What is comprehensive insurance?
By Allstate
Last updated: May 2025
Comprehensive car insurance helps pay to replace or repair your vehicle if it's stolen or damaged in an incident that's not a collision. It typically covers damage from:
- Fire
- Vandalism
- Hail
- Fallen trees
- Other falling objects
If you're financing or leasing your car, your lender will likely require comprehensive coverage. If you own your vehicle outright, it's an optional coverage on your car insurance policy.
And, if you're shopping for auto insurance, or are reviewing your current policy, you may want to consider comprehensive coverage. Discover what comprehensive insurance helps protect, how it is different from collision coverage, and how limits and deductibles apply to your coverage.
Why get comprehensive coverage?
If you're wondering whether you should buy comprehensive coverage, here are a few things to consider:
It may be required by your lender
If you're leasing or financing your vehicle, your lender will likely require you to have comprehensive and collision coverage until the vehicle is paid off. This coverage protects their investment by covering damage to the car caused by events outside of a collision, as mentioned above, which standard liability car insurance wouldn't cover.
Consider the value of your car
If you have paid off your car, comprehensive coverage is optional. It may be a good idea to find out what the value of your vehicle is (using something like Kelley Blue Book). Would you be able to pay that amount to repair or replace your vehicle if it were stolen or damaged in an accident? If you can't afford to pay that much out of pocket, then buying optional coverages, like comprehensive coverage and collision coverage, may be a smart investment.
The Insurance Information Institute (III) suggests that you take the amount you'd pay in one year for comprehensive and collision coverage, and multiply that number by 10. Is your car worth less than that number? If it is, then comprehensive and collision coverage might not be a cost-effective option for you. In other words, you might want to talk to your insurer about whether it makes sense to include these coverages on your car insurance policy.
Comprehensive insurance vs. Collision insurance
Feature | Comprehensive Coverage | Collision Coverage |
|---|---|---|
What's Covered | Non-collision damage to your vehicle, such as:
| Damage to your vehicle from:
|
Deductible | Yes | Yes |
Coverage Limit | Actual cash value | Actual cash value |
Required or Optional? | Required if leasing or financing vehicle. Otherwise optional. | Required if leasing or financing vehicle. Otherwise optional. |
What's Not Covered |
|
|
What types of comprehensive coverage are available?
Aside from comprehensive coverage for your car, you may consider it on other types of vehicle insurance policies, too, including:
As with auto insurance, comprehensive typically covers damage related to non-collision incidents.
What is covered by comprehensive insurance?
Comprehensive car insurance helps cover damage to your car that's not the result of a collision. As mentioned before, comprehensive coverage will cover things like fire, vandalism, hail, fallen trees, and other falling objects. It may also help cover things like:
- Theft
- Natural disasters (e.g., a hurricane or a tornado)
- Damage done to your car by animals
- A civil disturbance (like a riot that results in damage or destruction of your car)
Now that you know what can be covered, here’s what typically isn’t covered by comprehensive insurance. These scenarios would not be covered by comprehensive coverage:
- Damage to your car from a collision
- Damage to another person's vehicle from a collision
- Your (or your passengers) medical expenses after an accident
Have more questions around comprehensive coverage? Talk to your insurer to learn more.
Comprehensive insurance FAQs
Collision and comprehensive both cover repairs to your vehicle. They differ in the types of incidents they cover.
Collision insurance helps cover repairs if you collide with another vehicle or object. Comprehensive covers repairs that do not result from collisions – for instance, theft, vandalism, animal damage, fires, and more.
While there is technically no such thing as “full coverage” car insurance, drivers often ask is comprehensive insurance full coverage? Full coverage typically refers to a policy with liability insurance plus comprehensive and collision coverage. The idea is that your policy is more well-rounded – it protects you if you damage someone’s property or injure them, plus covers your vehicle against a multitude of incidents.
The cost of comprehensive insurance depends on a variety of variables – the make and model of your vehicle, your chosen deductible, coverage limits, your driving history and general driving risk in your area. For instance, auto insurance in general tends to be more expensive in urban areas than rural due to more vehicles on the road and higher rates of incidents.
Another factor that impacts the cost of comprehensive coverage is your deductible. Typically, the higher your deductible, the lower the cost – but the more you’d pay out of pocket after a covered incident.
That said, auto policies that include comprehensive insurance cost an average of just over $2,000 a year, says Bankrate. But again, policies vary and how much you pay ultimately boils down to your unique circumstances.
Yes, comprehensive insurance typically covers theft – a non-collision incident. If your vehicle is stolen, comprehensive may help cover the cost to replace it up to your chosen coverage limits.