Cheaper insurance when college starts.

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Author: Henry, EdNelson, Scott Bernard

Parents looking ahead to their first college-tuition payments for this crop of high school grads can take some solace from the fact that their car-insurance bills may drop substantially. If your son or daughter's college is at least 150 miles from home, the family's car insurance bill could drop by as much as one-third.

And even if your child is taking a car with him or her, the bill could be a lot lower. Christina Feile is still smiling about how much cheaper it is to drive her car in Ithaca, N.Y., than back home in Freeport, on Long Island.

The Cornell University student drives a 1991 Chevy Corsica, and the cost of insuring it in a sleepy college town is $1,220 per year 45% less than when the car was based at her parents' home.

With careful planning and a little luck, you too can save money on your children's insurance when they go off to college. The trick, says Dick Hospital, assistant vice-president of' underwriting at Geico Insurance, is " putting them in a safe car and picking a college town that's rated lower than your home town."

Vehicles such as the Buick LeSabre Chrysler Concorde, Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme and Volvo 850 tend to he the safest and cost less to ensure than smaller cars, such as the Ford Escort, Geo Prizm and Volkswagen Jetta.

Moving from a small town to a big city will naturally increase your rates. "But someone who moves to a smaller city or town Would probably see a rate decrease," says an under ' writer with a large insurance firm.

Assume a Long Island family has two young drivers (a boy and a girl and three cars insured on a family policy. They might pay $3,700 every six months for solid coverage. About $1,400 of that would be attributable to the young female driver as principal driver of one car. If she takes the car to Ithaca, her premium would drop by almost two-thirds, to $463.

If the college student were the son rather than the daughter, the family's Long Island premium would be $4,836, with more than $2,500 attributable to the young man. He'd pay only $845 in Ithaca.

"You should contact your insurance company before your student heads off to college to ask how the change of location will affect your rates and whether the individual qualifies for a good-student discount," says Frederick Tolland, director of underwriting for Liberty Mutual Group.

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Reported by Scott Bernard Nelson