College kids and cars

[peggyfromwastate]

Dd19 is finishing freshman year. She lives across the ocean from us, but she's our dependent. She doesn't drive, but the car she used in high school is parked at my parents' house. She needs to use it for her summer job, so we will need to deactivate the insurance. It has a separate policy, since it's not parked at our house or even in our state. We basically canceled insurance bc it's just sitting there right now.

My question is this summer should we have dd19 open an insurance policy on her own? Or tack it to ours? She does have a job, and she's working this summer, but she makes almost nothing really on the grand scheme of things. She uses her money now to pay for food, clothes, entertainment... Doesn't pay her bills as far as cell phone, car insurance, college tuition...

She's willing to pay, but I don't think she realizes how much it costs. Then again she wants to bring her car to school in the fall and she has no compelling reason to have it (she says she needs it so that they can go on hikes farther away from campus and the other kid who has a car doesn't like to hike. Yes, this is her reason for "needing" a car. We are unimpressed....).

So should I have her open her own insurance plan now? WWYD? What do you do?

[Pollyanna]

I don't know, I was just going to contact our agent about this. Last I checked it was prohibitively expensive as a separate policy.

[civilspouse]

Can you look into costs for both options? My guess is it would be cheaper to have her on your policy but then maybe she could pay you. I never lived on campus and always had a car but I also worked during the school year. DH lived on campus freshman year and was miserable. He has always said it might have been better if he'd had a car and could have explored more easily. He felt trapped on campus.


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[mommax3]

I only have boys, but I am pretty sure it would be much cheaper to keep her in your policy and have her pay what it costs.

[Ladybug]

She could pay half the amount to you each month. Her first monthly bill

[Meenah]

As soon as I could I put the cars in their names and got them their own insurance policy. I didn't want to be responsible for anything they or their friends did in or with the cars (they were not allowed to lend their cars but I'm sure they did). Of course this was 10 years ago so I don't remember any of the details.

[peggyfromwastate]

I think I may start with gifting her with her cell phone bill the next time the contract is up. As far as the car... Her college town is super small and acing a car means everyone asks you for rides. And then you have to pay gas, and everything. I think it's a big hassle and she would regret it. I don't know. She has an on campus job now.

But that's a good point about the insurance stand alone policy. For us it only adds about $250 a year, so we could probably bill her that. I guess.

[MrsSz]

Small college town + the only one with a car = trouble

I think it will be more of a pain than it is worth for her. Everyone asking for rides, trying to figure out how to say no without anyone getting mad at you.. ugh.. flash back to college for me! I wasn't even in a small college town! I wish I wouldn't have had it, but at the time I would NEVER have admitted that to my parents or anyone for that matter, but I'm entirely too stubborn as a general rule. Eventually I parked so far away that no one even wanted to go get it for a ride.

[JDAZ11]

I was just talking with someone whose daughter is a college freshman out of state and thy bought her a car there (not an easily drivable distance, though not impossible). Anyway, they had to get a separate policy. I don't understand why, and they are paying $350/month for the insurance. It is a city, so I'm sure that doesn't help the price. But GAH!!! That totally freaked me out.


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[peggyfromwastate]

Yikes!

[Meenah]

It will definitely cost a lot more for them to own the car and have their own policy. I was willing to pay the price for the security of not having another student's family sue me and take my home for something the college kids might choose to do. I suppose the laws / rules are different in every state.

[peggyfromwastate]

Good point L... Ugh. Grown up kids are so much work!!