When we try to save some moeny on our comprehensive coverage, we think about compare how much would cost my policy in other car insurer? So we can ask to our car insurance agent, but that person will probably try to stop us from changing from their car insurer. As you guess, that’s not always the best option for you, so we must do our research across multiple car insurers looking for the best price for our policy.
In this article, we'll walk you through the steps to compare comprehensive coverage policies, so you can spot what is the best option for you.
Understand What Comprehensive Coverage Is
Comprehensive coverage is a coverage option that protects your car against non-collision damages like theft, vandalism, animal-related damages (hitting a deer, rodent damages), natural disasters (floods, fires, hails), falling objects (rocks, trees, debris, hails) or acts of God (hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes).
Know What's Covered and What's Not
You must be sure what comprehensive coverage’s policy covers and what not. For instance, some car insurer’s comprehensive coverage options will cover partially some non-collison damages or they may write what quite vage a specific coverage. For example, that car insurer’s comprehensive coveage will cover flood as water damage, but it may not cover water damage from a broken water pipe in a parking.
Determine Your Coverage Needs
If you’re going to compare several comprehensive coverage policies, you must think what you really need to cover and what not. For example, the car insurer you think would be good for you may cover hurricanes, but you live in Nebraska so you’d rather need to be protected against hails instead. Perhaps you live in Albuquerque, and you need to be protected against car theft or vandalism. Everything depends on your personal coverage needs.
Compare Quotes and Premiums
The easiest way to compare quites is requesting 5 or 6 quotes from different car insurers. That will take you some time to finish reading all their declaration pages. However, once you read what they offer and what not. Once you spot the differences between all these car insurers, you can start checking how much costs each of their policies. For example, you might find a car insurer that gives you protection for water damage inside a garaje, but it costs $15 more than another one that won’t cover hails.
Research the Insurance Companies
We all want to pay cheap prices for our comprehensive coverage. However, there’s something we also must to check:
Check on Better Business Bureau (BBB.org) how good are these car insurers, do they have many claims in that website? Check the reveiws, you can see if those complains have been verified or not.
You should also check their National Association of Insurance Commissioners rates. NAIC has a complaint score where you can see the amount of complaints they receive from that car insurance company’s volume of work is high or not.
Another important factor you should focus is their financial strength. AM Best can help you on that. In the end, you want to know if that car insurance will pay the claim you file or not.
Check the Deductible Amount
If you’ve been living in a cave for more than 50 years and you still not sure why you should check the amount of deductibles you must set on your policy, I will tell you why:
Some car insurers will request to set a minimum amount of deductibles to let you buy that policy. Others will let you set $1 as deductibles, but if you only set $1 as deductibles, your car insurer’s premiums will be ridiculously high.
The best you can do is consider how much can you afford if you suffer a non-collision damage in your car. This way you won’t pay so much for your comprehensive coverage policy, but you will also have deduced that amount from your future claims.
Consider Additional Benefits and Discounts
Some car insurers will add special benefits like Roadside assitance, their customer services is good or perhaps they have special discounts for their customers. Some car insurers will give you better prices or special offers for being a good driver. All these small things would be a good advice when buying your comprehensive coverage policy.
Review the Policy Terms and Conditions
Before purchasing a comprehensive coverage policy, you MUST check the declaration page, the terms and conditions of that policy. You take special attention if there’s any sort of exclusions or limitations in your policy that would affect in your coverage like mileage limits, rental car coverage, or windshield/windows repair coverage.
Ask Questions and Seek Clarification
If you have any doubts or questions about the comprehensive coverage policy you’re going to buy, ask the insurance company or agent, they will clarifity any question for you. Make sure you understand the policy's coverage limits, deductibles, exclusions, and conditions before purchasing it.
Make Your Decision and Purchase the Policy
After you've compared different comprehensive coverage policies and check the policy you’re about to buy covers your needs, it's time to make your decision and purchase the policy that best suits you. Remember that the cheapest policy may not always be the best one for you.
Conclusion
Deciving what is the right comprehensive coverage policy may be quite complicated when you’re doing this alone. You must do a lot of research, you also must request quotes to 5 or 6 car insurers, check what is covered and what not. You also have to check if the car insurer you choose have special benefits for being one of their customer or perhaps they have special discounts you may be qualified for. Remember to check their terms and conditions and the amount of deductible you can set for your future comprehensive coverage. If you follow all these tips, you will get the best comprehensive coverage policy at the best price for you.
FAQs
Q: Is comprehensive coverage required by law?Q: How much does comprehensive coverage cost?
Q: What does comprehensive coverage exclude?
Other readers were also interested in the following posts:
How to File a Comprehensive Coverage Claim: A Step-by-Step Guide
How to Get the Most Out of Your Comprehensive Coverage Policy
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