Parents urged to get children's finances in order ahead of university

With thousands of parents packing their children off to university, Confused.com – UK price comparison service - offers some important tips on how to save money by getting the best deals before they go:

Car insurance

If your son or daughter is insured on your car as a named driver, but is in fact the primary or main driver and will be taking the car to university with them, this could be deemed as ‘fronting' and considered to be fraud by your insurance company. Fronting is a deliberate attempt to obtain insurance using false information, by hiding/ changing the true user and risk information, in order to obtain a cheaper insurance premium. It is important to ensure that you amend the details of your insurance policy to reflect the true use of the vehicle, in order to avoid any problems should you need to claim.

Student home insurance

Many insurers specialise in insurance for students, which includes cover for those living in halls of residence. This means that, although students are living with a lot of other people, they are still covered for all of their belongings. These specialist student insurers will also cover students' electrical equipment, as long as they are declared in advance. They will also provide key cover for those boozy nights out where students lose their keys on the way home, and some even provide book cover for library books which may be lost or stolen. Some policies even provide cover for student fees, in case the student has to deregister from university following an accident, illness or death.

Energy bills

A classic mistake to make when students move into a new house or flat is to stay with the previous tenant's supplier. Make sure that your children, or one of their flatmates, read the meter as soon as they move in, and investigate the previous occupier's energy supplier. Unless that supplier is offering the best deal, look to change to a better tariff, or even change supplier altogether. There are 14,000 tariffs out there, so the likelihood is that savings will be made. In fact, the average saving made by Confused.com customers who switched energy supplier between January and June 2008 was £205.

The easiest way to shop around for energy, as well as for home and car insurance, is to use comparison sites as they are a great way to compare different suppliers and their tariffs. In order to really save money, you need to search the whole market and all of the available tariffs.