What is Comprehensive Coverage Auto Insurance?

Car on fireImagine heading up to a cottage in the summer, going on a road trip, or simply parking in a busy public parking lot when the unexpected happens. Your either collide with an animal, your vehicle is stolen, or an act of nature damages your vehicle. Basic car insurance only covers you for so much, but additional auto insurance options such as comprehensive coverage can support you when the unexpected happens.

If you’re shopping for car insurance, then you may be a bit overwhelmed by all of the choices that are available. There’s liability insurance, which helps you meet your legal requirement and provides coverage for damage that you may cause to other buildings and vehicles. You have to have liability coverage, but after that you have some decisions to make.

One of the options available is a comprehensive coverage auto insurance. Comprehensive insurance covers damage to your own car that isn’t caused by a collision. This could include damage from vandalism or theft, extreme weather, collisions with animals and even fires and other accidents. As the name suggests, comprehensive coverage auto insurance covers a wide range of possible damage.

In addition to comprehensive coverage auto insurance, you also may want to consider collision coverage. This covers damage that your car may incur during a car accident. This would cover your car if you’re at fault for the accident or even if the other driver is at fault but doesn’t have insurance.

The combination of liability, collision and comprehensive coverage auto insurance offers is known as full coverage. Full coverage means that you’re protected from all forms of damage to your vehicle or any others, no matter the cause.
The liability insurance protects you against any damage to other property for which you may be responsible. The collision insurance protects your car in accidents that you may have caused. And the comprehensive coverage auto insurance protects your vehicle from events outside of car accidents.

As you can see, if you’re missing any one of those, then you could have a major vulnerability in your financial protection plan. Many people forego the comprehensive coverage auto insurance because they want to save money, or because they feel that they won’t suffer any car damage. However, all it takes is for one deer on the road, one damaging storm, or even one car vandal to do serious damage. Very often these types of incidents damage the car’s exterior, which can be costly to repair. Comprehensive coverage auto insurance protects your car from all of these events, even when you’re not driving it.

The good news is that many auto insurance companies bundle all of these together in full insurance plans. By bundling them together, you may save money over what you would pay if you bought them separately. You can also rest assured that your car is covered in all situations, whether you’re at fault or not.

If you have any questions contact ARC Insurance today!