First Year Student Living In Halls?
Students studying away from home may not be covered under their parent's home insurance policy. Though home insurers may cover family members both at home and temporarily away from home, the cover is often void if the student is living away; and the student, whether living in college halls, private rented accommodation or sharing a room with other students, may find that they are not actually insured. Cover4students.com estimate that the items that students carry around with them on a regular basis add up to an average of €2,000. With the addition of other contents and possessions, often amounting to in excess of a few thousand more, this presents a clear need for the student or their parents to ensure that the right cover is in place.
Michael Masterson, at Cover4Students, suggests contacting your home insurance provider: ‘I would urge parents to check the full details of their home policies. The few home insurers that do cover students will only cover students in halls and will have exclusions which may not fit in with the lifestyle of the student. While there’s no need to take out student insurance if the right cover is already in place, cover4students and other specialist providers can offer benefits that pay off in the long run.
With average tuition fees of between 5,000-10,000 EUR/year and cuts to maintenance grants, neither students nor parents need the added financial pressure of having to replace stolen items. The fact is students are at a much higher risk of needing to make a claim, as thieves target students and as many as 1 in 3 will be the victim of crime during their time at college. Those moving away from home for the first time into cities like Dublin, Cork, Limerick or Galway are the most vulnerable. While home policies can have high excess to pay in the event of a claim, which can be as high as €350 depending on the claim, our specialist student possessions policies have a standard excess of €50.
Also, as a student is more prone to make a claim, keeping them on the home insurance is likely to affect any no claims bonus and push up the cost of parents’ policies.
There are a number of precautions that students can take to protect themselves. Both the Crime Prevention section at www.garda.ie and the cover4students Student Help Centre provide useful tips on staying safe. However, no matter how careful or how streetwise a student is, they are still at risk; the smartest precaution a student can take is to ensure they have adequate insurance.
Make sure you have cover for your gadgets and possessions. If you take your laptop, ipad, iPod, bike or other items around with you quite a lot, whether to college, university or about town, you need to make sure you’re covered if they’re stolen or if you accidentally damage them. With our Student Insurance you can cover all of your items on the same policy with benefits of things like personal accident cover, rental protection etc.