Your child is making the move to college, and, along with all the dorm and apartment decorations and planning, you have to consider whether your current insurance plans will cover your student while they’re away.

Coverage can vary widely based on companies and plans, but here’s a break down of things to keep in your mind.

• Rental insurance – Many landlords and apartment complexes require renters to obtain renters insurance, which is beneficial to both the renter and the landlord. Parents may be able to extend their renters or homeowners policy to cover the student’s new apartment, but, if not, renters insurance is easy to come by through any insurance agency. Renters insurance typically covers fire or smoke, lightning, vandalism, theft, explosion, windstorm and water damage, but not flooding. Additionally, like homeowners insurance, rental insurance also covers your responsibility to others injured at your home or elsewhere by you, a family member or pet, according to Insurance Information Institute.
• Health insurance – Full-time students are generally covered under their parent’s insurance plans, if not, colleges offer student health insurance plans for enrolled individuals. Selecting a health insurance plan may be challenging, but consider your personal doctor and health needs like frequency of office visits, prescriptions and urgent care needs. Additionally, under the recently passed Affordable Care Act, young adults under the age of 26 can now be insured as a dependent under their parent’s insurance plan regardless of school or employment status.
• Automobile insurance – If a student is covered by his parent’s insurance, the policy usually extends to the at-school student. Insurance companies typically offer good-student discounts to students who maintain a high grade-point average, and coverage is usually cheaper if it is filed under the parent, as insuring individuals under 25 is considered higher risk.

Other things to take into consideration include differences in state insurance laws, insurance minimums required by law and whether your current coverage will cover all of your liabilities and/or belongings in case of an unfortunate event. Additionally, many insurance companies offer discounts and savings by bundling products like renters and auto insurance, which can lead to greater savings for you and your student.

Allconnect can assist with your move to a new home, by offering free mover quotes, an online change of address form, and help transferring your essential home services.  You can also compare services available at your new address to make sure you are getting the best deal.  See tips to help you during your move.

Read up on Saving Money on Utilities for more information on how you can use Google PowerMeter to keep an eye on your home electricity usage, and then check out Allconnect to help save money on your monthly bills by using their Home Services Advisor tool.

For natural gas, water and electric utilities, check the website of the provider at your new address for an online bill estimator or tier calculator. Companies call them different things.

If you can’t find an online calculator, see if the rates are posted online.  You’ll be able to estimate the cost yourself by multiplying the posted rates by your current usage.  You should be able to determine if the cost will be higher or lower, considering the size of the property along with the weather. Calling the new utility company and asking what you should expect to pay at the address you’re considering will provide the most complete information.

If you use an online estimator, the information you’ll need to provide will vary. For example, after you choose a rate plan, enter your typical usage (made even more accurate if you can use actual numbers from your current bill) and select the month. The Scana Energy online bill estimator projects the cost. PG&E’s tier calculator estimates your electric bill after you enter your location, the time of year and the number of kilowatt hours you typically use. Duke Energy provides a chart to use as a starting point for comparing different fuels and heating systems by combining the size of your house, its age and estimated air leakage. The City of Austin allows you to estimate your water bill through a chart that shows the different charges based on quantity and time of day.

After you review projected utility expenses, you can easily compare other home service plans at your new address – or address you’re considering – at Allconnect.com. After entering a specific address, plans and pricing for satellite TV, cable TV, Internet, and phone can be evaluated. The site’s home services price comparison chart provides averages for major metropolitan areas as well.

We don’t know who came up with it or when, but apparently April 7 is National No Housework Day. While we may have missed the “official” holiday, instead of waiting almost an entire year for the next one, declare your own No Housework Day.

So here’s your checklist for the day:
✓ No washing dirty dishes
✓ No folding clothes
✓ No making the beds
✓ No paying the bills
✓ No picking up toys

Isn’t that a fun list? (Hang in there, in 2012, National No Housework Day falls on Saturday, April 7. Yes, Saturday, when it really counts to take a vacation from housework! Next year’s list will include no mopping, no dusting and definitely no scrubbing toilets.)

What are you going to do with your new-found, self-declared holiday? Watch the latest HDTV movie, catch up on all your favorite blogs, call your mom?

Allconnect could help you compare bundles so you could save money on your television, Internet and phone service. But that is too much like housework. So why don’t you read a book or take a nap today? Come back tomorrow to compare television, internet and phone bundles!

Your landline phone may also become a thing of the past as there are options for Internet access without a phone line: satellite and cable TV, wireless, and ‘standalone or dry loop DSL’ otherwise known as ‘naked DSL.’

If you decide to say goodbye to your landline forever, read the FCC tips when you call 911 from a wireless phone.

• A new plan becomes a Top Recommendation based on your criteria
• A new provider enters your market in any category
• One month prior to the day of contract expiration (date provided by you)

For example, let’s say you have a contract with a cable company that ends in March. If you’ve provided information about the channels you prefer, Allconnect will notify you if the company who offers those channels has a promotional plan coming up in the spring. Note that Allconnect’s recommendations take into account early termination penalties.

The more information you provide about your home service providers’ status and needs, the more helpful the email alerts will be. And, you can trust that Allconnect will not share any personally identifiable information to a third party without your consent. You can also easily opt out of the email alerts at any time.

Like the pricing and plans available at Allconnect, the Home Service Price Comparison data is updated frequently to reflect what consumers are paying now. To provide this proprietary information, Allconnect analyzes millions of customer transactions to determine the consumer spending averages by category. The calculations are based on actual consumer transactions across all service plans − no estimates are used.

To calculate the averages, Allconnect starts with the base monthly pricing and then adds in charges for additional services, such as HD/DVR service, modem rentals, and call waiting. Product categories also include the available options, such as:  Internet includes DSL, cable broadband, fiber, and 4G speeds; TV includes satellite, cable, and fiber plans.

If you’re paying more than what your neighbors are paying, you may want to explore another plan or provider, or see if there are energy-saving or cost-saving measures you can take. As a one-stop resource, Allconnect.com easily shows you all the plans, providers, and promotions available at your address for such essential home services as high speed Internet, phone, cable TV, satellite TV, and home security systems.