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Dorm renter insurance, worth getting?


Arcadia
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DS18 accepted a dorm room in a 4 bed 2 bath unit while being waitlisted for a single room. We declined the renter insurance offered by the housing company as we aren’t familiar with the insurance company. So my question is whether we should get renters insurance for DS18 through AAA which we have home and auto insurance with, or it would be unnecessary.
Like the worse case scenario of a classmate chatting in his room and injuring himself, or someone activating the sprinklers as a prank and rooms get flooded. What would be the liability?

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We've never had renters insurance for a dorm room.  The worst (realistically) I can see happening is something getting stolen, but then perhaps your homeowners insurance would cover that?  I think if someone were to be injured while in your ds's room, his friend's health insurance would cover that.  

 

 

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47 minutes ago, Selkie said:

Our homeowner's insurance covered our kids while they were in dorms. Once they moved to off campus apartments, we had to get them renter's insurance.

same with us.  We never had to make any claims though.  We were lucky with my youngest since she had two years of pretty extreme weather and many students were dealing with busted pipes and flooding.  

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I think we are getting it, but not through our insurance and not through the school. I'm on a college dorm FB group and there are some stories on there. For the little it would cost each year, we will do it. And...we don't want a claim on our insurance if we don't have to. I have a couple of companies I need to research.

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7 minutes ago, mlktwins said:

I think we are getting it, but not through our insurance and not through the school.

The monthly cost isn’t high but the deductible is high for the one offered through the school. So adding the cost and deductible would be higher than the cost of replacing everything DS18 might bring to his dorm room. It was offered through GradGuard which we have never heard of before. 
 

4 minutes ago, strawberries said:

We're not getting it. We pulled out our home insurance paperwork and it covers college kids in dorms. 

Our home insurance is for a condo so coverage is less and many things fall under the HOA.  We need to check our coverage to make sure. 

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16 minutes ago, mlktwins said:

I think we are getting it, but not through our insurance and not through the school. I'm on a college dorm FB group and there are some stories on there. For the little it would cost each year, we will do it. And...we don't want a claim on our insurance if we don't have to. I have a couple of companies I need to research.

I think for us, the brand new laptops, printers, monitor and keyboard, iPhones, air purifiers and Nintendo Switch (or their PC if they take that) would be expensive to replace. 

Edited by mlktwins
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Just now, Arcadia said:

The monthly cost isn’t high but the deductible is high for the one offered through the school. So adding the cost and deductible would be higher than the cost of replacing everything DS18 might bring to his dorm room. It was offered through GradGuard which we have never heard of before. 
 

Our home insurance is for a condo so coverage is less and many things fall under the HOA.  We need to check our coverage to make sure. 

I will look through my notes in the next couple of days and give you the companies I'm hearing about. The deductible is not super high and others have used them and had good experiences with them. DH is kind of frugal and he is wanting it 🤷‍♀️.

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If anyone is on FB, there is a group called College Dorm Must Haves & Beyond. It is has been super helpful for this newbie college mom (I joined last summer) in figuring out what we need/don't need for their dorms. There is a lot of discussion on insurance.

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On 6/1/2023 at 10:50 AM, mlktwins said:

If anyone is on FB, there is a group called College Dorm Must Haves & Beyond. It is has been super helpful for this newbie college mom (I joined last summer) in figuring out what we need/don't need for their dorms. There is a lot of discussion on insurance.

Yup -- it's a popular topic these days. I have it on my 'things to look at' list. Or rather, 'make my husband a list of phone calls to make' list. 😉

 

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I've come back to say my DH did all the research for this and we are going with Gallagher. It is super inexpensive for what you are getting. We are doing it for both boys.

I've read a lot of posts in various groups about not using homeowner's for this for a couple of reasons. One is because the deductible might be high on a homeowner's policy where you can get low deductibles with a dorm plan. Also, if there is a claim, there's a chance your insurance premiums could go up.

I've also read quite a few posts in various groups of parents who actually used their dorm insurance for various reasons.

Maybe worth a little research...

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1 hour ago, mlktwins said:

I've come back to say my DH did all the research for this and we are going with Gallagher. It is super inexpensive for what you are getting. We are doing it for both boys.

Thanks for posting.  My kid will be taking a tour quality set of golf clubs, and a pretty nice bike. We cannot afford to quickly replace the golf gear. The price from Gallagher's  is very reasonable and will cover the clubs and bike. Thanks again.

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Dd’s uni strongly encourages it and even has several providers listed on their residence life page. 
 

I used mine twice, once in undergrad (bike, food, hiking backpack and other outdoor gear) once just after grad school (computer, jewelry). Worth every penny! 
 

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12 hours ago, mlktwins said:

 

I've come back to say my DH did all the research for this and we are going with Gallagher. It is super inexpensive for what you are getting.

 

I’m not seeing the cost on their website. How much does it cost roughly? 

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