Do College Students Need Insurance?
When a college student moves into their dorm room, they add their own personal touch to make it their home for the school year. Like a home, unfortunate incidents can occur such as theft, or damage to the room. College students will be responsible for any damage to their room, and stolen items cost money to be replaced. If you’re wondering if college students need insurance, the answer is there are actually two types of insurance college students need.
Insurance To Cover Room Damage
The first type of insurance every college student needs is a policy that will cover the actual dormitory room. Students do not own the room or the building, but if they are at fault for any kind of damage (for example, from a fire) they will be responsible for the cost to repair it. Your current homeowner’s or renter’s insurance may already cover your student’s dorm room, but if it does not you’ll want to discuss with your insurance agent how to protect yourself from a potential large dormitory repair bill.
Personal Articles Policy
Your current homeowner’s or renter’s policy may only cover the structure of the dorm room and not your student’s possessions. Many students take expensive items with them to college including televisions, stereos, and computers so it makes sense to have them protected against damage or theft with a personal articles policy. A personal articles policy only costs a few dollars a month to protect several thousand dollars of possessions. You will likely have to provide the insurance company the serial numbers of the possessions you want to be covered.
College is an exciting time for students, but just a single unfortunate incident could ruin his or her experience as well as add a hefty bill on top of the already skyrocketing price of a college degree. If you have a college student and were wondering if college students need insurance, you’ll be able to send them off to school with peace of mind by ensuring they are covered in the event of an unfortunate incident.
How about you, Clever Friends, have you checked into your college student’s insurance coverage before sending them off to school?
Brock is a software engineer by day and personal finance blogger at night. He is a fitness junkie and enjoys grilling and smoking meat. Married with two children, Brock strives to improve his skills as a husband and father, and is always on the lookout to stretch his family’s budget as far as he can.
I didn’t. I also didn’t send expensive stuff with her. She had a $300 computer and a bunch of personal stuff. I never thought about her losing more than her damage deposit, and frankly I consider those gone when I make them. Yes, it could have been expensive if a fire in her dorm destroyed all her stuff, but the chances of that happening compare to the cost of the extra insurance didn’t justify the cost. Insurance is for things you can’t afford to have happen. I could afford to get her back on her feet if everythign in her dorm room was destroyed.