Collision vs. Comprehensive Insurance Coverage

It can be easy to confuse comprehensive and collision insurance coverages and sometimes difficult to understand which scenarios fall under what coverage. Let’s get into more detail.

Collision Insurance Coverage

When a vehicle is damaged in a crash or an accident, collision insurance may cover those damages, depending on the situation. It typically covers damage to a vehicle caused by colliding with another vehicle or object such as a tree or another obstacle.

Collision insurance will typically pay for the costs to repair or replace the vehicle regardless of the party at fault, but the circumstances do matter. You will typically have coverage under collision insurance when:

a crash with another driver is caused by the insured policyholder;
a collision occurs with an object (like a fence, mailbox, post, etc.);
your vehicle rolls over; or
another driver is at fault, and they don’t have any or enough insurance to cover damage costs.

However, collision insurance is not going to cover damage to another person’s vehicle, damage to your vehicle that isn’t due to driving (such as hail or theft), or any costs or expenses you incur for medical bills.

Comprehensive Insurance Coverage

Like collision insurance, comprehensive insurance covers damages to your vehicle (and no one else’s). Unlike collision insurance, comprehensive insurance does typically cover damages resulting from non-collision accidents. Comprehensive coverage does not typically include:

Damage to your vehicle from a collision
Damage to another person’s vehicle
Any medical expenses incurred due to an accident or event

The most important thing to remember is that, generally, the actions and activity of the driver determine whether collision or comprehensive insurance covers the damages to the vehicle. If the driver is in control and causes some sort of accident, collision insurance may cover the damages to the vehicle. If an event occurs outside of the driver’s control (whether they are driving or not), the damage is typically covered by comprehensive coverage.

For example, if a vehicle sustains damage due to a hailstorm, the damage would be covered under comprehensive insurance since no one can control the weather. However, if the driver swerves to avoid an icy spot on the road caused by the hail and hits a fence as a result, the damage to the vehicle from hitting the fence would likely be covered by collision insurance.