Comprehensive coverage pays to repair or replace a covered vehicle that's stolen or damaged by something other than collision or rolling over.
Even glass claims and windshield repair. For example, damage caused by fire, wind, hail, flood, theft, vandalism, falling objects, and hitting an animal is covered.
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From how comprehensive auto insurance works, and what it covers to defining deductibles and why you might need it.
With a covered loss, comprehensive coverage extends beyond your own vehicle to include temporary substitute cars, newly-acquired cars, and cars you're using but aren't owned by anyone in your household.
Depending on the extent of the damage resulting from a loss covered under comprehensive coverage, we will decide whether to pay the cost to repair a covered vehicle minus any applicable deductible or whether to pay the actual cash value of the covered vehicle minus any applicable deductible.
If you lease your vehicle, or if you used a loan to purchase it, your lender or financing company will likely require you to buy comprehensive auto insurance because your lessor or lender will want to be protected in case anything happens to your car during the term of your lease or loan.
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With comprehensive coverage, you choose whether you have a deductible and how much it is. A deductible is the amount you agree to pay up front when you make an insurance claim. Your insurance company then pays the rest up to your coverage limit. Higher deductibles lower your premium, but increase how much you must pay out of your own pocket if a loss occurs. Ask yourself how much you would be willing to pay on short notice to save on your premium, or talk to your State Farm agent.
Consider these factors whether the savings from not carrying this coverage would be enough to offset the risk of having to pay the entire cost of repairing or replacing the vehicle.
- Is your car a high-value vehicle?
- Do you live in an area prone to weather-related disasters?
- Is there a high rate of car theft where you live?
- How much can you afford to pay, or are willing to pay, out of your own pocket if you experience an accident that isn’t covered by collision insurance?
To help you figure out if you should purchase comprehensive coverage, you should estimate the approximate value of your vehicle through an online resource like Kelley Blue Book. Let a State Farm agent help you determine the value of your vehicle along with how much extra you'd pay to add comprehensive coverage.
Comprehensive car insurance protects you from losses other than a collision with another vehicle or object and single vehicle rollover accidents.
- Car theft and damage from theft
- Fires and explosions
- Weather conditions such as wind damage from hurricanes
- Violence from civil unrest or riots
- Hitting or being hit by a deer or other animal
If you're responsible for an accident, your comprehensive coverage won't pay for collisions with other vehicles or objects (trees, buildings, etc.), or injuries or fatalities. You’ll need separate coverages for these exposures. To insure yourself against the costs of damage from these and other sources, State Farm offers a range of auto insurance options.
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Coverage options, deductibles, and discounts may affect your policy cost, along with such things as your driving history, credit score (where permitted by law), and other third-party reports.
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Disclaimer
Please remember that the preceding descriptions contain only a general description of available coverages and are not a statement of contract. All coverages are subject to all policy provisions and applicable endorsements. Coverage options may vary by state. To learn more about auto insurance coverage in your state, contact your State Farm agent.
State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company State Farm Indemnity Company
Bloomington, IL
State Farm County Mutual Insurance Company of Texas
Richardson, TX
Editorial Note: We earn a commission from partner links on Forbes Advisor. Commissions do not affect our editors' opinions or evaluations.
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Liability insurance is the foundation of auto insurance policies. It pays for the damage you cause to others–and is required in nearly all states.
But two other important components of a good auto insurance policy are collision and comprehensive insurance. They do something liability insurance doesn’t do—pay for damage to your own vehicle or compensate you if it’s stolen.
That damage may come from a source you wouldn’t expect—animals. A recent State Farm study found that drivers struck over two million animals between July 2020 and June 2021. That was a 7.2% spike over the previous 12 months.
The top five states with the most animal collisions in that period were Pennsylvania, Michigan, Texas, California and North Carolina. Those crashes included 1.4 million involving deer.
Collision and comprehensive coverage are important supplements to liability insurance:
- Collision coverage pays for your vehicle’s damage if you hit an object or another car.
- Comprehensive insurance pays for non-crash damage, such as weather and fire damage. It also reimburses you for car theft and damage from collisions with animals.
Collision and comprehensive car insurance are often sold together as a package by auto insurers. Here’s how the coverage types compare.
Nationwide, 74% of drivers with auto insurance buy collision coverage, and 78% buy comprehensive coverage, according to the Insurance Information Institute.
Examples of When You Could Make a Collision Claim
- Your car slides on ice and hits a guardrail.
- You swerve to avoid a squirrel and hit a pole.
- Someone dents your car and drives off.
Examples of When You Could Make a Comprehensive Claim
- You hit a deer and dent your fender.
- A fire in your garage damages your car.
- A hail storm damages your car.
- A thief steals your car and it’s not recovered.
What’s a Deductible?
Both collision and comprehensive insurance generally have deductibles. A claim on collision or comprehensive coverage will be reduced by the deductible amount.
Common deductibles are $250, $500, $1,000 and higher. So, if you get into an accident and your vehicle suffers $2,000 worth of damage and your deductible is $500, the insurance company would pay $1,500 for the claim.
Some auto insurers offer “diminishing deductibles” to customers as a reward for good driving. Under these programs, your deductible goes down over time if you don’t make certain claims.
The Maximum Insurance Payout
For both collision and comprehensive insurance, the maximum possible payout is the value of the vehicle right before the accident if it’s totaled, minus the deductible amount. A car can be considered totaled if:
- It can’t be repaired to make it safe to drive.
- Repairs would exceed the value of the car.
- Repairs would exceed a certain percent of the car’s value. In many states, a car is totaled when the repair costs exceed 75% of the car’s value.
And if you have a new car, don’t assume that it will be harder to reach a threshold for totaling it. The technology in new cars is so expensive to repair that it’s making cars more likely to be totaled in an accident.
Do I Need Collision and Comprehensive Insurance?
If you have a car loan or a car lease, you’re likely required to buy collision and comprehensive by the lender or leasing company. That’s so you don’t walk away from your loan or lease if your car is totaled or stolen.
Once your car loan is paid off, collision and comprehensive will become optional.
If you’re not required to buy collision and comprehensive, you may still want them. Ask yourself this: If your car were damaged or stolen, could you easily pay for repairs or to buy another car. If the answer is no, collision and comprehensive offer some financial protection.
But as vehicles get older, collision and comprehensive coverage may become less valuable to you compared to the cost. As your vehicle’s value decreases, so does your maximum possible insurance payout if it’s totaled or stolen, especially if you have a high deductible.
For example, let’s say you have a 2005 Honda Accord that’s worth about $3,300. If the car is totaled in a flood, and you have a $1,000 deductible, your insurance check will be $2,300. You can judge whether the price you pay for collision and comprehensive over several years is worth the potential benefit.
The average collision claim is $4,412.31, according to the latest data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. The average comprehensive claim is $1,359.04.
How Much Are Collision and Comprehensive Insurance?
Nationally, the average cost for collision coverage is $378 a year and the average cost for comprehensive insurance is $168, according to the latest data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. See the average in your state below.
What If Someone Else Damages My Car?
Collision insurance is good for situations where you’ve accidentally damaged your own car, such as backing into a pole. But it can also come in handy if someone else crashes into you. If that happens, you have two choices:
- Make a claim against the other driver’s liability insurance. If the accident was someone else’s fault, their liability insurance should pay for your car damage.
- Make a claim on your own collision insurance. Perhaps you don’t want to go through another person’s insurer. Instead, you can make a claim on your collision insurance. The downside is that the insurance check will be reduced by your deductible amount.
What’s the Average Repair Time for a Damaged Car?
The average repair time—the time you drop off your car at the auto body shop to the time you pick it up—is almost 11 days for cars, according to CCC Information Services, a provider of data and technologies to the automotive, collision repair and insurance industries.
The average repair time has increased over the years, which CCC attributes to greater vehicle complexity and “many sophisticated vehicles” that take more time to repair.
What About Insurance for Rental Cars?
If you rent a car, your personal auto policy will typically extend to the rental, including liability, collision and comprehensive car insurance. That means you won’t need to buy the coverage offered at the rental counter, such as the collision damage waiver, unless you want to avoid possible claims on your own policy. Ask your car insurance agent to confirm that your policy will also cover a rental.
Rental reimbursement auto insurance will help pay for that rental. This is an optional coverage type that helps cover the cost of a rental car if your car is damaged in an accident covered by your insurance policy.
You will need to cover any rental costs over the rental reimbursement coverage limits. For example, if you have a $30 per day limit for a maximum of 30 days, you’ll have to pay out-of-pocket for any amount over the daily limit or that exceeds 30 days. You may be able to purchase higher limits.
What Collision and Comprehensive Insurance Won’t Cover
While collision and comprehensive coverage, along with liability insurance, provide a broad spectrum of coverage, they still don’t cover:
Injuries that you sustain in an accident. (Depending on the situation, injuries could be covered by another driver’s liability insurance, or by your own personal injury protection or medical payments insurance, or your own health insurance.)
Items stolen from your car, such as a laptop or wallet. (Instead, look to your homeowners insurance or renters insurance).
Auto Insurance Spotlight: Stolen Vehicles
A car is stolen every 36 seconds, according to the latest National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) Hot Spots report. COVID-19 didn’t hamper vehicle thieves. After a year of a decline in car thefts in 2019, car theft figures increased to 880,595 vehicle thefts in 2020 compared to 794,019 in 2019.
Vehicle Theft Rates by State
The Hot Spots report uses a theft rate based on the number of stolen cars per 100,000 people. Despite the increase in thefts in the U.S.,10 states saw a decrease in vehicle thefts from 2019.
The comprehensive coverage portion of an auto insurance policy pays the value of your vehicle if it’s stolen, but the best defense may be a few preventative steps. The NICB recommends these four points of protection:
- Common sense. Always remove your keys from the ignition, lock your doors and windows, and park in well-lit areas.
- Warning devices. Consider car alarms and visual devices like column collars, steering wheel locks and brake locks.
- Immobilizing devices. These prevent thieves from bypassing your car’s ignition system (such as hot wiring). Examples include smart keys, fuse cut-offs, kill switches, wireless ignition authentication, and starter, ignition and fuel pump disablers.
- Tracking devices. These systems typically use GPS and wireless technology to alert you if the car has been moved, and they will track and monitor the vehicle’s whereabouts.
With so many choices for car insurance companies, it can be hard to know where to start to find the right car insurance. We've evaluated insurers to find the best car insurance companies, so you don't have to.