An Arizona State University alumnus' company provides students with help that the university currently does not offer.
John Fees founded GradGuard in 2008 and provides over 600,000 students with insurance that is specifically designed for students.
“I founded GradGuard to help college students and their families protect themselves from the risks that may disrupt their college education,” Fees said.
When a student’s property is stolen or they have to leave school for medical reasons, GradGuard offers students tuition and renters insurance, as well as car, short term medical and travel insurance.
GradGuard has partnerships with universities such as the University of California Los Angeles, University of Southern California, New York University and Princeton, but it is not currently partnered with ASU.
ASU students are able to purchase tuition and renter’s insurance through GradGuard but because ASU is not a partner, they are unable to receive discounted rates and they might not be aware of GradGuard.
GradGuard does not market to students unless it is partnered with their university and Fees said the way most ASU students find out about GradGuard is through word of mouth.
“We don’t pay the schools money,” Fees said. “This allows us to have the lowest price cost.”
Just under 200 ASU students are insured with GradGuard but the company protects 10 to 40 percent of students who are offered GradGuard through their school.
Renter’s insurance through GradGuard covers students’ items that were stolen or damaged, including stolen backpacks and bikes.
Around 508 bikes were reported stolen on ASU’s Tempe campus from June 2011 to July 2012, campus police told the Arizona Republic.
“When my bike got stolen, no one could help me,” Tamara Johnson said, a former ASU student. “I called a bunch of people and no one could give me an answer so being able to actually have something done would have really helped.”
GradGuard also offers ASU students tuition insurance.
If a student has to withdraw from school within the first two weeks of the semester, whether it be because of financial, medical or family reasons, ASU will give students a 100 percent tuition refund.
When students withdraw in the middle of the semester for medical or extenuating circumstances, students are only eligible for an 80 percent tuition refund.
Tuition insurance through GradGuard helps “students overcome loss and replace that loss,” Fees says and it grants them a full tuition refund.
“If [students] aren’t going to credit for anything they take in that semester, they should receive all of their money back,” ASU student Nikole Tower said. “Especially if it’s an emergency, you need every penny that you can get.”
Fees says the goal of GradGuard’s tuition insurance is to return students’ money and give them the ability to come back to school when they are ready.
“Today the focus is not just going to college but completing college and GradGuard is part of that,” Fees says.
GradGuard is able to be purchased by students who are under 18, don’t have a credit history or committed a crime, Fees says.
“We designed the program to be available in all 50 states that no student would be turned down for,” Fees said. “Even if you committed fraud, you had a problem at school, the student has to be able to buy it.”
Unlike typical insurance companies, Fees says GradGuard students only have to pay a $100 deductible versus the $250 deductible most companies charge.
Fees says he doesn’t see large companies, such as Geico, as a competitor because GradGuard is exclusively reaching out to students and there are not many companies like them.
Fees hopes to partner with ASU in the future and would like to his business involved with his alma mater.
“We are excited about the opportunity to work with ASU and we are optimistic within the next year ASU will be able to benefit from GradGuard,” Fees says.
