The Myth of Full Car Insurance Coverage

When a driver has a new car or a car that they’re making payments on, having full coverage is ideal. Of course, the meaning to that statement is that their car insurance coverage protects them fully. Many drivers think that they have full car insurance coverage. After all, a simple search for car insurance near me produces a litany of ‘full coverage’ offers. Unfortunately, true full coverage doesn’t exist. Full car insurance coverage is a myth.

Instead, the term full-coverage is used to describe the three common types of coverage. These types are State-Required Liability or Personal Injury Protection, Collision Coverage, and Comprehensive Coverage. In effect, full-coverage really means bundled coverage, which doesn’t sound as assuring.

State-Required Liability or Personal Injury Protection
Both terms are used in policies and they both mean the same thing. This insurance coverage is also referred to as no-fault coverage. Basically, this means that any personal injury or property damage to others is covered if you cause the accident.

It’s important to note that in some states, there’s a ‘no-fault’ law. This can work against coverage on certain liability claims but generally, this is not an issue. If you don’t live in a no-fault state, you have nothing to worry about in this case.

Collision Coverage
Collision Coverage protects your vehicle if you are ever in an accident. It has nothing to do with you or your bodily injury, but the car is covered. There is no fault associated here since it’s the driver’s property.

Comprehensive Coverage
Comprehensive Coverage is the protection from the odd occurrences; vandalism, theft, and misfortunes of that nature. Basically, this coverage is meant to protect cars from non-accident related issues.

To close, these three types of protection is what the full car insurance coverage claim blankets. While this is, fortunately, most claims, there are a few full-coverage situations that leave drivers out of luck. This information might be hard to comprehend, but it’s better to digest now instead of when a claim is being filed. To protect yourself, make sure you know what your full-coverage truly covers.