Theft, Teenagers, and Insurance Coverage
No matter where you live or what your lifestyle is like, you are always at risk of falling victim to theft. Sadly, in the world we live in today, it can happen to anyone, anywhere, at any time. Whether you live in the city, or the considerably safer suburbs, it’s important to get the right coverage for all of you most important belongings. Luckily for you, we can help with that! Encharter offers a wide variety of insurance policies to protect all of your most valuable and prized possessions. With the help of our insurance experts, we’re going to answer your basic insurance questions for the following theft scenarios:
- At school
- At the gym
- Your car
At school
When your child heads off to college, you have enough to think about without worrying about theft. You want to make sure that they are being responsible, safe, getting their work done and making friends; the last thing you want to stress about are their valuables getting stolen. While you can’t completely cut out the chance of your son or daughters valuables being stolen, you can definitely take measures to reduce that risk, and protect yourself in case of theft.
One way to protect your belongings against theft is to get insurance. When your child is living away at school, 
your home insurance policy will cover their personal possessions in their dorm room (10% of your overall contents coverage will go with them, if they need more talk to an agent). However, if your child has an apartment off campus, our agents suggest that they get their own renter’s insurance policy for their personal property and liability coverage. If this is the case, this policy would only cover the named insured, which would exclude his or her roommates from the protection. In some cases, you may be able to add a roommate or domestic partner on the policy for coverage. Just ask our agents when you’re getting your policy all squared away; they’d be more than happy to get you the exact coverage you are looking for.
Outside of the dorm room, your child’s valuables will still be covered. For instance, if your child’s laptop was stolen out of one of their class rooms, it would still fall under the protection of your homeowner’s policy or their personal renter’s insurance. However, keep in mind that even if your insurance policy has replacement cost coverage, lap tops and other claims for electronics are usually settled for the replacement cost of a similar model that can be outdated in just months. For this reason, it is difficult to get extra coverage for electronics since they often depreciate very quickly with the rapid changes in technology.
Along these lines, non-electronic valuables such as jewelry should be scheduled. It’s usually best to leave the family heirlooms and other expensive jewelry at home or obtain a specialty process such as jewelry insurance. There are usually a lot of people coming and going throughout the dorm rooms between your roommates and their friends so it’s always better to keep the valuables you do have hidden.
Your child heading off to college is a big transition time for you and your family. Luckily, with all of the changes happening around you, changes to your home insurance do not need to be made when your student heads off to school. However, if your child takes a car to school, you need to inform the auto insurer with the exact address where your car will be parked. Failure to inform an auto insurance carrier of a change in “garaging” may result in the denial of a claim. It’s also a good idea to speak to your child about not allowing other people to drive the car; this opens the whole family up to an additional risk.
At the Gym
You may see countless signs around the gym, especially in the locker room, to secure your valuables in a locker. There are also probably signs that the gym is not liable for lost or stolen items. For this reason, it’s a good idea not to bring any important possessions to the gym. However, you will likely bring your iPhone or iPad to work out with, so let’s talk about insurance coverage with respect to these items.
It’s important to note that there is no extra coverage for electronics such as these on your home insurance policy. Electronics cannot be “scheduled” (as with jewelry) and are subject to a deductible which is usually $500 or even $1000. Not only would they be subject to the policy deductible, but filing for multiple small claims on a home insurance policy can trigger a non-renewal of the policy. When home insurance policies are non-renewed, the replacement coverage is almost always higher sometimes double or triple the current premium. If you really want to make sure you’re fully covered, there may be more comprehensive coverage available from the manufacturer which you should definitely look in to.
If your entire gym bag gets stolen out at the gym, you can file a claim but the items would still be subject to a deductible. Furthermore, an increase in premium upon renewal may be very likely to happen for having filed a claim for what may be a very little amount of claim settlement. The safest bet is to leave your valuables at home and be sure to lock any important possessions you do bring with you in the gym locker room.
Your car
Our agents have answered what happens if your belongings are stolen from your home, your dorm room, the classroom, and the gym, but what would happen if your valuables were taken from your car? Would that fall under your home insurance policy or your auto insurance? Our agents have taken the time to walk us through every aspect of insurance relating to theft and cars.
The damage done to the vehicle itself during the robbery will be covered under the comprehensive coverage
on your auto policy and your deductible will apply. However, your personal property stolen out of the car, including valuables such as cell phones, CDs, or GPS devices are not covered on your auto insurance – unless you have purchased an endorsement on your auto policy adding coverage for your personal effects. These endorsements offer limited coverage for such items. If you travel a lot it may be worth purchasing. Many policies even offer trip interruption coverage and enhanced towing and labor coverage. If you’re interested in such protection, this type of policy should be reviewed carefully with your agent. However, in most cases, personal belongings stolen from your vehicle would be covered on your home insurance policy and that is the company you would file the claim with.
As in our other scenarios, our agents have also provided us with some tips to share with you on ways to limit your risk of theft. With respect to theft and your car, always park in a well-lit area to limit the chance of a burglar targeting your car. Make sure you lock your car – even in your driveway at home. Even if your car is locked, never leave valuable items in plain sight in your car; lock them in your trunk. Don’t entice a robber to break your window because then you will have to deal with your lost possession and replacing your window! Even change in the cup holder might tempt a petty theft. Another tip that most people don’t consider when using a valet service is to give them the valet key not your whole key chain that may put at risk your home and office keys. Along these lines, make sure that you don’t have important documents lying around in your car as this can put you at risk for identity theft which is a whole other form of theft that you want to avoid.
It’s important to take all of these precautionary measures to limit the risk of becoming a victim of theft. It’s also worth contacting your Encharter agent to discuss your insurance policies. Make sure your policies are up to date and that all of your most important valuables would be protected if they were to be stolen. For any other questions about the above sections or a scenario we didn’t touch on, give our agents a call at 888-865-1244. Our agents would love to answer any questions you may have, get you awesome coverage on your important possessions, and save you money along the way.
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