What is comprehensive coverage?

Comprehensive or sometimes referred to as “other-than-collision coverage” will cover damages that aren’t accident related such as;

• Missiles or falling objects
• Fire
• Theft/larceny
• Explosion or earthquakes
• Windstorms
• Hail, water, or floods
• Vandalism/malicious mischief
• Riot or civil commotion
• Contact with birds, deer, and other wild animals
• Breakage of glass

Don’t forget that those deductibles still exist!

So let’s say there is a bad hail storm and your car is damaged, if your cost to fix the car is more than your deductible that is set at $1,000 then it would be smart to file a claim to get your car fixed.

Looking at the other side let’s say that your damage was $1,150. You would pay the $1,000 no matter what and insurance would only be saving you $150 on this claim, but you also risk your insurance going up because of a new claim.

The point of insurance is to help cushion the costs of major unexpected losses that would hurt you financially if you didn’t have “help” from insurance.

Something else to note is that insurance companies state the difference between wild animals and domesticated. To paint a picture, if you accidentally hit a large dog and your bumper and headlight is damaged you cannot claim comprehensive coverage, but if it was a deer or coyote the damage would be okay to claim since these animals aren’t common household pets.

Just this week we had a customer call in after a bad snow storm with high winds to ask what would cover a tree falling on their car. We told them that if the car had comprehensive damage then they could file a claim. Unfortunately this customer did not have comprehensive coverage on the vehicle. They will have to cover the cost of the repairs themselves. You never know when something bad will happen that is out of your control, that’s where insurance comes in to give you peace of mind during these situations.

​It is better to be over prepared then under prepared.