and get quotes for all of us to change.
Any other ideas not mentioned (we have tried all of that) would be wonderful!
 
Guess it’s a good thing my 19 year old college student doesn’t drive yet. We have late drivers in our house, and I’m sure it has saved thousands of dollars.
 
What was strange was that our insurance company had no trouble dropping one son from our policy when he graduated from college, but for the other son (who moved out of state) they refused to drop him until we provided proof of his new address. We finally figured out that my older son, whom they dropped without question, had gone to the DMV as soon as he moved and registered there. DS #2 kept his license from our address until it came time to renew (about 4 years). Too bad we didn't figure this out earlier!
 
We have State Farm. My suggestion is to buy a beater car and have your son rated on that car. My sons car is a 2002 Buick. The insurance monthly on that car is less than $40 a month and that is the car he is rated on. He takes the car to school with him. Do you have the same number of cars as you do drivers?
 
It may vary by state. When we moved to NC, our DD remained in MA for school (without a car), but her legal residence was in NC. They wouldn't let us drop her , or alter our car insurance in any way, on the theory that she would drive our cars when she was visiting us. Okay, fair enough, I guess. But then she graduated, worked a year, we gave her a car (her grandmother had actually given it to us, for her, and it was in NC--she drove it back to MA). It still took her and I two hours in the insurance office, with DD's MA driver's license and proof of MA insurance, to get her removed from our policy. It was a royal pain in the butt.

Anyway, I wish you luck. I don't think the insurance company will "buy" that he only drives a beater vehicle--they will want to insure him for all your cars, not just one. In our case, DD24 was only driving the 2005 Impala.
 
Anyway, I wish you luck. I don't think the insurance company will "buy" that he only drives a beater vehicle--they will want to insure him for all your cars, not just one. In our case, DD24 was only driving the 2005 Impala.
My insurance agent would to an annual review when my kids were on my policy and move them onto the car that had the lowest rate for them to be on. They always had their own car, my wife and I one for each of us, and a spare car. My agent retired and the guy he sold out to called to "do a review of my policies". I said okay, let's see whether my kids are on the cars that are the cheapest of them to be on. He said they don't do that. I pointed out my previous agent did. His response, "well that is old school". All he seemed interested in was selling me new policies, but I have all the insurance I need, I just want to pay less for it.
 
This is exactly what they told us. Until we can prove that we are not paying his bills, then he is an official member of our household and he must be covered. USAA will lower us by $30/month with him being away. I love USAA and hate to change, which is why we were looking for an independent company for him; proof of that and then USAA will drop him. We talked to Allstate, Progressive, and Geico, and none of them would do an independent policy. This is insane. I guess We just need to start over and get quotes for all of us to change.
Any other ideas not mentioned (we have tried all of that) would be wonderful!
It's been that way for a long time with USAA. They are firm about this.
We just paid it with the small reduction for him not having a car at school. And of course he did drive our cars when he was home.
 
It's been that way for a long time with USAA. They are firm about this.
We just paid it with the small reduction for him not having a car at school. And of course he did drive our cars when he was home.
That’s the way my agent’s people operate. When my son got his license 4 years ago the lady in the phone said we can put him down to drive the car with the least value but he can drive any of them. I said that’s the car he will be driving anyway. The do everything they can to help us save money. I’m sure it’s not that way everywhere, but that’s how it is with ours. As long as the cars are in my name or my husbands name they do it that way. Now, when my step daughter was living in our house, she was the worst driver ever. Totaled more cars than I can count. I wanted to put a car in her name because I feared being sued. (It happened to my dad because of an accident my brother had.) The lady from their office practically begged me not to do it. She said my step daughters insurance would go through the roof. Through all that with my step daughter, they never cancelled us, and they certainly could have. That’s why I have stayed with them all this time.
 
Try Erie Insurance, that is who we have. My DD just graduated and moved the next state over but is still on our policy because its cheaper and my agent can cover her there. But she could get her own policy if she wanted but it's cheaper for her on ours so she pays us her premium. I've never heard of kids not being able to get off their parents policy, that's nuts! And I know for Erie the school has to be 100 miles away to drop the coverage.
 
My insurance agent would to an annual review when my kids were on my policy and move them onto the car that had the lowest rate for them to be on. They always had their own car, my wife and I one for each of us, and a spare car. My agent retired and the guy he sold out to called to "do a review of my policies". I said okay, let's see whether my kids are on the cars that are the cheapest of them to be on. He said they don't do that. I pointed out my previous agent did. His response, "well that is old school". All he seemed interested in was selling me new policies, but I have all the insurance I need, I just want to pay less for it.
That’s the way my agent’s people operate. When my son got his license 4 years ago the lady in the phone said we can put him down to drive the car with the least value but he can drive any of them. I said that’s the car he will be driving anyway. The do everything they can to help us save money. I’m sure it’s not that way everywhere, but that’s how it is with ours. As long as the cars are in my name or my husbands name they do it that way. Now, when my step daughter was living in our house, she was the worst driver ever. Totaled more cars than I can count. I wanted to put a car in her name because I feared being sued. (It happened to my dad because of an accident my brother had.) The lady from their office practically begged me not to do it. She said my step daughters insurance would go through the roof. Through all that with my step daughter, they never cancelled us, and they certainly could have. That’s why I have stayed with them all this time.
 
We have Progressive and our total actually went down when we added our son as being away at school without a vehicle. Can you get a quote from them for all of you? We have had excellent customer service from them.
 
My insurance agent would to an annual review when my kids were on my policy and move them onto the car that had the lowest rate for them to be on. They always had their own car, my wife and I one for each of us, and a spare car. My agent retired and the guy he sold out to called to "do a review of my policies". I said okay, let's see whether my kids are on the cars that are the cheapest of them to be on. He said they don't do that. I pointed out my previous agent did. His response, "well that is old school". All he seemed interested in was selling me new policies, but I have all the insurance I need, I just want to pay less for it.

When DD got her license, the Allstate policy I had had ever since I spun off my parents policy when I was 22 became crazy expensive. So after a lot of shopping around, I landed with Geico, who was significantly less expensive with a teen on the policy. They let me specify who drove what car. I didn't play games with that and told the truth - I had gotten DD her own not-a-beater-but-an-older/cheaper car that I carry only liability on (but a hefty amount ;)), and then I have my more expensive car that I have full collision on. DD **never** drives my car, and I only very rarely drive hers.

That was great until about 6 months ago when I got my renewal from Geico - it had a MASSIVE premium increase with no explanation. Digging through the policy docs, I saw the discounts section showed DDs good student discount on my car, and my good driver discount on DDs car. So I figured they had somehow flipped who was on which car. But when I called in and told them the discounts were on the wrong cars so I thought they flipped things incorrectly - they proceeded to tell me no, that's just the way they do it now - they basically assign drivers and discounts to cars in the most expensive way now. They were basically treating it like DD was driving the expensive car with full collision, even though she never, ever did. There was no way to undo it. And no, they didn't feel like they needed to proactively provide an explanation to policyholders that their underwriting methodology had changed.

I couldn't get rid of Geico fast enough after that. I moved to Mercury, who isn't the easiest to work with but still allows me to specify the car my daughter honestly drives, and they put the discounts on the correct cars. I've gotten a couple of letters since then from Geico saying I should check their rates again since "they may have been lowered" for our policy - I don't know if that is just their general marketing shtick, or if they figured out they really had screwed it up, or if they decided to go back to the old way of doing things. I suspect it's just marketing, and nothing has really changed. But I won't be finding out anytime soon - the whole experience with them left a bad taste in my mouth.
 
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