Auto insurance college freshman with no car

[tvguy]

She just needs to ask the insurance company honestly. Never had an insurance company ask for or need to see a divorce decree.

I agree with the first part. Having been involved in school and youth sports, I have seen far reaching divorce decrees where the Judge ordered something that was outside the normal practices of the school, youth sports club etc. I had brothers in Little League that the Judge ordered they play in our league even though they did not live in our borders, nor did their mother or father. The Judge felt we were a good compromise. I have to sent copies of the divorce degree off to Little League Regional to get waivers for those boys...........and noticed it also included an order that when the boys were driving age (they were 10 and 12) a specific parent was required to put them on their auto insurance.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

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.

Many companies go off of exposure to the household.

A student, away at college but who comes home, is often considered an exposure to the household.

Permissive use is more like you allowed your friend to take your car or I drove my mom's vehicle the one time up to CVS but I live elsewhere and don't have regular exposure to her vehicle (meaning I'm not living at her house/driving her vehicle often).

Insurance covers people for BI/PIP/Medical/Property Damage,Liability, etc. Policies/usage that wouldn't is if you dropped liability coverage and had a vehicle in storage/lay-up (so it basically only had comp coverage) in which case you shouldn't really be driving that vehicle around anyways.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

The insurance company I worked for with one of their products (not available in CA) had the ability to adjust the student's household exposure to Student Away With (or Without) a Vehicle BUT the student had to be away from the home in college at least 250miles away. If it was under that you could not list the student that way. This normally allowed a reduction in premium. If the student was away with a vehicle then the address of where the student was living needed to be provided. That was just one company of course.

These days many companies have gone to average driver rating where either the bulk of the rating is on the more expensive style vehicle or the average is spread out often using the number of drivers to vehicle amongst other things. The insurance company I worked for the auto product was incredibly complicated in the rating structure and manually rating was dang near impossible--that might be something to keep in mind when calling your insurance company--often companies don't give all the information on exactly how they rate the drivers these days. They may say that take xyz into consideration (and they would be required to if they use your credit score for determination in premium) and often have gone to a complicated rating structure your person on the phone has no way of truly knowing every single detail.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Uuuuugghhh my older son will be driving in less than a year and am not looking forward to any of this. The car he will be driving on is actually his dad's (we are divorced) and I am trying to figure out whether I will also have to add him to MY policy even though he will never, ever drive my car or how that's all going to work.

Seems like there is no clear consensus on a "best" car insurance company or service!

The insurance company I worked for required all drivers who had exposure to the household to be rated or excluded (excluded ability varied by state and situation). That is one example.

In the case of divorced families it was often the case that the driver was double listed--meaning on both parents policy because he had exposure. If the parents have two different companies rules may differ on that.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Maybe. May also vary from state to state and insurance company. I have no experience with this specifically but I know that a Judge's order in a divorce decree can overrule many rules and company policies.

If the insurance company is filed with the DOI of a given state with xyz rules you'd be hard pressed to override that.

Divorce decree or not the insurance company I worked for went off exposure period so if the kid went over to the PP's house habitually they would require the driver to be rated or excluded there. Full custody doesn't mean no exposure at least in that sense. And exclusion was not always available to do (depending on state law and situation).

Knowing you're in CA I'll give the caveat that for many many reasons in the insurance biz CA does operate differently though.

 

[tvguy]

If the insurance company is filed with the DOI of a given state with xyz rules you'd be hard pressed to override that.

Divorce decree or not the insurance company I worked for went off expsosure period so if the son went over to the PP's house habitually they would require the driver to be rated or excluded there. Full custody doesn't mean no exposure at least in that sense. And exclusion was not always available to do (depending on state law and situation).

Knowing you're in CA I'll give the caveat that for many many reasons in the insurance biz CA does operate differently though.

I know in the situation I dealt with, the Judge understood I was trying to comply with his order. Little League didn't want to give a wavier until they were threatened with contempt of court! I would assume an insurance company would be required also to comply with a Judge's order.

 

[luvsJack]

I agree with the first part. Having been involved in school and youth sports, I have seen far reaching divorce decrees where the Judge ordered something that was outside the normal practices of the school, youth sports club etc. I had brothers in Little League that the Judge ordered they play in our league even though they did not live in our borders, nor did their mother or father. The Judge felt we were a good compromise. I have to sent copies of the divorce degree off to Little League Regional to get waivers for those boys...........and noticed it also included an order that when the boys were driving age (they were 10 and 12) a specific parent was required to put them on their auto insurance.

Well, yeah, that makes sense. I had to show my divorce decree to show that I had custody and they lived with me full time to show proof of residency for school. But for insurance, I could insurance one and ex-h the other, and no one ever batted an eye about it.

 

[ekmom]

A friend ran into this situation a few years ago and was told that the only way he could not pay for his kid to be on the insurance was if the kid gave up his driver's license. Needless to say, that didn't happen!

 

[luvsJack]

https://www.thebalance.com/who-insures-the-kids-on-car-insurance-after-a-divorce-527460

Here is a good article about insurance for kids in divorce situations. Keep in mind that a divorce decree saying "Father will pay for auto insurance" doesn't necessarily mean that the father has to take out the policy. The Mom can take out the policy, the Dad just has to pay for it.

Notice, there is no mention of having to list the kid on both policies. He/she just has to be on somebody's and if that is different than the person the kid lives with, then that parent should be able to just show that he/she is covered by the other policy.

If my company told me that I had to cover an already covered person or have them give up their license, I would be finding a new company.

 

[rnorwo1]

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?

We have his car that is 11-years old, DH’s truck which is 22-yo, DH’s work truck which is.....??? 30-yo?? And my car is 4-yo. He is listed as primary on the oldest vehicle. My car is the only one that has collision, they all have the highest deductible amounts possible, we have all policies through them and every discount they offer. They must, however, average as someone mentioned, because as soon as we added him, all of them went up. USAA suggested adding him to the oldest, so I guess it does help some.

Let me know if you figure anything out, op. We have Usaa too and a ds who lives in Boston, now a junior, who never drives and has no access to a car. He does not even come home in the summer. We can’t drop him! It’s robbery!

I do feel like it’s robbery!! I complained about the prices when he was actually driving, but to not even have a vehicle and is 800 miles away.... this is insane!

We are going to keep calling and pricing around, and I’ll definitely post again if we find a solution.

We live in Florida and DD is in college in MA. USAA has characterized her as "away at school" so she is still insured as a driver but there is no car attached to her. This only lowered our bill about $200 for the 6 month premium but it's better than nothing and nice to know if she had to drive someone else's car she would be insured. The agent told DH that this term is state dependent so maybe that's why there are some variables, even with USAA?

That’s what they offered us. A whopping $33/month discount. If they would even lower our vehicles’ rates with him being away, I would be happy with that!

I am just learning about all this because my son gets his permit tomorrow, but Ameriprise said young drivers have to be licensed for 3 years before they will give an individual policy. If your son has driven since 16 you might get a quote for him if he is 19+.
As to pricing, my son will pay $111/mo extra premium to add him once he starts driving. I know every state/company is different but it is a strong company and offers extra discount and perks through Costco; perhaps worth a call.

I’ve never heard of them, but I’ll research them. Thanks!

Thanks for all the help and commiseration. We have three boys who are all 4 years apart in age. This is going to be our lives for awhile!

 

[kymom99]

We have his car that is 11-years old, DH’s truck which is 22-yo, DH’s work truck which is.....??? 30-yo?? And my car is 4-yo. He is listed as primary on the oldest vehicle. My car is the only one that has collision, they all have the highest deductible amounts possible, we have all policies through them and every discount they offer. They must, however, average as someone mentioned, because as soon as we added him, all of them went up. USAA suggested adding him to the oldest, so I guess it does help some.




I do feel like it’s robbery!! I complained about the prices when he was actually driving, but to not even have a vehicle and is 800 miles away.... this is insane!

We are going to keep calling and pricing around, and I’ll definitely post again if we find a solution.




That’s what they offered us. A whopping $33/month discount. If they would even lower our vehicles’ rates with him being away, I would be happy with that!



I’ve never heard of them, but I’ll research them. Thanks!

Thanks for all the help and commiseration. We have three boys who are all 4 years apart in age. This is going to be our lives for awhile!

Yes I believe it does factor in to all the vehicles. On my statement, for example, it lists me as the primary driver but says my costs may be affected by other drivers in the household and it lists my husband and my son. So we are all tied together. But they definitely have him on the oldest car. My brother was able to get his rates lowered for the year that my niece went away to school and did not take a car. I’m not sure of the amount but I think it was a decent savings. And she was only about 100 miles away

 

[Carrie Ellis]

One of my calls to USAA I was telling the rep how much more it has become to insure my 19 year olds (from 16 to 19) than when my 23 year olds started driving. The rep told me that insurance is going up exponentially as we talked because of all the new technology. I had my son on a 1997 Jeep Cherokee with 240K miles and liability only!!! I was paying so much for him! The rep told me it is really not what they drive but what they might hit. Even hitting a bumper of someone else now can be a lot of money because of all the sensors. So in a nut shell, all this new technology, we are all paying for it big time.

 

[Eureka]

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.

Depends on the company. Allstate does not do this, we found.

 

[mrodgers]

On the divorce thing, my daughter is on her mother's policy. We don't have a custody agreement. I specifically asked as we were still combined on insurance until close to the finalizing which was 2 years. My daughter was 16 but didn't have her license yet. When I got my own policy finally separated from the ex, with the same company I did not need to put my daughter on my policy as she primarily lived with mom.

 

[tvguy]

Depends on the company. Allstate does not do this, we found.

I have Allstate and this was my experience even during the year my daughter was going to school in England! But she was covered if she drove there! She didn't

 

[hurt817]

I work for State Farm in Texas & in this situation we would list your son on the policy but attach the "STUDENT AWAY DISCOUNT". Basically he's still listed but is MUCH cheaper because he's away at school without a vehicle. It really saves a TON!

 

[rnorwo1]

I work for State Farm in Texas & in this situation we would list your son on the policy but attach the "STUDENT AWAY DISCOUNT". Basically he's still listed but is MUCH cheaper because he's away at school without a vehicle. It really saves a TON!

That is how they listed him; however, it only saves $33/mo! I hear LA is one of the most expensive insurance states. If that’s not true, I sure would hate to live elsewhere!

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

That is how they listed him; however, it only saves $33/mo! I hear LA is one of the most expensive insurance states. If that’s not true, I sure would hate to live elsewhere!

When it comes to the insurance world CA itself can be quite different (well as other things too) than other states.

In terms of rates--MI is often the highest.

 

[StephMK]

We are now with esurance because it was the cheapest with 2 teen drivers. They are both 1000 miles away at different schools. I had to provide proof through a lease or college bill and both were removed as drivers. I just need to add them back on if they are home and drive more than 30 days.

We saved several hundred, mostly on DS, for 6 months. I had just shopped recently so we had a good price for a 4 driver policy with 2 teens driving a '98 sedan. Now it feels like we are paying next to nothing. Of course, all those savings went straight to books!

 

[tvguy]

When it comes to the insurance world CA itself can be quite different (well as other things too) than other states.

In terms of rates--MI is often the highest.

Yup, California is different because voters passed Proposition 103.
Just look in the fine print of a lot of TV ads for Auto insurance, the ones mentioning "accident forgiveness", "waiving your deductible" etc. Not available and illegal to offer those kind of discounts in California. Thanks voters.