Advertisement
Everything you need to know about comprehensive insurance, including what it covers, how much it costs and how to make a claim.
Comprehensive insurance essentially covers you for things that happen to your car that aren’t caused by you or another driver. Think of it this way: If collision insurance covers you for accidents, comprehensive insurance covers pretty much everything else that could happen to your vehicle. It provides auto coverage for an array of situations, including fires, severe weather damage, vandalism and theft.
Designed to work with collision insurance, comprehensive car insurance allows you to make claims through your insurance to cover costs of repairs or even provides a settlement if the repair estimates exceed the value of the vehicle itself. Comprehensive insurance is optional, meaning you’re not legally required to have it, but it means you won’t be paying out of pocket if your car gets vandalized or stolen. Keep reading to learn more about what’s covered with comprehensive insurance—and what isn’t.
What does comprehensive coverage mean? Essentially, while collision insurance provides coverage to your vehicle when it is involved in a collision with another vehicle or object, comprehensive insurance considers many factors that could affect you and your vehicle.
Scenarios include:
“Comprehensive insurance coverage is typically an optional coverage that you can add to your mandatory automobile coverage,” says Rob de Pruis, national director of consumer and industry relations at the Insurance Bureau of Canada. “It covers damages from virtually any peril, except for collision or upset,” which is the tipping or rolling over of your vehicle.
Unlike with some other forms of insurance, comprehensive doesn’t typically deal in fault determination, de Pruis says. That’s because you nor another driver can be at fault for damage resulting from a hail or wind storm, or even for the theft of your car.
Comprehensive coverage doesn’t reimburse you for everything outside of your control. You may not be to blame for the bodily injury resulting from an accident, for example, but that type of claim would fall under accident benefits coverage. Comprehensive insurance only covers costs related to the vehicle itself, so don’t expect it to cover any medical bills related to a collision. It’s also important to remember that comprehensive insurance applies only to your vehicle on the policy—not someone else’s.
As with comprehensive coverage, collision insurance is often optional. It covers damage to your vehicle when you bump or crash into another car or an object, such as a street sign, guardrail or trailer. It’s also got you covered if your vehicle rolls over on the highway. Comprehensive, on the other hand, is primarily intended for events that fall outside of your control.
In this sense, collision and comprehensive coverages work together to cover a wide range of damages. In some provinces, de Pruis says, you can even get all perils coverage, which is comprehensive and collision coverage bundled into one.
Since both coverages are optional, you have the option of opting out of one or the other. For example, some drivers choose to drop collision coverage on an aging vehicle, while keeping comprehensive. If the cost of your collision insurance is 10% or more of the value of the car—say, your car is worth $4,000 and you pay $400 per year for collision coverage—then you are likely to save money by opting out of it. As a rule, comprehensive insurance typically costs less than collision, giving drivers more incentive to hang onto it, even as their car depreciates in value.
In many cases, comprehensive coverage is optional. However, it is mandatory in the provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan—much like collision coverage.
“Auto insurance is regulated by each province or territory. Each sets up their own automobile insurance framework,” de Pruis says. Some provinces have private insurers. But the provinces of British Columbia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan have government insurance. And the latter two have simply decided to make comprehensive mandatory for all drivers, de Pruis says.
Comprehensive will also likely be required if you have leased or financed your vehicle. It’s the same with collision coverage. “We have to remember in a lease situation, you don’t own the vehicle—someone else owns the vehicle, you’re just leasing it from them,” adds de Pruis. It’s not surprising, then, that they would ask for your vehicle to be covered for common types of damages.
Even if comprehensive coverage is not required for your car, there are still many reasons to consider it. Repairs to vehicles can add up quickly; whether you have a small dent in a bumper or need an entire new windshield after hail damage, estimates can easily be in the thousands. Those unexpected expenses aren’t always budgeted for, and having comprehensive coverage can mean only being out-of-pocket for your deductible (the portion of the costs you’re required to pay when making a claim). Bear in mind that risks of theft and weather damage can vary from one province to another—or even from one neighbourhood to another—due to regional weather conditions and crime rates.
Car insurance quotes are based on many factors, including your driving record and the specific car you drive. For this reason, when thinking about the cost of a particular coverage, it’s often easier to consider the average cost of overall premiums for drivers in your province. You can find that information in our guide to the best auto insurance.
On its website, IBC publishes insurance claims data, collected from multiple insurance companies in Canada, that is sorted by make, model and year of the vehicle. You can reference it to learn about your vehicle type’s history of insurance claims. That will help you determine if you are likely to pay above or below the average for coverage. The more claims are associated with a type of vehicle, the more its owners are likely to pay in premiums.
On top of your premiums, there’s also the deductible to think about. Deductibles vary for comprehensive insurance, but you can expect to pay anywhere between $100 to $300 on top of your base insurance package. When shopping for an auto insurance quote, either online or with your insurance broker over the phone, make sure to request a detailed breakdown of the premium and included coverages.
Similar to other kinds of auto insurance claims, the best place to start with a comprehensive claim is to call your insurance provider. Be prepared to submit the following information, if available:
“The claims process is very similar to any other kind of auto insurance claim, particularly in the provinces that have direct compensation for property damage or some type of similar framework,” de Pruis says. “If you have damage to your vehicle, you should reach out to your insurance provider—wherever you bought the insurance from—and they will set up and assign a claims adjuster and walk you through that process.”
Once an adjuster is assigned, you should be prepared to get estimates for the repairs for damages to your car. If the claim is approved, the insurance company will subtract your deductible from your claim amount and reimburse you the difference. For comprehensive coverage, a common deductible can be $300, $500 or $1,000; agreeing to pay a larger deductible usually leads to a discount on your premiums.
How much can you expect to be compensated for the claim? That depends. “Generally speaking, automobile insurance covers the actual cash value of the vehicle,” de Pruis says. “So if the vehicle is ten years old and it’s damaged by an insured peril, you get the value of that ten-year-old vehicle.” However, there are optional endorsements for drivers who want to pay extra for replacement cost coverage, which serves as a waiver of depreciation—more common among newer vehicles. That would make you eligible to receive up to the original value of the vehicle.
Comprehensive insurance is an optional coverage (in most Canadian provinces) that works in tandem with other coverages to compensate you for damages caused by factors outside of your control, such as a hail storm, vandalism or theft. As with any other type of auto insurance, consider your needs as a driver and compare quotes online to ensure you’re getting the comprehensive coverage you need at a competitive price.
Share this article Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linkedin Share on Reddit Share on Email
Why Canadians are still feeling the squeeze of high food costs, and what to do about it.
If you’re one of the many Canadians looking for Black Friday and Cyber Monday discounts, here’s how to know...
Cards that waive or refund the fee for foreign currency charges are few and far between—but if you’re a...
Looking for a new car? What you should know about leasing versus owning.
These impressive travel cards can help turn your everyday spending into flights, hotels and more.
In this excerpt from The Big Fix, authors Denise Hearn and Vass Bednar argue companies increasingly want to collect...
Through free or discounted flights, hotel stays and car rental insurance, the right credit cards can get you to...
Wealthsimple Cash comes with high interest rates and a no foreign transaction fee card. Let’s take a closer look...
Spending thousands of dollars on upgrades to your living space can be daunting for seniors. Here are some financing...
My truck had its electrical system ruined by water damage due to plugged drainage tubes from the sunroof , is this covered under comprehensive ?