Why College Students May Need Renter's Insurance

[RandySF]

College students who are already shopping for laptops, textbooks and other campus gear may want to add something else to their list: renter’s insurance.

The insurance can help pay for personal property that is stolen or damaged by accidents like fires from cooking. It offers liability coverage to help cover medical and legal costs if someone is injured at your place or someone’s belongings are damaged. And some policies pay for a hotel and meals, if a calamity leaves the property unlivable.

Students may not think they have much gear, but replacing clothes, furniture and electronic gadgets adds up. A stolen backpack with a laptop, tablet and textbooks can easily total $3,000, said John Fees, co-founder and managing director with GradGuard, which markets student renter policies.

Students living in dorms may have partial coverage through their parents’ homeowner policies, said Loretta Worters, a spokeswoman for the Insurance Information Institute, an industry group. This “off-premises” coverage, however, is often less than the homeowner policy’s benefit limit — say, 10 percent. If the policy covered belongings up to $100,000, the coverage for the dorm room would be $10,000.


https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/05/your-money/college-students-renters-insurance.html

[WhiskeyGrinder]

1. I'm trying to determine who was the one to pitch this story and I'm guessing it's the GradGuard guy.

[SWBTATTReg]

2. Good point for the students to be aware of. By the time you add costs for clothes,

the laptops and other devices such as cell phones, dishes, and other misc., the cost can spiral upwards!

And the items not at the Mom and Dad's place, do have a limit, like in mine, it's 10% of my overall policy, so for example, if my total goods covered by insurance is 100,000, then 10,000 offsite is covered. So if you have other things stored at a storage facility, the school, etc., only 10,000 is covered (I used this fictious number for example's sake).

Thus, if you need to upgrade, it can be upgraded via your insurance company or the storage facility may offer insurance too, as a relatively low cost, e.g., for $3K, for $4K, or for $5K in assets, it'll cost you $12, $14, or $16 monthly. Probably a little expensive, I didn't check to see what my homeowner's insurance would cost if I bumped it up to cover more outside the home assets stored elsewhere.

[LakeArenal]

3. More importantly: Renters insurance

Most people let alone students in their first apartment don’t know they are responsible for clogged toilets.

If your toilet overflows to any floors below and causes damage, renter is responsible for those damages. Not the apartment building.

This has caused many a shocked tenant who shoves hygiene products and wads of TP down the drain only to find how costly it can be.

The combination of hygiene products being wrapped in a wad of TP them flushed can be a real drain buster.

Our apartment building had 12 floors. An unattended bathroom flood can reach all twelve floors below.