Comprehensive Insurance Definition

Comprehensive car insurance, also commonly known as fully comprehensive cover refers to one of the high-level, car protection policies that you can use to protect your motor. There are other insurance policies such as third party, fire and theft as well as third party only policies that cover damage to others that was caused by your vehicle while you were at fault. This means that in such a case, any damage that your car sustains is up to you to repair. On the contrary, comprehensive insurance plans cover both damage to third parties as well as damages to your own vehicle.

Comprehensive insurance cover is important since it allows the insured individual to claim payment for all the fees for damages that are deemed their fault. Additionally, you can claim comprehensive cover even if the fault cannot be proven. For example, when you park outside a building and find that someone had bumped into your car and driven off, you can claim payment. Without the comprehensive car insurance, you will have to pay for all physical damages to your car which may be really expensive. Even worse still, if your car is declared totaled, you will have to pay for a brand new one yourself. A comprehensive cover gives you an additional protection to your car and peace of mind that you will not have to part with insane amounts of money to make car repairs.

More often than not, comprehensive polices are a little more expensive compared to third party, fire and theft or third party only covers. However, this is not always the case. Therefore, before choosing which insurance policy to take for your car, it is recommended that you compare the different prices between third party policies and the comprehensive policy. You might be very surprised. Instead of saving a few dollars with the third party policies, you may find it cheaper to have the comprehensive cover, especially in the long-run.

Comprehensive cover is sometimes way cheaper especially when dealing with a high-risk driver who uses third party policies to try and save on insurance costs. After a while, a high number of third party claims on third party policies will make the general cost of third party covers to go up. That is the reason why you should closely compare the charges for both the third party policies and the comprehensive insurance cover.

Regardless of the name, comprehensive insurance does not cover all types of damages or loss that your car might sustain. Some insurance companies will charge you for certain extra policy services while in some covers, these policy extras come as a standard. Therefore, customers are encouraged to look at all these details before settling for a specific insurance cover. Do not assume that you are entitled to all the goodies that come with the cover. The two most common policy extras are:

  • Courtesy car – this is where the insurance company offers you another car as yours is being repaired.
  • Breakdown cover – this is cover for your car in case of any break downs.