What is Comprehensive Car Insurance

It is a law in the United States that every driver must carry a small amount of liability insurance on their vehicle. The quantum is dependent on which state you register your car in and also where you reside. Most of the time the legal minimum is very small, far too small to be of any real use when you are involved in a major accident. Basically the only person that would be covered in this circumstance would be the third party. Not you, not the other car but the pedestrian that got injured out of no fault of their own. You will still be liable to pay for your own damages and also the damages inflicted on the other party’s car.

It is for this reason that most people will opt for comprehensive coverage instead of just purchasing the state required minimum. The cost different between a comprehensive coverage option compared to just the bare minimum coverage might not be as big as you think. Comprehensive by the definition of the coverage means that everything under the sun is covered for up to a set maximum. This means that your car, your finances and also any other eventualities should be settled by the insurance company should there be a serious accident.

It is encouraged both by the state and almost every automotive association that driver should always try to get comprehensive coverage on top of the state’s legal minimum. In comprehensive car insurance coverage the first extra that customers will enjoy is collision coverage. Collision coverage at its most basic, means that should you collide with someone or something, you are covered. All the costs to repairs your vehicle will be borne by your insurance company.

Another coverage that comprehensive car insurance buyers will enjoy is medical and injury coverage. This relates to any medical expenses that you might incur due to the accident. This will cover your immediate medical attention and also any long-term medical problems or disabilities that you have to endure. In most policies this will also cover the other people who are involved in the accident in the form of 2nd party coverage and also 3rd party coverage.

Comprehensive insurance will also cover property damage coverage. This means that any property that you damage or even destroy in your accident will be covered by your insurance company. The property damage can be in the form of the light post that you knocked down or even the store front that you smashed into. This coverage is of course limited to a set maximum. If you lose control of a vehicle and knock a supporting beam of the parliament house causing it to collapse, you can still expect to go bankrupt because of it.

Another important coverage that comprehensive car insurance users enjoy is something called “non-insured driver protection”. Different companies may call it something else but basically it is protection against drivers that aren’t insured. A perfect example of this is when an uninsured person has an accident with you and is unable to pay. This coverage will mean that your medical fees along with the cost of repair for your vehicle will still be covered in full by this extra coverage item that you have.

What I have listed above is just a small number of the additional coverage items that you will get with comprehensive vehicle coverage. There are many other benefits but the list above covers what is important to protect most motorists.