As long as your kid stays with you, he or she is covered more or less by your own insurance, whether it is for health, home, or your car. The moment your child gets ready to stay away from you to go to college, you need to start thinking about buying economical insurance for students. As your kid would most probably start living in a different state, the particular state’s insurance laws might be different.

The protection offered by your insurance needs to be then replicated in a different set of policies for your kid, so that big expenses can be taken care of when they occur. If that is not done, you are likely to pay higher premiums on your own policies or get shortchanged by the fine print when you actually need to raise a claim on your existing policy.

Let us look at three kinds of policies that you might need to take for your college going kid.

• Health insurance
  Depending on the state you live in, a dependent kid of 24 – 26 years of age might still be covered under your existing policy. However, if your child is older than that, then the family floater health insurance policy might not work anymore. Depending on the state your child is staying in, the premium might vary a little. The coverage would usually include the college infirmary costs and a few hospitals in the college vicinity. Please check the insurance rules for the particular state where your child is staying in because different states have different rules regarding the definition of pre-existing diseases. Each state also treats insurer liability differently, in view of the central care policy.
• Car insurance
  Some children do not drive cars when they are in college, but only do so when they are back home with their parents. In this scenario, do not waste your money taking a separate student car insurance. If your kid will drive a separate vehicle, only then a policy is needed. Some insurers reduce the premium on auto insurance for new drivers ,  which include kids with better grades, and you need to check for such offers so that you can get the best affordable car insurance. You also need to check the relation of the new policy’s premium with the number of prior claims that had been made on your own car insurance policy while your child was still staying with you.
• Home insurance
  Check with the insurer about the different policies for insuring your kid’s belongings when left at home and when kept in the hostel dorm. It is prudent to have a policy only if there are costlier appliances or gadgets in the dorm room. You need to remember that if your kid is sharing a room with another student, then he/she would need separate policies for his/her own stuff.

Do make a note of these three insurance policies that you would need to provide for, aside from the tuition and hostel fees, when your kid goes away to college.