When your child goes to college, many things will have to change. For instance, if the school is within your local community and he continues to live at home, not many changes will occur except that he will be enjoying a much lower rate considering that he is legally an adult now.
But what if you are sending him to a university or college that is 100 miles away from home? Would things change, as far auto insurance is concern? Apparently, there are things that your child can control with, such as avoiding traffic violations and citations, while there are those that will simply have to deal with.
Understanding the Real Issues
What most parents do is they take out the child’s name under their policy, and acquire a new one for him if he decides to take the vehicle with him. The problem begins when the school is located in a high-risk region or in a major metropolitan center where vandalism, traffic and theft are more common. Eventually, you (as the parent) will end up paying high insurance rates because of those factors alone. However, there are times that your insurance provider may advise you to retain your child under your policy, if the vehicle remains in the campus for thirty consecutive days. In this case, you may want to ask your insurance provider if they offer multi-car discounts for loyal customers and those with good driving records.
If your child decides not to take the vehicle to school, you could request your insurance provider to change the status of your child into “restricted.” There is no point of paying for a full-time auto insurance coverage because he is not driving the vehicle most of the time. Restricted means your child can still enjoy driving (and still being protected) when he visits home during school breaks. Doing so will save you hundreds of dollars in premium rates.
Most insurance providers extend discounts for students who have good grades. Discounts do not have to end after high school; most of them, in fact, are giving college students special discount prices if they keep an average of 3.0. Just to be sure, ask your insurance provider if they offer such rates. If not, maybe it is about time to look for a new one. If you have two or three children going to college, think of how much you can save if your provider offers such scheme.
Always remind your child of how important it is to keep his driving records clean and grades all-time high. These two factors must be observed all the time, and will entirely depend of how your child is viewing them as part of his responsibility. You cannot be with your child forever, and the least you can do is to remind him regularly. The good thing about insurance is that when a driver gets older, the premium rates go down in reverse. Statistically, premium rates will start to drop at the age of 25, but still would largely depend on several factors.
