Comprehensive Insurance

While collision insurance will protect your car from sustaining physical damage in an auto accident, comprehensive auto insurance coverage covers any physical damage sustained when you are not driving your vehicle. Therefore, collision insurance and comprehensive insurance are two types of insurance plans that solely cover physical damage to your vehicle. You can cover minor dings or dents up to major auto body repairs.

What Does Comprehensive Insurance Cover?

Regardless of your make and model of car, it is a vulnerable machine, whether it is parked outside or driven. Besides sustaining damages in a crash, a car can also receive damage if it is subjected to vandalism, hail stones, or a falling tree. Comprehensive insurance is designed to pay for car damages that result from any event outside a car crash or accident.

How Comprehensive Insurance Can Be Used

This insurance coverage can be used as follows:

You can combine the insurance protection with other insurance coverage, or it can be used as a stand-along plan.
This type of insurance covers any damage to your windshield glass or other glass windows.
The insurance will cover damage to your car if you hit a deer.
Comprehensive insurance will cover you from storm damages, including those associated with hail, winds, or flooding.
The insurance will provide payment for damages caused by vandals or thieves.

An Affordable Type of Protection

This type of insurance plan is usually affordably priced, even when you opt for a low deductible. Usually, most people need to insure their car with both collision and comprehensive insurance. In fact, if you choose to buy collision insurance, you cannot purchase a plan without including comprehensive protection. Even if you purchase property damage liability coverage, you still need to buy comprehensive insurance and collision coverage to pay for the repairs.

When You Should Purchase the Insurance

Insurance experts recommend that you buy comprehensive insurance (as well as collision insurance) in the following scenarios:

Your car is under 10 years old.
The car is worth over $3,000.
You are currently financing or leasing the car.

In fact, if you currently finance or lease your vehicle, you normally are required to take out collision and comprehensive coverage. Usually, a leasing representative wants to protect their investment. That is why both physical damage plans are required if you are paying on a vehicle.

Reviewing the Costs

Typically, if you buy comprehensive insurance along with collision coverage, you can do so for around $600 per year. Naturally, if your car is worth less than $3,000, either auto insurance will usually not be helpful. A $600 annual premium amounts to $3,000 over five years. Therefore, in this instance, you would end up paying more for the coverage than the worth of the car.

According to the Insurance Information Institute, collision claims usually are slightly higher than claims for comprehensive insurance. Nevertheless, both claims amount to just above $1,000, on average. You might say that collision insurance and comprehensive insurance go hand in hand when it comes to physical damage coverage.

A More “Comprehensive” Plan

As the name suggests, comprehensive insurance protection covers you more extensively than a collision plan. One of the ideal features of this insurance plan is that it covers you if your car is stolen. Even if your vehicle is worth only $4,000 and your insurance company pays out $3,500, that amount will definitely make it easier for you to buy a replacement.

When you take out comprehensive insurance, you normally will combine it with collision coverage. The cost of both policies will be based on the type of car you drive, your age, your gender, where you live, and where you drive. If you opt only for comprehensive protection, the annual difference is usually around $2,000 if you only go with this plan.