Comprehensive car insurance is also known as “other than collision” coverage. It protects you from various hazards that primarily occur when the no one is driving the car.
Comprehensive car insurance is not a type of policy; it is an “add on” or rider that provides additional coverage. Comprehensive coverage doesn’t pay for any bodily injuries. It doesn’t cover provide any payment if another car hits yours, although it is the only part of an auto insurance policy that covers you if your car is hit by a bird or animal.
Any auto insurance payouts for accidents you might receive will be paid from the collision coverage portion of your policy or the liability portion of the other driver.
Some of the perils covered by the comprehensive portion of a car insurance policy include
- Missiles or falling objects
- Fire
- Theft
- Explosions
- Windstorm
- Vandalism
- Riot
- Contact with a bird or an animal
- Glass breakage
The Comprehensive or “other than collision” coverage primarily pays for damage to your car, not to another person’s car. This means that its protection is basically limited to the value of your automobile. For this reason, especially when money is tight, people will decide not to include and pay for this type of coverage in their policies.
Often when determining the right amount of auto insurance to have, people will decide to drop collision and comprehensive auto insurance because of the cost rather than having their car insurance cancelled for non payment. This of course would prevent them from submitting an auto insurance claim of any kind.
You are allowed to drop collision and comprehensive auto insurance even where auto insurance in mandatory, because the payments from these parts of an automobile insurance policy are paid to the insured. It is primarily the liability portion of your policy that pays other people.
Comprehensive auto insurance is a valuable type of coverage to have, however since it pays you for damage to your possessions, it is optional. Dropping the coverage or reducing the benefit limits can lower your costs for auto insurance.
