Car Insurance Coverages

All drivers want to be as safe as possible on the road. They want to know that they will be protected in the event of an accident or other unfortunate event which causes damage to their vehicle. In order to attain the best level of protection, a lot of motorists purchase full coverage car insurance. As its name suggests, this policy offers the most comprehensive and detailed coverage.

Different Levels of Coverage

Liability auto coverage is the minimum form of auto insurance that you can get. However, it is not particularly recommended that you stop there. With this type of policy, if you ever cause an accident you will still be left paying for all of the repairs on your car. That is why there are many other types of insurance policies available which will cover costs for anything from repairs to your vehicle to lawsuit costs.

You need to be the one that decides which services you should include in the policy you purchase. Of course, adding new features will make the premiums that you have to pay higher. It stands to reason that the more services you want, the more it will cost you. There are also other factors which contribute to the overall monthly total such as the age, sex and experience of the driver, but in the end it is the services included in the policy that make up the bulk of the expenses. It is up to each driver individually to find the best balance between what they want and can afford in terms of coverage in order to provide him with optimum safety on the road.

With that being said, you would think that the term full coverage auto insurance would be self-explanatory. It means that it is the best insurance policy available which covers all of the services that a driver could want.

However, you would be wrong. The term full coverage auto insurance has a different meaning based on the insurance company you ask. Some of them only tend to add certain benefits to a standard insurance policy and call it the full coverage package. Others, however, do offer all of the different kinds of coverage that you would normally associate with a service called “full coverage”. It is up to the driver to inquire about what features are included and what features are left out whenever he wants to renew or to get a new auto insurance policy.

What Does Full Auto Insurance Coverage Contain?

Since there are disagreements within the insurance world as to what full-coverage means, a conclusive definition is hard to give. However, there are still some services that most insurance companies agree on which need to be included for a package to be considered full-coverage.

One of those services is liability coverage. This is the form of coverage required in all policies. It will cover the expenses for a third party in case you, as a driver, damaged his property or his health. The insurance company will pay for medical bills or to repair and replace his damaged goods. The exact sum that they will cover will be determined by the specifics of your policy, but nevertheless it will be a great financial burden taken off your shoulders. Some policies will even cover legal expenses in the eventuality that a lawsuit is filled against you in relation to the accident you caused.

Comprehensive coverage is the other form of protection which is included in all full coverage policies. It refers to almost all forms of damage which the car of the driver can sustain when it is stationary and has not been involved in a collision. One common example would be when the car gets stolen, damaged or vandalized by criminals. Another one would be when the car gets damaged by acts of nature, such as a tree branch falling on it. There are all sudden and unexpected so it can be useful to have a policy that will cover these expenses.

Collision coverage should also be included in all full coverage policies. It will pay for repairs and replacements needed for your car after an accident where you were at fault. There will be a limit to how much the insurance company will pay for and that is established when the policy is signed. Besides these major aspects of the policy there are also other benefits included, but these will range from company to company: lease payoff coverage, personal injury protection (PIP), roadside assistance coverage etc.