Car insurance?

lizzienelson

5-Year Member
Joined
May 15, 2010
Messages
15
Does anyone have any information on how to get something from USAFA saying that are student is in good standing there? We need something for the Good Student discount, although it wont be the same high grades that were in high school. I hope they will accept it. We want to keep him on our insurance so that he will not be considered "high risk" when he gets his own car and insurance his junior year.

thanks
Liz
 
Once I notified our insurance agency that I wil be at college and only home for a few weeks per year, the agency put me on a completely different plan (which cut the cost dramatically, but I still stay on my parents plan). I don't think they will they will give himfurther discount for his grades while he is at usafa. I would talk to your insurance agent, my agent was very helpful when I talked to him.
 
Thanks-I actually have spoken with them They need some type of document that says he is in good standing at the academy, and that should be enough to qualify for the good student discount. We had my son on the policy only when he came home. However, we are a year out from him getting a car, so we need him back on full time, so that when he gets insurance on his own, he will not be high risk.
 
You can get a certificate of enrollment and a transcript from the Registrar's office. Go to the USAFA home page ( http://www.usafa.af.mil/ ) and click on the "Dean" header and then transcript request is one of the choices. Your cadet will have to give them permission to release it to you.

I have mentioned this in other threads, but I will say it again. A much cheaper option is to keep your cadet off of your insurance, and get them a non-owner policy from USAA. It is cheap (less than $100/yr) and covers your cadet no matter what vehicle that they are driving as a non-owner. Then, when it is time to have a car out at the Academy, they can convert their non-owner policy to a full auto policy with USAA. There is no "high risk" rate penalty like there would be if they had been uninsured beforehand. USAA has by far the cheapest rates for auto insurance once your cadet has their own vehicle and must insure it out in Colorado Springs.

Stealth_81
 
I completely agree with Stealth and Gasdoc. However, my son's USAA policy costs about $200 each six months. At our suggestion, he got higher than the base coverage because he does alot of borrrowing and driving during ski season.
 
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Would they be covered when they come home and drive our vehicles?



QUOTE=Stealth_81;116760]You can get a certificate of enrollment and a transcript from the Registrar's office. Go to the USAFA home page ( http://www.usafa.af.mil/ ) and click on the "Dean" header and then transcript request is one of the choices. Your cadet will have to give them permission to release it to you.

I have mentioned this in other threads, but I will say it again. A much cheaper option is to keep your cadet off of your insurance, and get them a non-owner policy from USAA. It is cheap (less than $100/yr) and covers your cadet no matter what vehicle that they are driving as a non-owner. Then, when it is time to have a car out at the Academy, they can convert their non-owner policy to a full auto policy with USAA. There is no "high risk" rate penalty like there would be if they had been uninsured beforehand. USAA has by far the cheapest rates for auto insurance once your cadet has their own vehicle and must insure it out in Colorado Springs.

Stealth_81[/QUOTE]
 
Our son is not listed on our automobile policy but he is covered anytime he drives our vehicles when he is home according to our insurance agent.

Additionally, recently "for fun" he found out what his 2009 truck will cost to insure through USAA on a policy for himself. It was about twice what we pay for his truck but we have had the same insurance company for 28 years without any accidents and insure 4 vehicles. So, I thought it was a very reasonable quote.
 
I believe, from talking to USAA, that the non-owner coverage they offer is liability only. That is coverage only for the car your cadet might collide with. Liability coverage is coverage that the cadet that owns the car should have anyway if he is following the minimum required liability coverage laws in Colorado. From my conversations with our insurance agent and USAA, there is no coverage available to cover damages to the car he is borrowing.

The reason I have asked so many questions is our C4C had an accident in a borrowed car in bad Colorado road conditions. The cadet that owned the car had insurance. Our cadet paid the deductible for the cadet owner's insurance and paid for the cost for the cadet owner to have a rent car for a week. Even if we had left our cadet on our insurance, our agent said it would not cover the car he had borrowed.

Personally, I hate that they can borrow cars. I have offered to pay for a rent car many times but he has never taken us up on the offer.

It was an expensive lesson he learned about Colorado roads. We were just lucky that it was only property damage and no one was hurt and no other cars involved or I guess I would have learned even more about insurance than I want to know.

He is covered when he comes home from breaks to drive our cars. The same as if I let anyone else use our cars.
 
My insurance agent said that while he's home the few weeks a year, he is covered on my vehicles as long as he has permission to drive it. The agent explained that, "cars are covered, not people." Meaning that if someone lets him borrow their car, he will be covered at whatever coverage the policy holder has on the vehicle...as long as they have permission to be driving the vehicle (and have a valid driver's license).
I do like the sound of the non-owner USAA policy though.
 
My insurance agent said that while he's home the few weeks a year, he is covered on my vehicles as long as he has permission to drive it. The agent explained that, "cars are covered, not people." Meaning that if someone lets him borrow their car, he will be covered at whatever coverage the policy holder has on the vehicle...as long as they have permission to be driving the vehicle (and have a valid driver's license).

That's correct. If you loan you car to anyone, as long as they have your permission to drive it, they (and you) are covered.

Take your kid completely off your policy when they leave for the Academy and save a LOT of money. They (and you) will be covered whenever they return on liberty or leave.
 
That's correct. If you loan you car to anyone, as long as they have your permission to drive it, they (and you) are covered.

.

As long as the car you borrow has insurance (something every C4C or C3C should ask first of all but I doubt they do).
 
Spoke with usaa this morning and they recommended that I keep ds on our policy as a student attending school without vehicle.
She did not recommend the "non-owner" policy.:confused:

So, should we just take him off completely when he goes to school(and he will be covered when he comes home for Christmas because we give him permission to drive the car)
or
should we continue to carry him on our policy as the nice lady said.
 
There is no reason to keep your cadet on your policy that I have found.

I have found however that some companies, State Farm for one, will fight you and try to insist that they stay on to be covered. This would normally be true for a child going away to college. However, it is not true when going to a service academy.

so take your child off your policy and save the money. They will be covered when they come home. If your insurance company argues about it, stick to your guns and tell them to check with their underwriter. Your child is active duty military and no longer a dependent once they go to USAFA.

As to the USAA non-owers policy. We looked into that after reading about it on a forum a couple years ago. It was not cheap, I found it to be quite a bit high for the coverage it offered. Now that my S has his car, he does have coverage through USAA and I don't think he could get it less expensive anywhere else. USAA really is the best deal for these cadets on so many different products.

Most if not all cars the cadets borrow should be insured. Cadets have to provide proof of insurance to get a parking permit and they are subject to providing proof of insurance at the gate every time they drive onto the base. If they don't have insurance, that will mean they would have to lie and say they did. Hardly worth the risk. Of course, if I am wrong, please correct me but that is my understanding.
 
There is no reason to keep your cadet on your policy that I have found.

I have found however that some companies, State Farm for one, will fight you and try to insist that they stay on to be covered.

I wouldn't attribute your experience with your agent as a policy of State Farm. Our experience with our State Farm agent was much different.

Your agent "fought" you on it, not State Farm.

In fact, it was our State Farm agent who recommended we remove our cadet from our policy, assuring us that the car insurance was valid no matter who was driving the vehicle, as long as they had our permission to drive it.

Whenever he is home on leave/liberty, the insurance is valid no matter which of our vehicles he is driving.

:cool:
 
Thanks, Bandit, for posting the information about cadets having to show proof of insurance to get a parking permit. I was confident that most were covered as they should be, and that makes me feel much better. However, they probably only have to have liability insurance because that is all the state mandates. Some people choose not to carry coverage that repairs their own car because of the age of the car and the cost associated with it.

We all know it doesn't take much damage to generate high repair bills. In our son's case, the car he borrowed had almost 200,000 miles on it, so the insurance company totalled it. However, if the cadet had not had insurance, we would have been buying the cadet a replacement car. That is huge when you think about the cost of borrowing a car vs. getting a rent car. However, the rent cars take planning in advance (reserve on a Thursday for the weekend) and lots of time C4Cs don't have much idea about what time they have available until shortly before.

By the way, our C4C had never had an accident before he had the one in the borrowed cadet's car.
 
Your agent "fought" you on it, not State Farm.

Actually, no it was not my "State Farm" agent who fought me on it. It was the State Farm underwriter who tried to insist that he was "just going away to college" and therefore needed to remain on the policy as an occassional driver to be covered.

Oh and if it was my "State Farm" agent who fought me. Since he is State Farm, I wouldn't make a distinction since that is who he works for afterall.

once removed from the policy. Then he is covered just like everyone else who I give permission to drive the cars.
 
Actually, no it was not my "State Farm" agent who fought me on it. It was the State Farm underwriter who tried to insist that he was "just going away to college" and therefore needed to remain on the policy as an occassional driver to be covered.

Underwriter ignorance does not a company policy make. :wink:

It is not a State Farm company policy to "fight" their customers over vehicle insurance coverage for cadets/mids who are home on leave/liberty. State Farm allows you drop the cadet/mid from your policy, and the cadet/mid will be covered on the policy as long as they have your permission to operate the vehicle (the same as anyone else who drives the vehicle with your permission).

Our State Farm agent took the initiative, actually called us to suggest we remove our cadet as a cost-savings suggestion.
 
Rental Cars and Age

It's my understanding that the age requirement to rent a car is 23+ with rental car companies. ( Or some age higher than most C4C's...or even C1C's for that matter.) Perhaps my information is out of date.
 
It's my understanding that the age requirement to rent a car is 23+ with rental car companies. ( Or some age higher than most C4C's...or even C1C's for that matter.) Perhaps my information is out of date.

If the cadet is a USAA member, they have a program with Hertz & Avis, maybe some other companies too that will allow them to rent a car without having to pay the underage penalty.

Also, I believe that Enterprise has a program in place for the cadets there as well to allow them to rent a car as early as 18.
 
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