Taking Your College Kid Off the Car Policy Saves Money Right Up Until Thanksgiving

If your kid left for college without a car and you’re still paying full price to insure them, you’re probably overpaying. If you “fixed” that by taking them off the policy, you may have a bigger problem coming on November 26, when they walk in the door and ask for the keys.

There’s a middle option, and the big insurers sell it under nearly the same name: the student away at school discount.

What the insurers actually offer

Here’s how three carriers describe it on their own discount pages.

State Farm says it may apply when a driver is “a student under the age of 25 who moves away to school and only uses the car while at home during school vacations and holidays.”

Travelers says it may apply “if one of your dependents goes to school at least 100 miles away and won’t be driving your cars.”

Amica says it’s for “a full-time student included on your policy who is away at school, without a car.”

Read those again. Every version assumes the student is still on your policy. That’s the point. The insurer prices your kid as a driver who’s rarely behind the wheel, not as a driver who’s gone.

Why dropping them is the wrong move

State Farm’s own guide for college students says they may be covered under the parents’ policy “if you live at the same address as your parents when not at school and do not own your own car or have your own policy.”

Take your student off the policy and you’ve thrown that away to save a few months of premium. Then Thanksgiving happens. Then winter break, which runs for weeks. Your kid borrows the family car for a grocery run, and whether anyone pays after a fender bender now depends on fine print you never read. Our excluded driver breakdown shows how ugly that fine print gets in some states.

Translation: dropping them saves money right up until the one week they actually drive.

Stack the other discount

Away at school isn’t the only discount in play. State Farm says its good student discount can save “up to 25%” and that the savings may last until your teen turns 25. Travelers and Amica both tie theirs to a “B” average, and Amica lists full-time students ages 15 to 25.

Fall grades post in December. If your student made the cut, send the transcript. Your insurer isn’t going to go hunting for proof that you deserve a lower price.

Do this before they come home

Call your insurer this week. Ask whether your student is rated as away at school, and if not, give the school address and confirm the distance meets the company’s rule. While you have them, ask whether the good student discount is on and when it needs a fresh transcript.

Then ask the question that matters most: is my student covered driving our cars when they’re home on break? Get the answer by email. If it’s anything other than yes, fix it before November 26. Not optional.

Get a baseline from our insurance estimator before you call, then compare carriers on our auto insurance hub and our best auto insurance picks.

The detail

Discount names, percentages and eligibility vary by state and by company, and State Farm says so on its own pages. None of the three discount pages gives a percentage for away at school, so the only way to learn your number is to ask for a requote both ways. If your student takes a car to campus, this discount doesn’t fit; State Farm’s advice there is to tell your insurer where your kid goes to school so the policy can be updated for that state’s requirements.

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