What Is Comprehensive Car Insurance?
Reader question:
What is comprehensive car insurance coverage?
Greg
Great question, Greg.
Like collision coverage, if you are buying a new car then in most cases you will be required to add comprehensive to your cheap California auto insurance coverage. It is also required to be on your policy before you can buy gap insurance coverage. Many of the same basic rules that apply to collision coverage also apply to comprehensive coverage:
- If you’re not making payments anymore but you have a somewhat new car, you probably need it.
- If your car is worth less than $1000, you definitely don’t need it.
The comprehensive part of your cheap California auto insurance policy is there to cover several types of incidents. These incidents are:
- When your vehicle is stolen.
- When your vehicle is vandalized.
- When insured parts of your vehicle (i.e. air bags) are stolen, even if the vehicle itself remains.
- Hit and runs.
- Natural distasters, covering damages such as fire damage, flood damage, and more.
Many drivers do not need to add comprehensive coverage to their cheap California auto insurance policy because they are not at high risk. For example, if you have a relatively new vehicle and you live in an area that often floods, then it would be a good idea for you to pay for comprensive car insurance coverage, although you may have to pay slightly more than usual. If you own a high performance car, which is a type of car that is at an unusual risk for theft, then you also probably want to consider it, again at a higher price.
However, even if your car is not the newest or the most expensive, that doesn’t mean that it is not under the risk of theft. Many old cars are sold for good money to underground chop shops, while the new, most popular cars are sold for other reasons. On the list of the most often stolen cars every year, several of the vehicles are somewhat homely and a few years old.
In order to get a better price for comprhensive on your cheap California auto insurance policy, you need to add some anti theft devices. This will get you a discount. Most insurance companies require some kind of anti theft device before they even sell you comprehensive coverage, but if you get an active disabling device it will be cheaper for you. You should also consider raising your deductible.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.
What Is GAP Automobile Insurance Coverage ?
If you think you have all your coverages straight and you’re ready to choose the best California automobile insurance policy, along I come to throw in something that will send you all out of whack. It’s called gap insurance, and most of those pages on the internet that purport to tell you everything you want to know about automobile insurance leave it out, but for anybody who is purchasing a car, it’s is a must have.
My new, 2007 Chyrsler PT Cruiser is worth about $15,000 right now according to Kelley’s Blue Book. However, I owe slightly more than $18,000 on it, and the more I pay and the less I owe…the less my car is worth! They call this an upside down car loan, because at some point (okay, at most points) during the time you are paying off your car, you will owe more for it than it is worth.
Here’s the catch.
When you total your car, and you file a claim with your automobile insurance company, the amount that they pay you to get another car is what the car is worth, period, not what it’s worth to you. So if I were to completely wreck my car beyond repair right now, my automobile insurance policy (sans the gap insurance coverage) would entitle me to fifteen thousand dollar, leaving me three thousand dollars in the red.
This is not something you want to deal with. Do you want to be without a car, and on top of that have to pay for a car you no longer have?
The way we have to solve this is to add gap insurance to your automobile insurance policy. What gap insurance does is cover the gap between what your car is worth and what you owe, so that you don’t end up paying for something you don’t get to use. A lot of car financing companies and banks that loan you money to get a new car will require you to have gap insurance, but many don’t. Mine, for example, does not require gap insurance, so if I hadn’t already known about it my car might have just gone without.
Sometimes you don’t even have to get gap coverage from your automobile insurance company. Instead, it will be part of the deal with your lease, so you’ll be covered right from the start. Here’s a couple things that you need to think about when getting gap automobile insurance:
- Usually you just get the gap automobile insurance as soon as you get the car, but if you forget or didn’t know about it, almost all automobile insurance companies will let you get at any time.
- If your lease requires gap insurance, you have to get it. No excuses.
- In order to get gap insurance, you have to have full coverage. That means comprehensive and collision coverage.
Remember that just because you have gap insurance doesn’t mean you can default on your loan once your car gets stolen or wrecked. I make my car payments on the 28th, so if I totaled my PT Cruiser tomorrow, I’d still have to make that payment on the 28th. You don’t get to stop paying until you get that gap CA automobile insurance check.
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