Auto insurance - carry cadet on my policy or get a non-owner auto policy

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NewCadetMommy

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My DD (AROTC, started during the summer for a language program) is in school two hours away from home without a car, she will only be home feasibly during Thanksgiving and Christmas break. She is planning to study abroad next summer and will likely have to be abroad every summer except for her Junior/Senior year for Advance Camp which is in Fort Knox. Any parent have this situation?
 
It is BEST to carry a non-owner policy in the rare case that your cadet is given permission to drive someone's vehicle and THAT car has no insurance (or it has lapsed).

That said, you could also in most cases (check with your carrier) remove your cadet from your policy and treat him/her as a permissive user on your own policy when at home driving your car. This usually works as long as he is not a resident in your home (away at college).
 
AROTC-dad said:
It is BEST to carry a non-owner policy in the rare case that your cadet is given permission to drive someone's vehicle and THAT car has no insurance (or it has lapsed).

That said, you could also in most cases (check with your carrier) remove your cadet from your policy and treat him/her as a permissive user on your own policy when at home driving your car. This usually works as long as he is not a resident in your home (away at college).
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The coverage above is usually known as DOC or drive other car. It's a coverage that's available to business owners who have all of their vehicles insured on their business policies and have no personnal vehicles insured. In the event the vehicles owner has no insurance the DOC policy will cover the liability only, not the physical damage. This may or may not be available from your carrier or available in your state. My advice is to contact your current carrier and ask for them to put you child on as a permissive driver. Since no vehicle is assigned to them them the premium should be very minimal or possibly none at all.
 
Hello All,

I need to revisit this issue. My insurer is giving me an all or nothing type of ultimatum - prove my daughter doesn't live at home, exclude her or carry her on my insurance. I am currently insured through Allstate - they want to skip over the permissive driver option altogether. Has anyone has success setting this up with their insurance company, if so, which ones. My premiums is doubled with her on it which doesn't make sense given that she is expected to be home for about 6 weeks over the next year.
 
We were / are being required to keep our cadet as a full driver while he is at school even though he has no car. It was also all or nothing. So,all it is
 
We have USAA. I don't know if she is eligible yet with USAA. USAA has a program where they are covered as a part time driver if their school is more than 70 miles away. They also give a deduction if their gpa is 3.0 (?) I am not sure of the gpa because my kids were merit and were required to carry a 3.2 at all times. You need to send a copy of their transcript every semester for the deduction.
 
I would suggest you contact a local independent broker to search for a company that will work with you. Also contact USAA and Geico directly. The following carriers may work with you but you can access them through the independent agent system. Auto Owners, Central Mutual, Hartford, Travelers, and Chubb.
 
Progressive Insurance also allowed my cadet to be off the family policy while away at school and was okay with him returning home on breaks to become a "permissive driver."

IMHO, Allstate is trying to reduce the number of young drivers from their book of business.
 
Agree that Allstate may have business reasons for what they are doing but the end result is they are basically encouraging you to shop around. If available in your area I know American Family offers a "Time Away" discount for college students that in our case brought the premiums back down to almost what they would be without a youthful driver on our policy. Other carriers have similar discounts or may handle it as a permissive user situation. Also agree with the independent agent suggestion as they can shop multiple companies for you.
 
I suggest you shop around as there are MANY auto insurance choices nowadays. If the current one doesn't want your business, you can certainly find another.
 
Thanks all for the information. The agent I was speaking to put me in touch with her superior and the company finally conceded via email but I think I will be shopping around for a new plan. I will make sure my daughter knows to sign up for USAA when it is offered to her.
 
We have USAA. DS lives on campus with no car, but because his college is only 30 miles from home, we are required to keep him on our policy. My friend uses a different insurance company (I don't know which one) and she would simply call her agent when he was home to add him temporarily to the policy. Her son lived on a campus only 10 miles from home.
 
We have all of our insurance through USAA. I called them yesterday about what to do about my son and car insurance. We are in California, he is going to Texas. I am pretty disappointed that their "away at college" or something like that discount (for students more than 100 miles away) amounted to a full $40 every 6 months. Seems kind of rotten and I was surprised.
 
bringbacknelsoncruz said:
We have all of our insurance through USAA. I called them yesterday about what to do about my son and car insurance. We are in California, he is going to Texas. I am pretty disappointed that their "away at college" or something like that discount (for students more than 100 miles away) amounted to a full $40 every 6 months. Seems kind of rotten and I was surprised.
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Not to defend an insurance company, but I'm sure the underwriters have calculated correctly. No, he won't be driving daily - but that is a two-edged sword. He also won't be practicing driving daily. If he drives at school at all,(and I've heard ROTC kids are sometimes asked or volunteer to be the designated driver), he'll also be on unfamiliar roads with company in a car he's not familiar with. Will he know where the windshield wipers are? My guess is the accident rate is pretty high in that cohort.
 
I have two kids in college. One is studying in Indiana (we live in Ca) and has a car. He has insurance on that car. My other son is in Boston and has no car.

I take both kids off my policy when they are in school . When they come back for the summer or Christmas, I put them back on the policy and remove them when they leave. I should ask but i have never done so, but I think that I could avoid putting the older on the policy as he has his own policy on his own car. I rather be safe then sorry and have on the policy while he is home. Also the older one had a prefect record while the second one has two points on his records Based on previous conversation with my insurance broker, the rate is the same if I have both kids or not on the policy as its the younger one with the two points that kills my rates. I know there are insurance companies where they are setup for college kids who live away . They remain on the policy but as a super part time driver as they know they dont have their own car and the only time they could drive a car would be when they come home or if they borrow a car.
 
We have USAA and called them to explain the one son was off at college and not really driving anymore. I forget the term they used but they adjusted our policy and the premium went down. I would suggest you call the insurance company and get their advice. Also the 3.0 gap USAA requires for a discount was only applied to our high school kids. And they took our word for it over the phone. Plus they've never followed up to make sure the kids were still over a 3.0.
 
I have Allstate. They are removing her and will put back on during Christmas. Was no problem at all.
 
bringbacknelsoncruz said:
We have all of our insurance through USAA. I called them yesterday about what to do about my son and car insurance. We are in California, he is going to Texas. I am pretty disappointed that their "away at college" or something like that discount (for students more than 100 miles away) amounted to a full $40 every 6 months. Seems kind of rotten and I was surprised.
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I also have USAA and they told me I could list DD as "non-operator" since she will be away with no car and it cuts over $400 off my insurance every 6 months. They said it keeps her on policy but not attached as operator to a vehicle so she won't show lapse in coverage when time to get her own policy. I am not sure if the difference is her being a sponsored cadet at civil prep or if just a different agent who knew more about programs.
 
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