What is comprehensive coverage?

Comprehensive coverage helps pay to repair or replace a covered vehicle from a loss not caused by a collision. It includes a stolen covered vehicle, glass claims and windshield repair.

What comprehensive insurance covers

Comprehensive car insurance can help you recover from a variety of unfortunate events:

  • Weather conditions such as wind damage from hurricanes, flood, hail, and falling objects
  • Fires and explosions
  • Total or partial car theft and vandalism
  • Hitting or being hit by a deer or other animal
  • Violence from civil unrest or riots
  • Glass claims & windowshield repair

What comprehensive insurance doesn’t cover

If you're responsible for an accident, you’ll need separate coverages. Your comprehensive coverage won't pay for collisions with:

  • Other vehicles
  • Objects (trees, buildings, etc.)
  • Injuries
  • Fatalities

To help insure yourself against the costs of damage from these and other sources, State Farm® offers a range of auto insurance options.

Coverage in action

Let’s say you’re shopping at the mall and return to find your passenger-side window smashed by a thief. Comprehensive would help cover the repairs to your car.

Comprehensive insurance vs. collision insurance

What’s the difference between the two coverages?

Comprehensive
Collision

Collision or vehicle rollover

Stolen

Damage caused by fire, wind, hail, flood, theft, vandalism, falling objects, and hitting an animal

Requires a deductible

Comprehensive
Collision

Collision or vehicle rollover

Stolen

Damage caused by fire, wind, hail, flood, theft, vandalism, falling objects, and hitting an animal

Requires a deductible

Comprehensive
Collision

Collision or vehicle rollover

Stolen

Damage caused by fire, wind, hail, flood, theft, vandalism, falling objects, and hitting an animal

Requires a deductible

Frequently asked questions about comprehensive coverage


While "full coverage" isn’t a consistent, defined offering across providers, it can mean having a package of customer-selected coverages that provides you the protection that meets your needs. It can mean you have both liability and physical damage coverage, like comprehensive and collision coverage. Keep in mind there are optional coverages like rental and emergency roadside service that you also may wish to consider.


Consider how much your car is worth and what you are willing to pay out-of-pocket for repairs or replacement of your car.


Collision coverage generally does cost more than comprehensive coverage.


If you sustain a loss, your coverage pays to repair the vehicle or the actual cash value of the vehicle minus the deductible that you choose. You determine how much you want to pay out of pocket.


Laws vary by state, but almost all states require bodily injury liability and property damage liability coverage. However, comprehensive coverage is unlikely to be required in your area. Check with your State Farm agent to be sure.


Ask yourself if the savings from not carrying this coverage would be enough to offset the risk of having to pay the entire cost of repairing or replacing the vehicle along with these factors:

  • Is your car a high-value vehicle?
  • Do you live in an area prone to weather-related disasters?
  • Is there a high rate of car theft where you live?
  • How much can you afford to pay, or are willing to pay, out of your own pocket if you experience an accident that isn’t covered by collision insurance?

To determine if you should purchase comprehensive coverage, estimate the approximate value of your vehicle through an online resource. A State Farm agent can help you determine the value of your vehicle along with how much extra you'd pay to add comprehensive coverage.


With a covered loss, comprehensive coverage may extend beyond your own vehicle to include temporary substitute cars, newly-acquired cars, and cars you're using but aren't owned by anyone in your household.

Depending on the extent of the damage resulting from a loss covered under comprehensive coverage, we will decide whether to pay the cost to repair a covered vehicle minus any applicable deductible or whether to pay the actual cash value of the covered vehicle minus any applicable deductible.

If you lease your vehicle, or if you used a loan to purchase it, your lender or financing company will likely require you to buy comprehensive auto insurance because your lessor or lender will want to be protected in case anything happens to your car during the term of your lease or loan.

Contact a State Farm agent


Coverage options, deductibles, and discounts may affect your policy cost, along with such things as your driving history, credit score (where permitted by law), and other third-party reports.


With comprehensive coverage, you choose whether you have a deductible and how much it is.

  • A deductible is the amount you agree to pay up front when you make an insurance claim.
  • Higher deductibles lower your premium but increase how much you must pay out of your own pocket if a loss occurs.

Get a local agent who gets you

There’s a State Farm agent nearby ready to offer personalized service to fit your specific needs.

Related insurance coverages

Simple Insights®

Looking for help protecting your vehicle? You’ve come to the right place. Articles from Simple Insights draw on over 100 years of State Farm knowledge.

State Farm (including State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company and its subsidiaries and affiliates) is not responsible for, and does not endorse or approve, either implicitly or explicitly, the content of any third-party sites hyperlinked from this page. State Farm has no discretion to alter, update, or control the content on the hyperlinked, third-party site. Access to third-party sites is at the user's own risk, is being provided for informational purposes only and is not a solicitation to buy or sell any of the products which may be referenced on such third-party sites.

Please remember that the preceding descriptions contain only a general description of available coverages and are not a statement of contract. All coverages are subject to all policy provisions and applicable endorsements. Coverage options may vary by state. To learn more about auto insurance coverage in your state, contact your State Farm agent.

State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company
State Farm Indemnity Company
Bloomington, IL

State Farm County Mutual Insurance Company of Texas
Richardson, TX